oasis norfolk

Since April 12th Covid lockdown restrictions have eased allowing us to meet other people outside for the first time this year, to take full advantage of the new freedoms it was agreed to hold an Oasis day out at Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens on Friday 23rd April.

The invite was open to all Oasis ladies, partners, friends, family and allies.

Just seven of us arrived on the day including Serena, Beccie, Claire & Jules with mum Pam, my partner Lorraine and myself. During communications before the day I could sense much excitement in anticipation of actually having a day out and meeting friends for real instead of online. The day did not disappoint, in fabulous sunshine just to sit and chat was a happy smiley experience.

After refreshments and chat we wandered off to see some animals starting with the always lovable and amusing Meerkats, Sergei was not home. Next were warty pigs (also known as sausages to meat eaters)

Walking further round were ponds with all kinds of ducks all looking quite happy in their environment, there was a list of the many breeds but couldn’t find the “crispy duck”.

Next were the awesome tigers, nice to see these beautiful creatures up close but you couldn’t help thinking shouldn’t these really be in their natural wild habitat instead of caged?

Well, in this case, humans don’t have it all their way, as you can see Claire and Beccie found themselves caged in the human enclosure.

Next to the tiger enclosure is St Mary’s Church complete with graveyard, was it a coincidence these dangerous creatures were located next to a graveyard or was it done for convenience😉?

Time for lunch, we found a couple of empty tables in the sunshine and purchased food from the Cockatoo Cafe. We later realised why the cafe was given this name, the cockatoo in the enclosure nearest the cafe was so loud it could be heard across the entire cafe and seated area.

Once refreshed and rested we embarked on the second leg of the Thrigby safari, unfortunately some of the interesting inside attractions were closed due to Covid such as the Swamp House and Forest House, anyway we continued (somehow the wrong way around the one way system) and found the otters, these were my personal favourites, so cute running around making little squeaking noises. Other animals we saw included gibbons, porcupines, leopards, red pandas and many others, all lovely to see.

Here are some pics of us taken en-route, I did tell Lorraine she was being quite insensitive wearing animal prints to a zoo, must have scared the inmates😁

As tradition the day was rounded up by drinks and chat, oh and ice creams, well it was warm and sunny!

We agreed the day was absolutely brilliant, well organised 😁 and fantastic company, we would encourage everyone to take time out for future planned garden visits, even if you don’t like flowers there’s plenty of tea and cakes involved.

See you all soon

Theresa x