Visiting the Camel Park in Mazotos

Two years ago, our older son and his family visited us over the Easter school holidays. During that time, our son and daughter-in-law went away for a weekend, leaving us on full-time grandparent duty. So one of the things we did, as described in this post, was to visit the camel park. We didn't know much about it at the time, and had not previously been. And on the whole, it was a great success.

This year they have come to visit again. We are delighted that we have been able to borrow a seven-seater car from friends who are out of the country, meaning we can easily all go out together.  We know how easily time can race by if we don't plan anything, so we decided to do three specific visits needing a car journey in the first week. As a bonus, we were able to take a teenage friend with us each time - three sisters whom we know well and who get along well with our grandchildren. 

The first planned trip was to the Camel Park. We had a lot of discussion about whether to try to eat there, or look for somewhere else to eat out. But we remembered this being difficult two years ago, so in the end we agreed to take a picnic. Not that we could take it into the camel park: outside food is forbidden. But it's not far from Angeloktisti Church and we were assured that there's a nice park nearby with a playground, and places to sit. 

So, with our 14-year-old friend E accompanying us, we drove to Mazotos and easily found the camel park. We had expected it to be quiet, as Cyprus schools had not yet broken up for Easter. 

However, there was a coach outside, and a lot of young children racing about; evidently a school trip was happening. However, this didn't prove to be a problem. Whereas, two years ago, our grandchildren were eager to try all the playground equipment, this time they wanted to head straight for the animals. So we bought some bags of carob pods, and made our leisurely way around.

While some of the cages were, perhaps, rather smaller than we thought appropriate, they seemed to be quite happy. They were clearly used to visitors, and came forward asking for the carob treats.

Each cage or enclosure had information about the animals, including a couple where we were told specifically NOT to give them any carob. The children were interested in knowing more about the animals they saw, and tried to eke out the carob pods as much as possible.

Some of them looked very cute.

And we loved seeing the separate enclosures for newborn and baby animals: 

One of the highlights two years ago for our grandchildren had been the camel ride, so we booked another one for them and our friend E. Only two could go on one camel, so our grandson opted to be on his own. They mounted at a platform, as happened before:

We couldn't go alongside them all the way, but knew they would be quite safe, led by one of the camel park staff. I suppose the whole thing lasted no more than about ten minutes, but they all said they enjoyed the ride.

As they were heading back, they suddenly all pointed towards one of the bird cages, as they had spotted that one of the peacocks was displaying his feathers. So we rushed over to see. There are swings and other 'toys' in the peacock/peahen enclosure, meaning it was impossible to take a clear photo. But this one shows some of its splendour: 

There were other attractions too: we didn't spend much time at the aquarium, but our granddaughter was very interested in the pool with quite a few turtles. Some were basking in the sun, some were swimming. 

Our grandchildren weren't interested in most of the playground equipment - just two years on, and it's less appealing than it was. They didn't want to go on the bouncy castle, either. They might have liked the dodgems, but there was nobody there, and they didn't seem to be open. However we probably spent a couple of hours wandering around. Towards the end they did go on some of the more robust equipment, and particularly enjoyed a roundabout that required pedalling for a while: 

But eventually they had seen everything they wanted to see, and were getting hungry. So we got back in the car, and drove - not all that far - to the Angeloktisti park. 

We sat on a wall having our lunch, then the three youngsters spent some time playing hide-and-seek in the nearby playground. There was almost nobody else around, and it was good to sit and relax. 

Our teenage friend had to be home for another commitment by around 3pm so we left in plenty of time to take her back.  Then we played a board game, followed by ice creams at a very nice Italian gelato place just a few blocks away from where we live.