Here are some photos from our 11 hour stint at Ocean Park...
Ocean Park has two pandas who live in a state-of-the-art climate-controlled
enclosure (left and centre). They're fed by boiler-suit clad attendants in
turquoise wellies every hour or so. Next door to the Panda Enclosure is the
T-Rex habitat (right). This is a scary place if you're a three year-old! Lesley
and Freda are running for their lives...
Fun for all the family at the Childrens Fairground.
We took a cable car out to the attractions on the Headland - this is where most
of the big rides and aquaria are to be found.
We had never been on a proper rollercoaster before so Lesley and Ali took it in
turns to experience The Dragon with its three loop-the-loops. We each managed to
get the prime seat at the front end...
There were lots of animal attractions too: sealions (left); a sealion and
dolphin theatre show (right); the shark aquarium; the atoll reef aquarium (the
largest in the world) with its incredible array of fish visible from three
levels of underwater viewing galleries.
The Sea Jelly Spectacular was just that - mirrored tanks of jellyfish lit up by
coloured UV light in a fantastic audiovisual walk-through show (Lesley kept
walking into mirrored walls and getting lost!).
L to R: Freda and Edie with a sealion friend; the girls straining their necks to
see the Ocean Park Tower gallery lift (we were going up next); Lesley whizzing
past on the other rollercoaster - the Mine Train - no upside-down loops but far
more rickety and much more scary than The Dragon...
and finally...
LEAF in our logboat, mid-flight on the "vertical drop" section of the
Raging River ride which we endured four times.
L=screaming - E=blind terror - A=manic grin - F=bracing
for impact
LEAF-go-VSO
