Going Wild for a Day

This week we kind of went wild for the day... by heading off into the mountains to go spend the day at the Highland Wildlife Park.

Hubby took me to the Highland Wildlife Park 10 years ago, but we've never taken my parents. For some reason it's just been one of those places we kept meaning to get back to, but never did... until now! That's partly due to the fact that earlier this year we received a special offer on tickets for the park. I've had the tickets sitting on my dressing table for months, waiting for the perfect day, but  it seemed like every time the weather was good someone in the family has been sick, or when we've all been feeling great and energetic... the weather's turned awful. So, when the weatherman said this week's good weather would be turning bad by the weekend... we knew we had to go for it!

I sorted out a picnic lunch to take with us and we were gone the whole day. It was great fun and I have loads of photos. I'll be separating them out into a few blog posts - one for each section of the day's adventures. do remember to click on the photos for a bigger view!

The drive south was gorgeous sunny weather. We stopped on the way to buy shortbread at the Walker's factory shop in Aberlour. I saw this little cutie enjoying the morning sunshine. :-) 

Just down the road there was this really charming building...

Running beside the building there's this lovely view along the river.

At the park it was more cloudy, but still warm. The first animals we saw as we came through the gates were the camels, snoozing in the sunshine.

There were deer and other animals in the fields behind the camels, but they were all wandering about along the edge of the forest - too dark or too far to photograph easily. I did manage to get some decent photos of the Mishmi Takin, who was kind enough to nibble grass right up against the road side of his enclosure. 

Isn't that a strange looking animal? And so woolly! You can find out more about them and every other animal, by clicking on their names as I've added links to their pages on the Wildlife Web page. All the animals at the park are either Scottish wildlife or endangered animals of the mountains and tundra, mostly from Europe or Asia. The Mishmi Takin are from China.

The next animals we saw were the yaks and the Kiang. Both animals are from Tibet. The Kiang (right) is a wild ass.

They have such beautiful markings and that dark mane runs are a dark stripe down their backs all the way to their tails...

I just love the Yaks; they're so cute. They look like shaggy little cattle... with BIG horns.

After the yaks we stopped for a quick look around the gift shop before going over the cattle grid to drive through the reserve. I'll put the photos we took of the animals from there into my next blog post tomorrow.