Dyreparken - Free Day at the Zoo and big announcement!!!

So finally today I show you some pics from Kristiansand's zoo, which happens to be a theme park at the same time. At the end of August, there was a free day for students there, so we took the opportunity and had a very good time around there. Although they dont have a lot of big animals, the areas and generally the whole zoo is HUGE, like everything seems to be around here in Norway. I really liked the mix of theme park and zoo, as there are some very nice attractions to experience. Highlights: a fantastic white water ride with two drops, the first one being totally disappointing, just to get you totally soaked on the second one, which is a really huge and surprising drop. Second highlight for me was a kind of hammer-like construction that spins around while swinging higher and higher like a pendulum - was nice to ride but made me a bit dizzy afterwards. Nevermind, now for some pics of the real stars of the park, the animals, and some shots to show what the environment and other attractions are like...



When you enter the park you just walk left and see this... Captain Sabeltann's boat, part of a theme show that unfortunately is only open in summer (and end of August is not considered summer anymore around here :D )

I really dig those... very nice design to enhance the feeling!

This is a very nice sand castle-like construction just outside "Kardemomme By", a small village inside the park, which only has one rule "Do what you want - as long as you treat others the way you want to be treated yourself"

A pic of Kardemomme By shot from its tower... I was told one can actually rent and live in those houses during the summer as part of the attraction!

Kardemomme By - Main plaza, and the tower I climbed in the earlier photo

One of the streets... the houses are furnished just as in the old days...

Ok, now for some real animals after all... we'll start with the most impressive part of the park for me, the so-called "Nordic Wilderness" - this area is just untouched nature for the animals actually living in the wilds of Norway and other Scandinavian countries...

Check out my favorite of this whole area... WOLF PACK!!! This pics were shot just after the pack emerged from the woods shortly after their lunch was thrown out by one of the park's employees... one very nice thing to offer the visitors, there are public feedings like this one were you can see the animals grab their food.

A chilling moose...

Now for some nature shots... this area was just left as it is I suppose. Its easy to build a zoo park for northern animals here I guess ;)

Feeding hungry little fellows... some kind of small fox

Aaaawwww!!!!

Never saw them before... this is a wolverine! Doesnt look much like the comic book character...

 Can you find the little rascal in the picture?!!?!

 Here we see the feeding of a wild cat!

 Short intermezzo... these guys were just between the Nordic Wilderness and Africa... nice horns if you ask me!

Now for some action! Watch this awesome pics of the lion-feeding... seems to me lions enjoy hanging around as much as humans do...

 Lion King came a bit late... so his wife(s) and kids were eating from HIS lunch package already. He cleared the situation with some awesome growling and face-slapping!

Was hard to make good pictures of the monkeys... jumping and flying around all the time!

An alligator!!! Lazy as hell, but then again all the animals in the reptile-house were like that...

Iguana

And another crocodile... dont know if this is the alligator or some other type...

And a very nice chameleon!

Ninja turtles in the making...

And a merry band of those creatures made popular by "Madagascar"... lemurs I think or something like that

African wild dog enjoying the sun...

And a troop of flamingos... unusual style of sleeping, bending their head over their body...

More sleepy and lazy animals! I dont know what these two guys are called...

...but here I caught some of them in the act!

Diva giraffes in the African savanna!

And this guy was trying to catch all attention by running around and flapping his wings like hell

African savanna... some type of Antelope

And zebras shared this big area with the antelopes and giraffes

A peacock... female I think. Didnt manage to get her upset so she didnt show her wings...

The African savanna in a long shot...

And another one. I really liked the big tree there

There was also a kind of "Streichelzoo" in the African area... little ones...

 ...and pregnant ones! This lady had a very very big belly...

And lovely black swine!

There was wildlife everywhere... here some goldfish in one of the ordinary pools around there.

Nice troll carved into a broken tree

And a miniature waterfall with a goat statue!

So far for the pics from the zoo... all in all, it was a very nice day, I really enjoyed the attractions and seeing the animals... although we did not make it to all areas, as the zoo is just too big to see everything in one day. Maybe another time, another visit?!

This here will also be my last post for the next week, as I am leaving for a one-week trip with a bunch of very nice people around the west and southwest of Norway. We will see great landmarks and have huge hiking trips, so stay tuned for hopefully awesome pictures of Trolltunga, Kjerag, Preikestolen, etc.

Back next week with a trip report from this outdoor adventure! See you soon :))