Aquarium and Bird Park

A few weeks ago when it was quite hot outside I thought a day at the aquarium would be a nice cooler outing.  I guess I should have figured that even in South Africa the aquariums are outside, hence no air conditioning for this pregnant mama in the heat.  It turned out to be a cooler day so all was well.

After a 45 minute drive to Hartbeespoort we arrived at the aquarium when it opened.  For only $15 total our family of 3 was able to enjoy both the aquarium and the bird park.  The aquarium was showing it's age though very colorful.  Two separate buildings open to the outside housed several tanks of fish.  What was in each tank was not always clear as the identifying paper was not easily visible in the dark space.  Adalyn enjoyed looked at all the different fish, plus we had the entire space to ourselves, only seeing one other couple the entire hour we were there.

We made our way through the 2 buildings then went to see the seals outside.  They were quite friendly, coming up to the fence and talking to us.  

Further down the path was an area with an array of crocodiles, followed by a section with ducks and geese.  The ducks were happy to socialize but most of the crocodiles did not even move.  There was a small play area which Adalyn enjoyed before we headed off to the bird park down the road.

And as always in Africa, a little something extra right in the middle of the attraction

By now I should not be surprised by the fact that we are often the only ones at an attraction, for some reason either others do not venture out as early as us, or we just seem to hit up the least popular places.  The bird park was in a complex that also housed a day care, a church, a car wash, a bottle store, a restaurant and probably a few other things (typical Africa).  We walked right in, no one seemed to care to see that we had paid, and began pursuing the bird cages.  I was quite surprised by the variety of birds they housed and how friendly they were.  Several birds came up to the fence closest to us and would let us pet them.

Of course the park had it's variety of other animals as well.  

Emus just walking around, huge vultures in an open cage you could walk though, and strangely enough raccoons.  Not sure I have ever seen raccoons in a zoo setting in America, but there were 5 here for your viewing pleasure.  They had the same temperament as they do in America, always hissing and fighting with each other.  

There was a super sweet monkey that you could pet along with bunnies.

 A small pond filled with ducks and geese, including some swans and a flamingo topped it off.  It took us about an hour to view the bird park then it was off to lunch.

The outing made for a nice morning and once again we loved having it all to ourselves.  I would not recommend either place to anyone as there are better options in the area but glad we were able to see both of them.