The Wild Life {Look Around}

We arrive at dusk, when the heat of the summer day is still lingering in the air, caressing all things alive, suspended between the day and night shift. We arrive when the little "bambis" and wallabies are still hopping around, making the leaves tremble in their wake. The brave creatures look at us and at our first movement, dash way. Gone!

The girls scream in childish delight and marvel. They want to see more, and so do we. But for now, let us open the door of our little hut for the next couple of days: the triangle shaped wooden hide away is surrounded by trees and flowers down below. Right in front of our terrace, the island of the siamangs: they greet us jumping, running and climbing with incredible speed and agility. As we settle for the night, crickets start singing and we relish the idea of falling asleep to their lullabies and imagining spending the next two days here, in the green plains and valleys of Normandy, at the Cerza zoopark.

The next morning, the siamangs are swiftly reaching the highest tree in front of the cabin to eat their breakfast and welcome the rising sun. We have already left behind the noise and stress of the city, thrown them as far away as we can... 

The vegetation, water and animals are all that surrounds us - and we are grateful for the invigorating experience. The rest of the day is dedicated to the safari itself: the 60-hectare park is quite widespread for European standards and is very active in the preservation of wildlife - a mission most zoos have now embraced to move away from their first (bad?) reputation and to take part in the current wildlife evolution (or extinction, if you prefer...). 

There are several ways to visit the zoo: we start with the two pedestrians only itineraries, the red and yellow one: they take us at our own rhythm from one continent to the other, from the monkeys, to the aras and buffalos - while we discover brand new animals like the geladas (the last grass-grazing primates) and African bush pigs that have the cutest name in French: "potamochères". What strikes us right away, is the number of births for many of the represented species: the park seems to be extremely active in international breeding programs (among which the EEP). Once tired - but oh so happy! - we decide to take the train that rides through the park, some areas that we have already visited and new ones, only accessible by train.

As we reluctantly leave the green and lively park and our humble and charming hut, the siamangs say goodbye: their  black, agile silhouettes stand out against the sky, as they dangle mindlessly from the tree branch, 30 meters above the ground. Live perfect Chinese shadow puppets they are giving one last show before our departure. 

Credits: TheDaydreamer