Dudley Zoo and Castle
April 2024: We spent the night in Dudley Castle so we could make the most of Dudley Zoo
In April 2024 we had a trip of a lifetime!
We arrived at Dudley Zoo after closing so we were able to experience the zoo after the public had gone and the animals were more relaxed. On our tour of the zoo, the Meerkats found us fascinating and made sure to keep an eye on us and we got to feed the Barbury Sheep and the monkeys. We saw the lions playing like kittens then as we were very quiet when asked, the anteater let us see her carrying her baby on her back and the sloth said hello, all before we went into the castle for a Horrible Histories themed escape room in the old crypt.
We tackled the escape room in small groups that were so well matched that give or take a few seconds, every group achieved it in 22 minutes. Well done Brownies! While the small groups beat the escape room, everyone else enjoyed the freedom to play in the castle grounds, without the adults fearing losing anyone, it is a large grassed area and the gates were shut. It was rather dark when we gathered for our supper curtesy of the SPAR on Westway in Stafford, and made one of our helpers into a young leader.
We slept the night in the Castle Creatures display so the mice and rats could keep the leaders company while the brownies slept. Even going to the toilet in the night was an adventure; we crossed the castle ground by torchlight while a leader kept the doorway lit for us to find our way back!
The special times didn't finish when we were up in the morning: just like the keepers, we couldn't have breakfast until the sealion had been fed, so we woke her from her sunny spot and made sure she had plenty of fish for her breakfast, that she shared with the seagull and the crows!
After our breakfast and before the zoo opened for the day, we met some of the gibbons, orangutans and some of our friends from the night before; we had the play areas to ourselves and we were the first to get up close to the lemurs, with one of them even jumping onto a Brownie's head, making her day!
Our luck with the fine warm spring weather continued so we could have our lunch as a picnic with the peacocks guarding our trolly for us and we made sure to enjoy an ice-cream before saying hello to the giraffes and the penguins before heading for home to tell our adults all about our adventures.
The staff at the zoo and castle, and especially our host Rosie, Louise who made it possible, and the café that kept us well fed were all brilliant, thank you all!
