On March 7th, thirty-six Transition Year students set out from PCS at 7.20am to travel three hours on a stuffy bus to Fota Wildlife Resort in Cork. We were accompanied by Ms.Murtagh and Ms.Hough. Many people fell asleep on the bus on the way to the resort, however I stayed awake for the whole trip which made it feel a lot longer than three hours.
On arrival, we were split into two groups of eighteen. We then were brought into a room to play games and learn about the animals in the park. Our team actually won our first game which involved a certain element of chinese whispers and helped us with our communication skills and helped us talk to people we don't usually talk to on a daily basis. The next game we played was more difficult as our 'shepard' was a disaster. As well as not being able to distinctively click his fingers, Vincent was also unable to remember what order his sheep were and I got confused with sheep number three eventhough I was originally sheep two. Both myself and Ali McDonagh found this very frustrating as we were also blindfolded. Our last team game were to arrange tangrams in different shapes. I got very excited to hear we were doing tangrams but then I remembered that I was never good at tangrams and that in fact I never liked tangrams. We persisted to work hard and we eventually got the hang of them.
From there, we began our tour of the park. We saw many exotic animals eg. giraffes, ostriches, wallabies, monkeys, cheetahs, monkeys and flamingos. We went to lunch and ate on site, still emersed in the nature that surrounded us as we were engulfed in the panoramic views of Fota's diverse habitats. There was also a resident peacock in the park. Many people were scared of this particular peacock as he extended his wings at unexpected times and seemed to follow certain students. Ali McDonagh found this particularly terrifying.
After lunch, it had began to rain. We decided to go and look at a different species of monkey this time. We went from that to the penguins and then to the tropical house. I didn't find this house enjoyable as there butterflies present. I do not like butterflies. I was expecting a maze of coloured wings but thankfully there were only a few of them. However, they were attracted to the colour purple and it just so happens Ms.Murtagh was wearing a purple jacket. This resulted in a massive butterfly landing on her shoulder. This caused myself and Ali McDonagh to run away from Ms.Murtagh on a few occasions as to escape from that butterfly that was determined to frighten us. We left that house fairly snappily and headed for the tigers, rhinocerouses, lions and Caroline made a joke about there being a 'human enclosure' which I found rather clever and funny. We finished our tour with the meerkats and headed to the cafe for a ten minute break.
We had a talk hosted by Caroline about different animals eg. badger, stoat and the otter. Certain people found the stuffed otter particularly scary and even jumped when trusted at them from the aisle. I think it was the shock that frightened Ali McDonagh rather than the actual otter itself.
Overall, I found Fota Wildlife trip very enjoyable and would recommend this trip to other TY students. It is a pity that it was raining but we could still see the animals roaming relatvivly free around the park which was nice to see as Fota isn't a zoo where the animlas are locked up and their life quality depleted. We finished the day with a shopping trip to Mahon Point Shopping Centre. I was still not tired by the time we reached Portumna however I was glad to disembark that bus as there was very little leg room. We reached PCS at 8.40 pm.
On arrival, we were split into two groups of eighteen. We then were brought into a room to play games and learn about the animals in the park. Our team actually won our first game which involved a certain element of chinese whispers and helped us with our communication skills and helped us talk to people we don't usually talk to on a daily basis. The next game we played was more difficult as our 'shepard' was a disaster. As well as not being able to distinctively click his fingers, Vincent was also unable to remember what order his sheep were and I got confused with sheep number three eventhough I was originally sheep two. Both myself and Ali McDonagh found this very frustrating as we were also blindfolded. Our last team game were to arrange tangrams in different shapes. I got very excited to hear we were doing tangrams but then I remembered that I was never good at tangrams and that in fact I never liked tangrams. We persisted to work hard and we eventually got the hang of them.
From there, we began our tour of the park. We saw many exotic animals eg. giraffes, ostriches, wallabies, monkeys, cheetahs, monkeys and flamingos. We went to lunch and ate on site, still emersed in the nature that surrounded us as we were engulfed in the panoramic views of Fota's diverse habitats. There was also a resident peacock in the park. Many people were scared of this particular peacock as he extended his wings at unexpected times and seemed to follow certain students. Ali McDonagh found this particularly terrifying.
After lunch, it had began to rain. We decided to go and look at a different species of monkey this time. We went from that to the penguins and then to the tropical house. I didn't find this house enjoyable as there butterflies present. I do not like butterflies. I was expecting a maze of coloured wings but thankfully there were only a few of them. However, they were attracted to the colour purple and it just so happens Ms.Murtagh was wearing a purple jacket. This resulted in a massive butterfly landing on her shoulder. This caused myself and Ali McDonagh to run away from Ms.Murtagh on a few occasions as to escape from that butterfly that was determined to frighten us. We left that house fairly snappily and headed for the tigers, rhinocerouses, lions and Caroline made a joke about there being a 'human enclosure' which I found rather clever and funny. We finished our tour with the meerkats and headed to the cafe for a ten minute break.
We had a talk hosted by Caroline about different animals eg. badger, stoat and the otter. Certain people found the stuffed otter particularly scary and even jumped when trusted at them from the aisle. I think it was the shock that frightened Ali McDonagh rather than the actual otter itself.
Overall, I found Fota Wildlife trip very enjoyable and would recommend this trip to other TY students. It is a pity that it was raining but we could still see the animals roaming relatvivly free around the park which was nice to see as Fota isn't a zoo where the animlas are locked up and their life quality depleted. We finished the day with a shopping trip to Mahon Point Shopping Centre. I was still not tired by the time we reached Portumna however I was glad to disembark that bus as there was very little leg room. We reached PCS at 8.40 pm.
This is a picture of the resident Cheetahs that live in Fota Wildlife Park.