All creatures great and small

When our son Chris and his wife Georgie came to stay in July 2009, we visited the Safari Park in nearby El Verger, so that Chris could take photos of the animals. We also took them to Valencia, where we visited Oceanagrafico – the largest marine life centre in Europe. Watch a slideshow of some of the photos of   Safari Park and Oceangrafico.

Later in 2009, we returned to Valencia and visited the Bioparc. This is the most wonderful zoo we have ever visited and has been cleverly designed to eliminate all cages and bars. Instead, you can enjoy natural views of even the most dangerous of animals, separated by ditches, water or in some cases glass. Fences around enclosures have been replaced by rocks and artificial cliffs and we were able to walk amongst a colony of lemurs that were swinging through the trees around us and walking between our legs. Vernon was also able to sit on the other side of the glass from a large gorilla. See more photos of our exciting day out in the Animals section of our Photo Gallery.

One day when we were out driving, we saw two weasels fighting in a ditch by the side of the road. Vernon posted a photo on the Iberianature forum in order to confirm whether they were weasels or stoats and his photo generated a great deal of interest and received a rare 5* rating – http://www.iberianatureforum.com/index.php?topic=1795.0

We saw our first wild boar on the grounds of Fontilles Hospital, only a mile or so from the villa. It’s likely this one was less timid because the hospital grounds are very quiet and he may also scavange kitchen scraps. We also saw the rear of another wild boar disappearing into the bushes when we were out walking in the mountains.

We see some wonderful butterflies here, including the common swallowtail. The hummingbird hawk moth is also a frequent visitor to our garden, sipping the nectar from the blue plumbago flowers and the bright orange lantanas.