Return to Planckendael zoo with reservation

The lockdown seems to get release really quickly lately with new permissions each day but in the first half of May things still looked differently. We couldn't go to a playground yet, no school in sight for Beertje, no visits to the Ardennes...so when the zoo's would open upon reservation we quickly took advantage to book 2 visits ( one at the end of May, one in June to come) to get the children a little break and fun activity. 

We hadn't been to Planckendael in 15 months, last time was still with a stroller I realised.  The constructions of last time were a brand new Bonobo exhibit we visited for the first time. 

While entry is regulated by reservations to do crowd control, there is no mandatory leaving time or restricted duration of the visit. We arrived more at the end of the day and my first impression  was that this was very busy. The central points where "all continent" itineraries arrive was buzzing which was strange and uneasy in these Corona (post lockdown) times.  Fortunately most of the people seemed to be on their way to exit the park and once you were in a chosen continent it was already a lot more quiet.    there is a mandatory walking direction in those continents now, so no more shortcuts to directly skip to your favourite animals. Something to think off when you start in a continent with eg already tired children or so. 

Americas

We started off in Americas. If my Facebook memories in May are flooded with pictures of Canada in 2011, 2015 and 2019 at least I could see some wapiti and bizons in real life again. 

On exhibits where you can walk amidst the animals, even though in open air, you must mandatory wear your face mask. 

The central Bonobo water playground was a little less busy when we returned so we let the children explore the water and the boat for a moment. 

Africa

Then we went to the largest and farthest continent. 
We walked among the lemures that were rather lazy in the heat. We admired the giraffes on the lang walk around their big enclosure. And then I discovered the barbery macaques and their Marrocan palace(?). I can't recall me this but google confirms me it was new since 2019 as well. 

We ended by testing some floats before returning home and one last stop at the water Bonobo playground.  And then all of a sudden one of us was soaking wet and it was time to call it a day and bring mr wet pants home.  We'll leave the other (smaller) continents for our next visit.