Elephants on Ice - Sadly No, Only Me!

• August 20, 2009
• Rated 4 of 5 by koshkha from Northampton, United Kingdom

I've worked or lived in and around the North West of England for many years and have seen and done most of the local attractions but one place I've never made it to is Chester Zoo. I'm not a big fan of zoos and I probably wouldn't have set foot in this one - or not quite 'in', it's more correct to say 'by' - if it weren't for the annual Christmas event at the company where I now work. For the past few years, the department Christmas event has been a visit to the Chester Frost Fair to go skating and so, not wishing to be unsociable, I signed up to go along. I have to say it wasn't without a sense of trepidation since it's almost 20 years since I last strapped on a pair of skates and I had a husband at home hobbling with a dislocated knee and I didnt want to be sharing his crutches over Christmas. But if everyone else is up for it, then I'm not going to be the one who wimps out.

To find the zoo, I just followed the signs from the M53 and it would be fair to say that I really couldn't have missed it. It was strange navigating in the dark through the massive but almost empty car parks of one of the North West's biggest attractions. Eventually, I found myself parked up in the closest of the car parks and headed in to find out what the fuss was all about.

Sadly, if you go to the Frost Fair in the evening, the fact that it's at the zoo really is an irrelevance because you won't see any animals. The Frost Fair's website says you should be able to see the elephants but I couldn't find them. It wasn't so much like looking for a needle in a haystack, more like looking for a bunch of elephants in a zoo. If I'd taken the time I could probably have tracked them down but I was late arriving and wanted to hit the ice (ouch) as quickly as possible. I showed my skating ticket on the way in and found myself in a prettily lit area just inside the gates where lots of little wooden booths, similar to those you see at German Christmas markets, had been built and decorated. There was an intriguing brightly lit snow dome which appeared to be a big plastic bubble in which you could pretend to be inside a snow shaker and throw fake snow at your friends and loved ones. There was a grotto for children to visit Santa and his reindeers and get a small present and a large old-fashioned carousel.

Our timed skating tickets were for the session from 7.00 to 7.50 so I hurried to put my skates on. The rental skating boots weren't bad at all and much better than the ones I remember from the days I used to skate regularly. They were hard plastic boots with soft padded inner socks and there was plenty of seating available for you to sit and put them on.

The rink was larger than I had expected or feared and was probably about half the size of a regular commercial ice-rink. The weather was perhaps not as cold as it needed to be so the surface of the ice was at least half an inch deep in water which a lot of people found rather off-putting. Earlier the same week I had seen the Christmas fair ice-rink in Antwerp which looked more like a snow-field than a rink so I would concede that it's much better for the ice to be wet than all ploughed up and snowy, although it did mean that any fall left the skater instantly soaked and the reduced friction meant any falls turned into aquaplaning water slides which seemed to reduce the pain of impact. In fact, after my first couple of tumbles, my trousers were absolutely sodden and the water had got into my boots so my toes were bathed in icy water.

The rink was 'patrolled' by 3 or 4 lads from a nearby skating club who were very fast to get to the fallen clients and get them back on their feet much to the delight of the giggling teenaged girls. Considering that the vast majority of people really hadn't got a clue what they were doing, the rink was actually pretty orderly and, with the exception of some bumps and bruises, they seemed to be keeping things very much under control. After my early spectacular achievement of knocking down five teenage girls like a pile of giggling dominoes, the rink attendants didn't have too much more to do with me as I was focusing on teaching a colleague from Thailand how to stay upright.

I loved my night out at the Frost Fair although more for the nostalgia of getting back on the ice almost two decades after I retired from playing ice-hockey than for the slightly cheesy Christmas-Market style ambiance of the place. Apparently each year, the folks at work swear they won't go back again but the demand is so great that they give in and return. When the list for next year comes out, I'll be first to sign up again.

Entrance to the Frost Fair is included as part of your zoo entrance ticket if you go during normal zoo opening hours. In the evenings, after 4pm entrance to the Frost Fair is free on weekdays and costs £2 at weekends. Skating tickets are £9 for adults and £7 for children and include skate hire.

From journal Not So Grim Up North

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Chester Zoo

• February 6, 2009
• Rated 5 of 5 by tvordj from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

It's a grey November day. Sometimes it looks like it might rain and sometimes it looks like it might clear up a bit. We're going to try our luck with the Chester zoo and see what happens. It's about an hour drive towards Chester from Manchester and it's well signed. It's a huge place with a lot of natural enclosures though many of them have chain link fences which makes it a bit of a pain for photos. They also have specially built pavillions to feature some animals like the Orangutans, the jaguars, the monkeys and a few others.

We started off with the elephants. I'd never seen one in the flesh before and was really looking forward to it. They have quite a few here of various ages and sizes. They are amazing animals and can move quite quickly if they want to. We walked around to see the lions and tigers and took refuge in an aquarium to warm up a bit. Into the Orangutan house, where there are tanks with snakes and lizards and cages for birds along the walls. The apes have a huge deep "pit" where they can climb and swing and they can also go outside into enclosures as well. We could see a few of them and one in particular kept hiding under a big piece of canvas. It was hard to watch them though as there were a number of people trying to share little windows that looked down into the indoors part of the enclosures.

Outside again to see the giraffes and a lovely animal called the Okapi which is apparently distantly related to giraffes though not long and leggy. It's striped in it's back end like a zebra but has little knobby horns on its head like the giraffe. It's also very shy but we did get a good look at it. We saw a few other birds and animals and then retreated to the café to warm up again. When we came out it had started to rain and it was a cold rain so we decided not to see if it was going to let up and cut our visit short.

Get there via the M56 (junction 14) or the M53 (junction 12). There are brown signs to guide you in. The cost is 10.86 without a donation to the zoo, 11.95 (pounds) with one. Less for kids and seniors, with family and group rates available. It's pretty much all wheelchair accessible and there are several cafes and shops though limited opening in the winter. The zoo is open all year round except for Christmas.

From journal Day Trips from Manchester

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Chester Zoo

• September 28, 2004
• Rated 5 of 5 by Polomint from Newcastle, Australia

From journal Liverpool - What to do with Kids

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Chester Zoo

• October 29, 2002
• Rated 4 of 5 by davidx from Todmorden, United Kingdom

From journal Chester and Cheshire - a selection

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Chester Zoo

• December 19, 2001
• Rated 4 of 5 by Judy from Grants Pass, Oregon

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