I went to London in August, I arrived late, and had to queue for about 20 minutes to get in. I queued in the Reptile House and found the Philippine Crocs where I had to wait again for around 10 minutes to get near enough to take a photo. At that point someone else decided to stand at the other end of the exhibit in a bright yellow shirt, the reflection of which was visible in my proposed shot. He was one of those visitors who decides to stand for ever and ever just staring at the enclosure. When he finally moved I couldn't get my camera to work and found out the batteries were flat. Went to the shop by the old penguin pool thinking it would not be as busy as the main shop, queued for about 15 minutes to get served and was told they did not stock my type of battery there, only in the main shop. Queued again at the main shop for quite a while, put the new batteries in, went back to the reptiles and took a photo of the Philippine Crocs, then ran out of film. My spare film snapped when I put it in the camera and I couldn't load it. The it started to rain, very heavily. I decided to call it a day, the total time I was in the zoo was about 55 minutes. It was the worst zoo visit I have ever had.
Tough luck! I understand your frustration completely, I remember my camera breaking at the start of a visit to Whipsnade many years ago. But I'm afraid that rain by itself is not an excuse at Regents Park as there is so much indoor viewing, but I guess it becomes uncomfortable (or even unpleasant) when crowded with damp children in August. Years of wet break duties when I was a school teacher have made me immune to that sort of discomfort Alan
That's why I left, it was just too busy in the animal houses before the rain came. While it was wet it would have been even busier.
That's what I like about a zoo membership, you can visit for a shorter period of time and not worry that you aren't getting your money's worth.
Sim Unfortunately I'm not a member of ZSL. I don't visit London and Whipsnade often enough to make it worthwhile. Glyn No, it's my fault for not having a spare set with me as I usually do. My batterly life indicator only has two settings full power or flat, so it's not reliable. Had it not been for the rain I would have stayed longer and not used my camera. When I get to London around 10-10.30am there's plenty of time to see all the exhibits and avoid the crowds, but I arrived around 12.30 and it was very, very busy.
I'm thinking about it tetrapod. It's only the second time I've had a film tear, the last one was in 1977. There was no way of getting the end out without opening the cassette.
