A morning at the zoo, and packing for our trip to Northern Arizona

This morning we took a yellow taxi to the very pleasant Reid Park Zoo. It is a small zoo, but nicely and scenically laid out. It's a good size for a day out and everything is within easy walking distance. All the big five African beasts are there, together with an excellent selection of South American fauna - fauna that by and large has a completely different feel and aura to African animals. Consider the "emotional" difference between three South American favourites and three African favourites: Capybara, the Llama, the Anteater, and the Lion, the Giraffe and the Zebra: with the first three you think of words like "cuddly", "peaceful", "dozy", "rooting happily about" - terms you would certainly never apply to the African favourites.
Zaria and Freya had a good time, and James kindly handled the map/plan to ensure that we got round expeditiously.

This evening, Kate and Chidi have been rushing around packing for tomorrow's early departure. While they were doing this Freya woke up complaining of a sore foot: she had walked barefoot in the garden and collected cactus spines in her tender toes. These had to be carefully discovered in the spotlight of a strong torch, and then plucked out one by one with small tweezers.