Exmoor Zoo

Exmoor Zoo hides down a little country lane in the heart of the National Park it shares a name with. But it is well signposted once you reach the Blackmoor Gate crossroads. We had lovely sunny weather for our visit and I was glad we arrived as the zoo opened at 10.00 because by lunch time most of the animals seemed to have zonked out in the sunshine.

The zoo is set out on a hillside. Once we'd reached the bottom of it my children moaned a bit about walking back up. And it's a bit of maze to negotiate. We managed to see all the animal enclosures quite quickly, but there are activities every half hour to fill up your time. At 11.00 the first activity was otter feeding, pictured here. This was quite popular so its worth staking your claim to a prime spot ten minutes beforehand. The otters let you know its feeding time by squeaking very loudly at least 30 mins before so there's no chance of missing it.

Other activities include 'Meet the Alpacas', 'Bug Encounter', 'Spider Phobia' and 'Cheetah Feeding', which presumably you watch rather than take part in. A feeding activity you can take part in is with the wallabies. The kids loved this; you can give them something resembling rabbit food which they eat out of your hand, or wave a branch full of leaves in their general direction if you don't want to get that personal. They like to be stroked too but there is a wallaby only enclosure where they can escape to when it all gets too much!

There is also a cafe where you can get hot or cold food, but be warned - they don't accept credit/debit cards. The exit is through the gift shop, of course, but there are quite cheap choices for those whose children, like mine, rarely listen to the word 'no'. My six year old must have spent at least half an hour trying decide what to spend her �2 on and must have changed her mind about five times.