Well, this chapter turned out to be a bit of a marathon but I hope you guys enjoy the family's day out as much as they all did!

Chapter Fourteen

When morning came, everyone was up bright and early for a quick breakfast of toast or cereal – not in their PJs, on this occasion, but fully dressed and ready to go - then straight into the cars, and on the road.

Thankfully, Molly was feeling perfectly well and had opted to come along, too, but that meant they couldn't all fit in one vehicle so the Hooper-Holmeses were in the Range Rover that Sherlock had commandeered on Saturday and the Brocklehurst-Holmeses were in the Land Rover Defender.

They set off in convoy for their secret destination.

ooOoo

William was the first to spot the signs indicating where they might be heading.

'Oh, Daddy,' he exclaimed, 'are we going to Paradise?'

'I do believe we are,' Sherlock replied, smiling.

'Paradise?' Freddie enquired. 'You mean where God lives?' The church service the previous day, especially the hymns, was clearly fresh in Freddie's memory.

'Not that kind of paradise,' William replied, 'although…yes, maybe God does live there. I think I would, if I was Him.'

Freddie was now intrigued but he was the sort of person who loved surprises so he didn't press for any further information. All would be revealed, soon enough, he surmised. By now, they were travelling along a very narrow country lane, with fields and woods on either side, then Freddie saw Daddy flick on the left-hand indicator and the car began to slow. And that's when he spotted the enormous sign which read: Paradise Wildlife Park.

'Oh!' he exclaimed, 'One Zoo Three!'

'One Zoo Three' was a TV documentary series on CBBC about the family owned zoo, Paradise Wildlife Park, and both William and Freddie watched it avidly, William for the animal facts and Freddie for the humorous shenanigans that the three brothers who ran the park – Cam, Tyler and Aaron – got up to, which often involved cleaning up rather a lot of pooh. The show was clearly a favourite with Katy and Charlie, too, since it was Mycroft and Arthur who had planned this trip.

Sherlock turned the Range Rover into the main carpark. Their early start was about to pay dividends because, even on this sunny Bank Holiday Monday, the car park was still quite empty. He drove to the parking space nearest to the zoo entrance and reversed into it, in order to facilitate a quick getaway at the end of the day.

'Where's Mycroft?' he asked, gazing around but knowing already that the other car was nowhere to be seen.

Molly, mobile in hand, was texting. 'Five minutes away,' she announced, when Arthur replied.

'Oh, Captain Slow,' Sherlock sighed. He wasn't sure where he'd heard that expression but it seemed to fit the bill. The Hooper-Holmes contingent would have to wait for the other half of their party to arrive because Mycroft had booked the tickets, so the QR code that would allow them entry to the park was on his phone. Sherlock never enjoyed being kept waiting, especially by his brother, but Molly took a more pragmatic view.

'Stop huffing and get the buggy out of the boot,' she chided.

'We don't need the buggy,' Sherlock retorted. 'Violet can walk and, when she's tired, I'll carry her.' Sherlock had never been able to bring himself to push a buggy for any of their children. It just didn't fit with his image.

'Well, that's fine,' Molly replied. 'We can use the buggy to carry the packed lunches. And it'll give me something to lean on.'

With a shrug, Sherlock climbed out of the car and went round to open the hatch back and lift out the folded buggy. By the time it was unfolded and ready to use, Mycroft had arrived and manoeuvred his vehicle into the space next to Sherlock's.

'You took your time,' Sherlock commented, as his brother climbed out of the driver's seat, but Mycroft wisely ignored him.

Once inside the zoo, the family paused to sort out logistics. Obviously, the children all had different priorities about what they would most like to see so the decision was taken to split up and regroup for lunch in the picnic area near the Safari Diner.

Charlie and Freddie were desperate to visit World of Dinosaurs, an exhibit of life-sized animatronic dinosaurs, including an opportunity to be photographed in a jeep being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex, just like in the film, Jurassic Park. So Arthur, who was also a bit of a dino-geek, took charge of them.

Katy wanted to see the big cats, so she and Mycroft headed off in that direction. William was most keen to visit the reptiles, so he and Molly would be going to the Temple of Angkor first, which left Sherlock and Violet to wander wherever the whim took them, which would almost certainly include the penguins, the lemurs, the meerkats and, quite possibly, the farmyard.

Charlie, Freddie and Arthur entered the World of Dinosaurs through the huge wooden gates, modelled on the gates to Jurassic Park in the famous movie. Just inside the entrance, following the trail of dinosaur footprints, they were confronted by an avenue of what appeared to be dinosaur teeth embedded in the ground either side of the path - though Arthur suspected they probably weren't real. To the left was a building – closed at the moment – which advertised itself as Dino-Daycare where, presumably, baby dinosaurs were looked after. Perhaps they would find out later. and, to the right, was the dino store, which they would no doubt be visiting on the way out.

Following the trail of dinosaur foot prints, they moved further into the exhibit. All around them, they could hear roars and shrieks which they could only assume came from the dinosaurs. Charlie, who up to this point had been so excited he could barely stand still, was suddenly in need of Arthur's reassuring hand to hold. By contrast, Freddie went running on ahead and only stopped when he came to the first enclosure, which contained the Pteranodons or Winged Lizards. These particular ones were of the larger variety – with wing spans of nearly forty feet - suspended from wires with their enormous wings outstretched and flapping, as though they were flying over the visitors. The sound they made was like a very loud scream. Arthur wondered how they knew what sounds dinosaurs made but he kept that to himself.

Freddie stood by the rustic fence to the Pteranodon enclosure, gazing up at the enormous creatures, wondering what it would be like if these animals were really alive today. As Arthur and Charlie came up to join him, he asked,

'Uncle Arthur, did these Perabadons eat humans?'

'Not humans, no,' Arthur replied, 'but only because there weren't any humans in the world when they were alive.' Referring to the information plaque attached to the fence, Arthur went on, 'They ate fish that they caught from the ocean and also scavenged on dead animals on the land, a bit like buzzards and red kites do today.' There were buzzards and red kites in and around the Colbert estate so both Freddie and Charlie knew what they looked like.

'But if there had been humans, they would have eaten them, right?' insisted Freddie.

'I suppose so,' Arthur replied, wondering where this conversation might be leading. But he needn't have worried.

'Wow! That's cool!' Freddie exclaimed and ran on to the next display.

ooOoo

Katy was enjoying having Daddy all to herself. They were standing on the raised platform that gave a really good view of the whole of the lion enclosure which was home to the zoo's four white lions, three females and one male. To call them 'white' lions, as the information board explained, was a misnomer as the lions were more blonde than white. They weren't a subspecies of the African lions. The light colour of their fur was caused by a recessive gene which, apparently, could cause congenital defects too so, for this reason, the zoo no longer bred from these animals. But they still had an important job to do, as Mycroft explained to his daughter.

'These animals are ambassadors for their wild relatives,' he said. 'The money they raise as exhibits in this zoo go towards funding conservation projects in Africa.'

'What sort of projects?' Katy asked, her eyes still fixed on the three lionesses who were currently stretched out on top of a big rock platform, basking in the morning sun. The male lion, Moto, was nowhere to be seen but, since his information board suggested that he rather enjoyed his creature comforts, Katy assumed he might still be in his night chamber, snoozing on his heated bed.

'One project is dedicated to fitting tracking collars to a member of each wild pride,' Mycroft explained. 'This makes it possible to track the whole pride so that, if they get too close to human settlements – where they might be tempted to kill captive livestock rather than go to the trouble of hunting zebra or wildebeest, which would upset the farmers rather a lot - the rangers get a text message from the collars and they can go to where the lions are and move them back into the reserve. So, nobody gets upset.'

'I know what you mean, Daddy,' Katy replied. 'I would get very upset if a lion ate any of our deer.'

'Well, it's fortunate that we don't have any wild lions in Hertfordshire, isn't it,' Mycroft remarked.

'Shall we go and see the Amur tigers, now?' Katy asked.

'Of course,' Mycroft replied and they moved off in that direction.

ooOoo

Sherlock and Violet came first to the meerkat enclosure, where the residents were about to enjoy a special treat. The zoo keepers were always looking for new and exciting ways to enrich the lives of their captive animals and, today, the meerkats were to be treated to a bubble machine.

The glass panels in the boundary fence gave Violet a perfect view of the animals inside. The machine was set up just outside the enclosure and, when it began pumping out bacon flavoured bubbles, the meerkats and Violet were delighted.

'Bubbles!' Violet exclaimed, smiling and pointing.

She stood with her hands on the glass, watching the little creatures playing with the bubbles, trying to catch them in their paws and then being astonished when they burst and disappeared. At first, there were only a few meerkats out and about in the enclosure but, when the bubbles appeared, those individuals began to call and, in no time at all, all the other meerkats came up out of their burrows to investigate this strange, new phenomenon and join in the fun. The meerkats played with the bubbles for about five minutes and then, when the bubble show came to an end, they curled up together in little groups of three or four to enjoy a snooze.

'Where shall we go now?' Sherlock asked and Violet pointed an imperious finger so he set off in that direction. Who knew where it might lead?

ooOoo

It was no surprise that William had opted to visit the reptile house first. Named the Angkor Reptile Temple, not only did it claim to house the largest Anaconda in the whole of the UK – amusingly named Optimus Prime – but it was also home to several other species of snakes, lizards and alligators and, most significantly, all manner of spiders, beetles and bugs. Molly was more than happy to let William wander around the Temple, stopping to observe the various animals and minibeasts and read all the information about them, while she found a quiet spot to sit down and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the reptile house. There weren't many people in there – most were probably enjoying the sunshine too much to venture inside – so William practically had the place to himself.

He was avidly reading all that the information plates had to offer on each species on display. He was particularly pleased that the Latin names of some of the animals were included. Philodryas baroni – Barons Racer Snake – was one such example. He had watched a documentary on TV in which racer snakes chased and sometimes caught newly hatched iguanas on the Galapagos islands. These particular racer snakes were from South America and lived mostly in trees but he wondered if they could move as fast as the snakes in the documentary.

He also enjoyed reading the 'fun facts' and relaying the information to his mum.

'This Sinaloan Milk Snake,' he explained, 'was called that because they were often found in cow barns and byres. The people thought they came there to steal the cows' milk!' William found that highly amusing. 'Why would they think that?' he giggled. 'Snakes don't drink milk!'

In actual fact, the board went on to explain, they were probably there to catch the rats and mice which also frequented the barns.

'Oh, look, Mummy! These milk snakes have similar markings to highly venomous coral snakes but they aren't venomous at all,' he exclaimed. That seemed like a risky strategy to William. Whereas it might put off predators, if they thought you were venomous, it might also get you killed by a human, in a case of mistaken identity. But then, these animals hadn't evolved with humans in mind, he supposed.

There was so much to see in the Reptile Temple, like the Hissing Cockroaches and the Black-legged Dart Frogs, not to mention the five meter long reticulated pythons, William thought he could easily spend the whole day in there.

ooOoo

Violet's meanderings – with Sherlock in tow – led them via the zebras and the Brazilian tapirs to the African penguin enclosure, drawn there no doubt by the loud braying calls the penguins were making, which was how they got their nickname of Jackass penguins. These penguins were about two feet tall, so roughly the same height as Violet herself, and their black backs and white fronts made them look like waiters. Sherlock half expected one of them to run out with a tray of drinks to serve to the public but then he mentally chastised himself for being so fanciful.

'What dey, Daddy?' asked Violet.

'Penguins,' he replied.

'Pingwings,' said Violet.

'Close enough,' Sherlock replied.

'Pooh! Dey belly smelly pingwings!' Violet exclaimed, wrinkling her pretty little nose. There was a distinctly fishy aroma in the air.

'Quite so,' Sherlock agreed.

However, despite the smell, Violet showed no sign of moving on but watched in fascination as the birds went about their daily business – swimming, eating, preening, poohing and arguing amongst themselves.

So, to pass the time, Sherlock read the information plaque and was rather dismayed to learn that African penguins were an endangered species, having declined from over a million at the beginning of the Twentieth Century to only twenty-two thousand in the present day. How tragic, he thought - probably not for the last time this day. Nearly all the animals in this zoo were part of a captive breeding programme to provide a reserve gene pool for endangered species in the wild.

It sometimes seemed that the only animals in the world actually increasing in number were humans. And yet, it wasn't the most populous countries that were necessarily responsible for the decline of all the other species. It was, he knew, the rich and powerful nations of the world who were most to blame for the pollution, waste and exploitation of resources that was the root cause of climate change and mass extinction. He really should think of ways to reduce his own carbon footprint and that of his family. Perhaps get some solar panels installed on their south-facing roof or an underground heat pump in the garden? Anything to help secure the world for his children's future.

'What dat?' asked Violet, pointing at something floating in the penguin pool.

'It's a fish,' Sherlock replied.

'Fiss,' replied Violet.

'Correct', said Sherlock.

ooOoo

At the appointed time, the two families came back together in the most central of the picnic areas. The park had become much busier during the morning and this was reflected in the number of families already occupying picnic benches but Molly managed to bag a large eight-seater table and began to spread out the plastic containers - that Mrs Orgreave had kindly filled with all the leftovers from the Easter buffet the day before plus some roast leg of lamb sandwiches and cold veg from last night's dinner - on the table top for everyone to help themselves. The four groups had more or less managed to avoid each other during the morning, perhaps catching a passing glimpse en route from one enclosure to another, so some were eager to chat about what they had seen.

No one more so than Freddie, who couldn't wait to tell his parents what he'd been up to.

'There was lots of dinosaurs and some of them had babies or eggs and some of the eggs were hatching but some of the dinosaurs stole the eggs of the other dinosaurs and some of them could fly and we looked at all of them and then we went on the train and we looked at some of them again – and the wolves - and they were really noisy – the dinosaurs, not the wolves - and I think I like the ankylosaurs the best because they're armour-plated, like a tank, and have lots of spikes sticking out all over the place and it's got a big club on the end of its tail that it uses to defend itself because it's a veggiesaurus and we dug in the Dino Dig and Charlie found a bone!'

This was, as well as possibly the longest sentence ever uttered in the English language, a fairly comprehensive account of their morning. Having done the whole tour of the World of Dinosaurs on foot, Freddie, Charlie and Arthur had taken the dino-train and seen it again from a different perspective. Freddie and Charlie had sat in the jeep in front of the Tyrannosaurus Rex so Arthur could take pictures of them looking suitably terrified, and they had all been squirted with water by the Dilophosaurus. The Dino Dig was, in fact, a sand pit that included the 'fossil' of a huge dinosaur for children (and their adults) to excavate using trowels and brushes, just like archaeologists did for real.

In the Dino-store, at the end of the tour, Freddie had chosen the ankylosaurs as his favourite and Arthur had bought him a model of one to add to his collection at home. Charlie was torn between the velociraptor and the brachiosaurus but thought the baby brachiosaurs were so cute that it tipped the balance in their favour. Also, they were vegetarians, so would be unlikely to eat humans if they were around today. He chose a model baby brachiosaur, still sitting in half of its eggshell.

While Freddie was bringing his family up to speed, Katy was describing her exploits to Arthur.

'We saw all the big cats, Poppah. The tigers are so beautiful but I think I like the snow leopards the best because they are so fluffy.'

Jessie, the female snow leopard, had made a big impression on Katy because she was so playful. She seemed to spend nearly all her time chasing around in the enclosure and ambushing her partner, Panja, who was far more shy and retiring. It was also very obvious that, when it came to food and treats, Jessie was always first in line and poor Panja had to wait until she was done before getting his share. Mycroft had to admit it rather reminded him of Katy and Charlie's relationship, so it was little wonder that Katy was so in love with Jessie. She was hoping they might visit the main gift shop, before the end of the day, where she planned to persuade Daddy to buy her a soft toy one. And he probably would.

William and Violet were too busy eating to share their experiences but Freddie and Katy were doing enough talking for everyone, so there were definitely no awkward silences.

Lunch over, it was time to decide how they would spend the afternoon. A visit to one of the many Public Toilets, conveniently located near the picnic areas and eateries, was deemed to be the first priority and then everyone would go off in their preferred direction.

Freddie and Charlie wanted to see monkeys so they were bound for the Amazon Rain Forest area.

'I'll try to make sure I bring the right little monkeys back,' Arthur teased, 'since it might be hard to tell the difference.'

Katy had her heart set on visiting the wolf enclosure - rather hoping that might also include a ride on the dino-train - and then take in the Farmyard and get some hands-on animal petting. William would be spending his time in the bird sanctuary but Violet and Sherlock were yet to finalise their plans.

It was agreed they would assemble at the gift shop at four o'clock for a quick look around before heading off back to Colbert House.

When everyone else had dispersed, Violet seemed to still be deciding where she would like to go but then turned to Sherlock and, holding her arms in the air, said, 'Up, Daddy.'

Sherlock bent down and scooped her up to sit in the crook of his elbow. It had been a busy day, so far, and Violet had walked quite a long way on her little legs so it was only fair that he should now provide some transport.

'Where now?' he asked. Violet pointed in her chosen direction and off they went in the direction of the Ring-tailed Lemurs.

ooOoo

Freddie was finding it hard to decide between the gibbons and the squirrel monkeys as to which were his favourite primates.

The gibbons were very dramatic, swinging through their enclosure from hanging rope to hanging rope, with such ease that they could move from one end of the enclosure to the other in a matter of seconds. And they dealt with the bamboo feeding puzzle quickly and easily, too, working out that, in order to access the food inside the puzzle, they had to put their fingers in the holes and push the pieces of food along to the end of each level so that they dropped out at the bottom.

On the other hand, the squirrel monkeys were incredibly cute and also very intelligent. According to their information board, they had the largest brain to body ratio of all the primates and they demonstrated this when presented with their own puzzle feeder. They were even quicker than the gibbons at figuring that one out.

But then Freddie came across the pygmy marmosets and the popularity contest was won hands down by baby Mimo. Clinging to his mother's back, the newest member of the pygmy marmoset family was the cutest thing Freddie had ever seen in his life and he immediately fell in love with the tiny creature.

Charlie, on the other hand, was still erring towards the gibbons. He would have happily watched them for hours as they hurled themselves around their enclosure, despite the loud whooping noises that they made as they went. But Poppah was saying that, if they wanted to see any of the other exhibits, they would have to move on. So, reluctantly, he said goodbye to the gibbons but not before Poppah managed to get a picture of Charlie with a large gibbon right in front of him, looking for all the world as if they were having a chat.

ooOoo

William and Molly were about half way through their tour of the Birds at Paradise area when it was announced that a display of free flying birds was about to begin. They took a seat in the raked seating area to one side of the bird zone and waited for the show to begin. Apparently, most of the birds in the collection got to fly every day but not all at the same time, for obvious reasons, so William was curious to know which birds he was about to see.

He didn't have to wait long for the animal trainer to walk out and introduce the first bird, a kookaburra called Bill. As the trainer explained that the kookaburra was the largest member of the kingfisher family, Bill himself was released by one of the other keepers and flew over to land on a perch, right next to the trainer. William saw at once that the bird looked very much like the native kingfishers that he had occasionally spotted flying up and down the river in the parkland of Colbert House. The main differences appeared to be that the kookaburra was a lot bigger and a whole lot less colourful than native kingfishers and also its call was louder and a lot more complex.

But those weren't the only differences. The trainer went on to say that the kookaburra's diet was made up of insects, lizards, frogs, crabs and spiders - not fish, at all. To demonstrate how kookaburras caught flying insects on the wing, in their native habitat of the Northern Territory of Australia, he threw a large, brightly coloured plastic butterfly up high into the air. Spotting the butterfly, Bill jumped off his perch and fly straight upwards, catching the butterfly neatly in his beak before landing back on the perch, where upon the trainer exchanged the plastic butterfly for a tasty treat.

At this point, the other keeper entered the area and placed a long, rubber snake on the ground then proceeded to make the snake wriggle about as though it were alive. Bill spotted the snake immediately, flew over and without hesitation grabbed the reptile with his beak, just behind the head, and despite the keeper making the snake wriggle around quite violently, Bill hung on tight and would not let go. At one point, the keeper held the rubber snake up in the air with the kookaburra hanging off it. But all Bill did was make a loud squawk of disapproval. He wasn't letting go of that snake for anything. Well, not quite anything because, when the trainer dropped another tasty treat on the ground, the bird abandoned the snake and gobbled up the treat, to a round of applause from the audience.

ooOoo

Violet had found the ring-tailed lemurs a bit much to cope with. They were so lively, leaping around from one perch to another, she found it hard to keep track of them so she quickly decided to wanted to go somewhere else. Sherlock thought that perhaps the Asian short-clawed otters might be more to her taste.

He was quite correct. Although the otters were quite lively, too, they stayed on the ground or in the pool and didn't leap around at all. And they made a sweet little piping noise, which Violet loved. But Sherlock was again saddened to read that these animals were classified as Vulnerable to Extinction in the wild, on the Red List of Threatened Species, because of loss of habitat, pollution and hunting in their native South Asia.

Right next door to the otters were the red pandas which Violet also loved. There were two red pandas sharing the enclosure, a breeding pair who had reared several baby pandas during their time at the zoo. These little animals seemed to spend a lot of time sunbathing and eating. Their diet, it appeared, was mostly bamboo but, according to the information board, they also ate fruit, small mammals, birds' eggs and the birds themselves. Sherlock wondered how they could ever catch a small mammal or a bird, since they moved so little and so slowly but he suspected that - much like himself - they were able to move fast enough, when the need arose.

Violet was beginning to run out of steam. She rested her head on Daddy's shoulder and was soon sound asleep so Sherlock found a convenient place to sit down and closed his eyes, taking in the sounds and scents of the zoo while the other visitors scurried about around him and Violet.

As arranged, at four o'clock the four cohorts of the family group made their way to the main Gift Shop and Katy got her wish when Mycroft bought her a soft toy snow leopard. Freddie and Charlie already had their souvenir gifts, bought earlier from the dino-store. William chose a book about bees, which listed all the different foods grown in the world that were dependant on bees for pollination. Violet didn't get to choose a gift because she was still fast asleep but Sherlock thought she might like a soft toy penguin and so chose one for her. and, as they left the shop, he quietly slipped a fifty-pound note into the Conservation collection box - ten pounds from each of the five children in their party. Then it was time to return to the carpark, get into their cars and make their way back to Colbert House, having all enjoyed a very memorable day out.

ooOoo

Paradise Wildlife Park is a real place and it is in Hertfordshire but I've played a bit fast and loose with the time line for this chapter because, although it is 2020, in my AU there is no Covid19 pandemic and no Social Distancing. The bird flying shows (which are currently cancelled so as not to draw crowds) are still taking place and there's no one way system around the animal park. The TV show, One Zoo Three, which I think was mostly shot during Lockdown and only aired in September, had already aired in April. Other than that, I hope I've delivered a fair account of a day out at Paradise, after hours of research! And I'd really like to go there one day because it seems like a great place to go and REALLY interactive and child-friendly.