Wellbeing Web at Tropical World, Roundhay Park

A number of our blogging reporters met recently for an afternoon outing. We were intent on visiting Tropical World at Roundhay Park. We hadn’t met for a while, so it was pleasant to first catch up over lunch at the local hostelry. We sat outside in its sun drenched courtyard, where we sampled the victuals and beverages.

We had heard there were new residents at Tropical World, five giant leopard tortoise, which are the largest  of the species in the world. One of our members imagining they might be huge, was disappointed with their size and behavior, but  concluded they must be teenagers. They were bigger than your average pet tortoise, but they weren’t gi-normous,  they were more…..a-morous! Being discreet we did not linger at that section, and therefore have none of our own photographs of them. A return visit for a photograph, might see them grown not only in size, but also in number!

Here are some really excellent photographs of inside the tropical house. These were taken with a bloggie ‘snap’ camera/camcorder by one of our intrepid reporters, (a white hat is a clue to the person’s identity),

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and here are some more photographs, taken with a smart phone, by the blogger ‘that got away’

It was the orchids and hibiscus that added a showy splash of  colour.The jungle room is predominantly, shades of green; the desert room sand coloured and the tropical ponds mysteriously dark, making it hard to spot the wildlife. Camouflage of course is the key to a longer life for wildlife in their natural habitat. Although the butterflies were strikingly patterned and coloured they too were hard to spot against  their background, At Tropical World their friendliness might be accounted for, by the fact we humans look like tasty morsels. We rumbled a rather rare creature which appeared suddenly. not well camouflaged, and normally camera shy.  Our intrepid  reporter managed to take that all essential shot for posterity, as he did of this other strange but fascinating creature.

 

All members present used their device of choice to take photographs, and we look forward to seeing their contributions later.

Needless to say the tropical temperatures had us all a bit hot under the collar, and elsewhere. Even the trickling streams and water fall did little to cool us down, NO we did not get in any of them.  We were however revived by a cuppa in the nearby tea room.  Everyone enjoyed themselves, and said they’d like to do it again. We shared ideas of projects and events of interest, that might help us develop our photography, writing and filming skills. It’s good to reflect that social meetups for wellbeing, can be both pleasurable and creative.

S.M.