Ever since the pandas arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in December 2011, I'd been half-heartedly dreaming about a trip to see them. In April 2012, we flew up for a mini-break. I was very excited about my first panda-spotting holiday.
The middle day of our trip was designated panda day. You have to book a time-slot online, so
we had no choice but to head to the zoo even though it appeared to be
snowing. I guess that's Scotland for you!
Unfortunately, the pandas weren't exactly playing ball. The female, was comfortably asleep. I could still have happily watched her all day, especially as every now and again she shuffled slightly! After about ten minutes, we were led outside to see the male panda who on cue promptly disappeared back inside. Given how popular the pandas are, the booking system is pretty strict and there was no option to retrace our steps and see him. I was pretty disappointed. I couldn't even book another slot
because there wasn't any available.
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| Tian Tian snoozing :) |
So all in all, I got to see one panda sleeping for a few minutes, and didn't really see the other one at all!
On the bright side, I did have a brilliant couple of days away and the rest of the zoo is very well laid-out and I got to see a great range of animals (including the only koalas in the UK). Edinburgh is beautiful.
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| The only panda we got a decent look at was at the airport! |
All in all, the Edinburgh experience was pretty disappointing. The reason the male panda went inside was that the keepers had just filled his enclosure with bamboo and opened the door. They knew that he would disappear, but still led us out to see him. Not great.
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