egor k

This is a continuation of a long story. In short: we haven’t seen Fay since the beginning of the year, and a month ago the staff said she had a minor injury and was coming out only rarely.

We visited Opel Zoo today. It was immediately obvious, both by sight and by sound, that construction was underway in one corner of the zoo. The posters say that rhinos will be living there in early 2028. That’s far from the manuls. But the zoo lies in a valley between two hills; the construction is on one slope, while the manuls live on the opposite slope. Formally, as the crow flies, the distance is great, but in practice there is a clear line of sight between them, and the manuls can hear the sounds of construction.

We had long planned to visit the Helsinki Zoo again. The zoo itself is very popular, and there are lots of videos of walks through it, so I won’t describe it in detail. I can only sincerely recommend visiting it; it’s really great. The only drawback I can think of is the price: 29 for adults / 20 for children.

In the past, the zoo was on an island all by itself; the only way to it was a bridge from another island, and from there another bridge led into the city. From the central market there used to be a cute ferry, which added an extra sense of adventure to the island visit. But now they’ve built a large bridge directly to the shore across the island, and the regular ferry has been removed. We were very worried that the road would be noisy and disturb the animals, but it turned out that the bridge has only tram tracks and bike/pedestrian paths. And there will be a tram stop right opposite the zoo entrance.

We often visit Opel Zoo, and over the past few months we just haven’t been able to see Faye.

In addition, Batu has been kept all this time in a separate small enclosure, and wires appeared in one of the houses in the large enclosure, which we think are for a camera. We were really hoping for kittens, but on our last visit the doors between the enclosures were opened, Batu was roaming the large enclosure, and Faye was still nowhere to be seen.

We visited the zoo near the town of Neuwied today. Neuwied is located in western Germany, on the banks of the Rhine, roughly halfway between Frankfurt and Cologne. The zoo is about 10 kilometers from the station. From the nearest bus stop, you still have to climb uphill for another 30 minutes.

The zoo has a large area and lots of greenery. In the more remote part, if it weren’t for the mesh along the sides of the path, you could think you were walking through a forest. On the downside, the grounds are in the hills and a bit vertical, so you can get tired.