Saturday, 15th April, 2023

We awoke to a brilliant sunny morning. After an excellent breafast at our accommodation, Luther King House, we departed Manchester for Blackpool. Our first stop was Wild Discovery. This is a small zoo located within Ribby Village near Kirkham. We enjoyed a stroll around the site and saw a number of familiar and unfamiliar species. Everything was in good order and the animals appeared to be happy and healthy.


I thought I was back home in Melbourne for a moment as we travelled along this Motorway!



A Village Weaver



A Goeldi's Marmoset



Gidgee Skinks are native to Central Australia.



This is a Bolivian Black-Capped Squirrel Monkey.



A Dwarf Mongoose



A Capybara



Asian Short-Clawed Otters



A Binturong



A Turkey Vulture



An Arctic Fox



A Dwarf Zebu



One of the experiences offered by the zoo was to feed the African Spurred Tortoises. We happened to be passing as a group of people were enjoying this opportunity (so were the tortoises).




The unfortunately-named Kirk's Dik-Dik



A Giant Anteater



We arrived safely in Blackpool, checked in to our accommodation and headed for Blackpool Tower. When it opened in 1894, it was the tallest man-made structure in the British Empire and is still very impressive today at 158 metres tall.







It was slightly unnerving to stand on glass like this!

Within the complex is the Tower Ballroom. This is also very impressive. We had a bit of afternoon tea there (but not the actual Afternoon Tea event as that was £25 per head!) and listened to the Wurlitzer Organ being played.


The organist announced the dance associated with the piece he was going to play and some people got up and danced.



This was the last piece played this afternoon.




We were so lucky with the weather!



These wind turbines are located quite far out at sea. We could only just make them out from the beach. My camera's zoom came in handy once again.
We had dinner at "Coral Island", an amusement establishment with a "pirate" theme. All the staff were dressed as pirates. Following a trip on the Blackpool tram, we returned to our accommodation.


Hunter Chicken is chicken breast, bacon and cheese. It's very similar to parmigiana.



An unexpected sight, as we trundled along in the tram, was the factory where "Fishermen's Friend" lozengers are made.



There are quite a few grand hotel buildings from yesteryear along the promenade. This one is The Imperial Hotel.



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