Post by Dave on May 27, 2022 17:47:32 GMT
Paignton Zoo The Final Time 27th May 2022
While I love my main canon camera, five years after it came out Canon made a mark II version. At the time I could not justify splashing out on one mainly due to the cost. For the last two years I have been looking for a mint condition second hand one with a sensible price tag. until last week all I could find were ones with marked bodies with far to high prices, but then I got lucky. I was on ebay and a new listing popped up that was not there a few seconds before. It had a buy it now price (a bit low in my opinion) and after reading the description and looking at the pictures of it I pressed buy.
It is mint plus, just like opening up a box with a brand new camera in it, so I needed to go out and fully test it. I was going to use it for my local football match reports but have now decided to use the one I was using for that and keep the mark II as by best camera.
I had thought about going maybe to a local coast path to test it out, but as the zoo is very close to home I decided to go there. I bought my ticket on line, a senior one at £15.75. I was surprised a normal adult ticket with gift aid now costs £22.50 and kids are charged ( 3 to 15 years old) £16.85.
I have been going to Paignton Zoo since I was three years old, a total of 64 years, but in more recent years I have been slowly falling out of love with it. After today’s visit I think I knew as I walked home, it was more than likely my last one ever.
What has happened to this once great zoo? Where are all the animals? Instead of signs saying what might be in an enclosure they might as well replace them with signs saying nothing to see here.
As we know they closed the zoo to the public earlier this year to remove the much loved Jungle Express Train without telling us. By the time they did it had already been sold and shipped out of the zoo. New pathways have been created on the old track bed, but why? There is nothing to see and it just adds even more walking and there is too much of that already.
When you walk in front of the main café the once busy scene of parents and children getting on the train is gone, replaced by a strip of tarmac where the train once ran. I spent hours walking hoping to see an animal that were few and far between. The three children’s play areas were packed, their mums and dads would have been better off saving their money and taking the kids to play in the play park on Paignton seafront.
The list of animals no longer at the zoo is a long one, yet the prices have kept on rising, it is no longer value for money for a family to go there and with the situation at the moment with everything going up, I think the visitor numbers will be down this year.
There are parts of the site that are beautiful, but it is spread over too large of an area with not a lot to see anymore, I heard far to many moans today from people I expect will never return again.
For me it was mission accomplished, the camera was everything I expected it to be and that really was the only reason for going to the zoo today.
