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14th January -
11 days post discharge |
Dad's secret holiday was a holiday my family and I planned for us to go on with my Dad. The location was planned around a specific activity we wanted him to do. After he was discharged from hospital at the beginning of the year after his cancer diagnosis and major surgery he bought himself a sloth cuddly toy. He later informed me that sloths are his favourite animal, something I didn't know. He's gradually been accumulating a collection of sloth toys and pillows, and now t-shirts too!
Sloths are pretty laid back animals and so I thought I would have a look online and see if there were any zoos in the UK that offered sloth holding or feeding experiences. I found one called Drusillas Park, which is sort of near Hastings in the South of England. And so Hastings became the holiday destination.
I contacted the park about adopting a sloth for Dad and getting a plaque put up with his name on before we arrived, which was something they offered on their website. There are three sloths at Drusillas Park, Sophocles, Flash, and Gordon. We chose Flash for Dad to adopt as we thought he would find it funny that Flash is fast and sloths are so slow.
Here's the adoption certificate and photo of Flash:
We started the adoption certificate from Father's Day, 17th June, but he wouldn't find that out until we arrived at the zoo.
The park also offered the sloth encounter experience we were looking for and as soon as the holiday dates were finalised we booked this too.
For the holiday we chose to stay at a Haven Holiday Park simply because of the convenience of having things to do at the park so we didn't have to go out every day if Dad wasn't feeling up to it.
We hadn't told Dad any of this, the only thing he knew was the dates. He told us later he thought we were going to Wales!
Without further ado, here's the photos! The sloth experience was Tuesday if you just wanted to see that.
Saturday 21st July
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| Arriving in Hastings |
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| On the train |
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| Giant deck chair |
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Dad having his first alcoholic drink
since the surgery |
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The oncologist told him he couldn't ride a real motorbike
anymore... he was straight on this as soon as he saw it! |
Sunday 22nd July
Okay, so I had to borrow a photo from the Haven website to show you the waterslide they have at this park. Dad went down this slide, in swimshorts and a rash vest, and whizzed round the bowl three times! It was a pretty fast slide, I've been on one at another Haven site but this one was rougher and faster.
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| Image from Combe Haven |
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| Dad at Party In The Dark |
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| Mum and me at Party In The Dark |
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| My sisters at Party In The Dark |
Monday 23rd July
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| View from West Hill, Hastings |
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| Hastings Castle |
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This stone was swapped from
a castle in Normandy, France |
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| Smugglers Adventure, in the caves |
Tuesday 24th July - The secret Sloth experience day!
Oddly enough, Dad had picked up a leaflet for Drusillas Park in the Haven reception and said he'd like to go, he likes zoos. We brushed it off and said if we have time we can go later in the week. So, when we rocked up at Drusillas on Tuesday morning he was already pleased. I spoke to the reception while he was in the loo so he couldn't overhear anything.
The sloths aren't far into the zoo, still inside the building which houses the main entrance, but typical Dad walked right past them! We called him back and said did you see the sloths? So then he came over and we showed him the plaque with his name on and we pulled the adoption pack out of my brothers backpack and gave him the certificate and photo.
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| The enclosure information |
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| The adoption plaque |
After a while of looking at the sloths we carried on around the zoo. His encounter wasn't until 3pm so we had to keep him busy until then (he still knows nothing about it). Later on in the zoo there's a walkthrough area (where the animal encounters take place) and one of the sloths is there. Dad spent ages looking at him and taking photos, while the rest of us were grinning at each other because we just know he's going to love his feeding experience. We finished looking at the animals and had some lunch, and around 2.30pm we started heading back towards the entrance/exit, to the visitor centre. The park has some other things to do as well as the zoo and Dad was trying to look and getting stroppy because he didn't know why we were rushing him! We managed to get him to the visitor centre just in time and then we handed him his sloth experience pack and when he realised what he's doing he got really excited. First the keeper took Dad and me to the kitchens where he showed us all the food stores, explained the animals diets, and picked up the food for the encounter. He asked us if it's a birthday surprise, and Dad openly told him he's very poorly, I gently explained it's a bucket list surprise, and we kept chatting so it didn't get depressing. Dad was very interested in the foods, and asked lots of questions! We even went inside the walk in freezer! It was lovely on such a hot day! Then we headed out to the encounter walkthrough.
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| Dad with the food |
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| Dad feeding Sophocles |
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| Dad feeding Sophocles |
The keeper called Sophocles down from his box, it took a while but eventually he came down for some food. Dad could put the food in his mouth, or in his "hand", and he did both. Some vegetables Sophocles didn't like and he would drop them on the floor. Dad was chatting away to him and really enjoying himself. One of my sisters was also in there taking photos. My brother went in too but I don't have a photo of that. Dad also got to touch Sophocles' head and he fed a fruit bat as they were also in the enclosure. One of the fruit bats even climbed over Sophocles and stole a piece of food right out of his mouth! We learned the Sophocles is the Dad of Flash and Gordon, and that Flash had to be hand reared because her Mum died after birth. The zoo are hoping to find a new partner for Sophocles. The keeper let Dad have over his 30 minutes that the encounters usually last, and then he offered to let Dad go inside the sloth tank and feed Flash as she's the one he adopted. So we went back to the main sloth tank near the entrance and collected the bucket of food for Flash and Gordon, and Dad and one of my sisters climbed inside the tank. It was very hot inside, but Dad got to feed them both and Flash even came out of her box to get more food from Dad after Gordon dropped his own piece and stole Flash's piece out of her hand! Dad touched Flash on the head once but had to be careful because she's got quite a feisty personality. By the time Dad had fed these sloths too his encounter had been over an hour long, and the keeper was perfectly happy for him to take as long as he wanted, but he needed the loo! I couldn't thank the keeper enough for the experience he gave Dad, he went above and beyond for him and it really meant a lot to us. Here's a link to
Drusillas Park if you're interested in going or seeing what other animal experiences they have. One of the keepers told us that the Beaver Experience isn't very popular, and I felt sad for the beavers, so if you love Beavers go give it a look!
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| Dad inside the tank |
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| Flash sitting in a basket |
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| Dad feeding Flash |
Wednesday 25th July
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| The view from East Hill |
East Hill has the steepest Funicular Railway in the UK and I can safely say it felt pretty hairy going up there. Thankfully the way down wasn't so bad! We also went to Blue Reef Aquarium and the Fishermen's Museum before heading back towards the park on a miniature railway.
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My brother and sister racked up
16,000 tickets in the arcade by
Thursday to buy this drone!
Safe to say they're all over the
Space Invaders leaderboard |
Thursday 26th July
I didn't leave the park on Thursday. In the morning we did a Pirate Treasure Hunt, and then we went swimming. I spent the rest of the day relaxing. Dad and my brother went into Hastings to go antique, and army surplus, shopping. Mum, Glenn and my two sisters went to the beach.
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| Mum having a water fight with my littlest sister |
Friday 27th July
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Battle Abbey - Built on the site of
The Battle of Hastings |
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| Riding into Battle |
Thanks for reading!
Katherine
