Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

A little better weather today, at least it is dry and around 20 degrees, a bit less than we are used to but nice enough to get out and about.

We decided having examined the possibilities in the area to go north of Royan, which is on the Atlantic coast and have a look at the zoo in Palmiye. This place has a good reputation and in the summer season is incredibly busy. Entrance fee was not too bad considering what we have paid in other places, 14 Euros per person. As we entered we were first faced with a stone waterfall and a large flock of beautiful Flamingos, then some well signposted paths that led us all around the zoo. Joan found a Giraffe that just loved popcorn, enough to eat it out of your hand, so that kept her occupied for some time. All the animals, despite being caged appeared in beautiful condition, witness this Tiger and this very beautiful and contented Leopard.. One of the animals that I found to be most endearing was this 08/10/8.htm">Snow Leopard, just looked as if you could stroke it like our cats, but guess not such a good idea. If anybody knows how to doctor this pic by removing the wires please let me know, I will send it immediately. The Polar Bears had this huge swimming pool and enclosure and one of them had its own party piece for the visitors, the Polar Bear back flip, tremendous fun to see.

After this initial excitement of wandering round, we stopped at a sort of café place where they served a large hotdog with mustard and a beer for 3.50 Euros each, yummy. Just as we finished our snack there was a call to the Sea lion show. Normally if you are in this sort of place you have to pay extra for these shows, not here, all inclusive. We obviously missed the feeding time for some of these animals, but this guy certainly didn’t miss his diner and afternoon nap. What a lovely beast. There were too many animals to include photos of them all on this site but who could resist this pensive looking guy. He was looking in the direction of the Lions and had the sort of look that said; let’s just sort out who is really king of this jungle.

A super zoo, spotlessly clean and all the animals looked to be in superb condition, well worth a visit if you are in this area of France.

From the zoo, were we were surprised to find we had spent over four interesting hours, we went back south along the coast to a place called St-Palais-sur-Mare and strolled along the seashore area. There were many guys fishing off the beach here and also dozens of these strange huts with nets suspended on cranes. The weather was quite stormy so nobody was actually fishing with these, but they sure are odd looking things. The souvenir shops in the town were full of models of these, so clearly quite a unique thing to the area. After a bracing walk, it was back to the gite and dinner washed down with a bottle of the local stuff. Every place you go you can buy Chateau bottle wines direct from the vineyards and many are quite delicious.