Tuesday, 4th April, 2023
Today began as yesterday, with a very satisfactory buffet breakfast
at the Moxy Hotel. Our room, although fairly small, had very
comfortable beds and an excellent shower.
Our first activity for the day was to contact the bank again about
the rental car situation. A very helpful consultant gave me several
options and sent me an email indicating that the money owed to the
rental company had indeed left my account. As before, the
"gentleman" at the desk refused to even look at the email and stated
once again that no money had been received. When I asked him to
guarantee that we would still get the car eventually, he declined
and then stated that we would not get the car even if the money did
come through as the date for pick up had passed. This has left us in
a bit of a mess really. We don't know when, or even if, we will get
any refunds from Easirental or Enjoy Travel. The person at the bank
seemed fairly confident that, if the refunds did not come from the
companies involved, then Visa would come good. We can only wait and
see.
So tomorrow we will need to start from scratch to find a rental car.
Preliminary research indicates this will now cost in the vicinity of
$10,000! At least we will be able to escape from Hounslow and
finally get on our way! I guess the moral of this story is "caveat
emptor". If I had only thought to check the reviews, I would not
have touched "Easirent" with a barge pole.
We decided that we would go to the British Museum for the rest of
the day (at least that would be free!). However, when we had almost
reached it, we changed our minds. The weather was just too glorious
to spend the day inside so we opted for London Zoo instead. This was
definitely NOT free - £30 pounds each (about $120 in total). The
rest of the day was very relaxing as we wandered around the
exhibits, enjoying both the animals and the lovely warm sunshine.
London Zoo is about the same size as Melbourne Zoo and the set up is
very similar too.
Note the giraffe's tongue!
The Okapi is the giraffe's closest relative.
This is a warthog. Think "Pumbaa" from the Lion King!
This giraffe was very tall, even for a giraffe!
The Grand Union Canal connects London and Birmingham. It flows
through the Zoo. Note the willows with their lovely new
leaves!
This ring-tailed lemur had found a commanding spot!
Another ring-tailed lemur
This is a golden-headed lion tamarin. The tamarins have a
very-well-designed enclosure. Visitors can walk through it but
the tamarins have the choice of whether or not to venture out
of their private apartments to mingle with the visitors. There
is a network of branches and structures which the tamarins
use. This one came very close to us and so we were able to
take some really clear photographs.
I had not even heard of, far less met, a Karoo Round-Eared
Sengi before today. It was not difficult to understand why
they are also known as elephant shrews!
The meerkat lookout
The otters were very active and congregated in a particular
place. We thought they must have been expecting to be fed!
The
Colobos monkeys have recently moved in to a very large
enclosure which visitors may walk through. Again, this
made for some great photos.
I'm
sure I left some food in here somewhere!
A Humboldt Penguin
This macaw was actually outside its enclosure with its keeper,
again allowing the opportunity of taking photos without having
to worry about bards or glass getting in the way.
An unknown bird in one of the walk-through aviaries.
An
unknown bird in one of the walk-through aviaries.
An
unknown bird in one of the walk-through aviaries.
An unknown bird
in one of the walk-through aviaries.
Cleaning one's whiskers is time consuming...
and, well, a bit of a yawn really!
An unknown reptile
On the way back to our accommodation, we visited
Paddington Station where we met up with an old friend!
