Once there, we decided to go check out the zoo and aquarium before going on a walk in the park proper. We started out with the aquarium, then went outside to see the penguins, puffins, seals, otters and walruses. I think our favourites among these were the walruses and otters. The walruses were absolutely huge, but curious and agile -- they kept sweeping by the windows (we were standing under ground level and could look right into the pool through thick glass), looking at us inquisitively . The otters were adorable; it was like looking at swimming dogs. Again we could experience them up close through a window, and see them swimming, floating on their backs, playing enthusiastically with all kinds of plastic toys, and storing seashells on their bodies.
Later we went to take a peek at the polar bears (we only got to see them from afar), and the tigers. It was a pretty sad sight. They looked bored and out of place -- though who knows what's going on in their heads.
After passing a red wolf (it looked and behaved like a friendly dog you might want to pet in the street) and a few bundles of fuzzy little Arctic foxes, we went to look at the gibbons, who shared a cage with a tapir. The tapir didn't do anything but stand around and eat his pellets, but the apes where extremely mobile -- running and swinging around like hairy, long-limbed, hyperactive little people. They were amazingly agile. In between they would sit down next to the completely unfazed tapir and much his food. Thorsten remarked that, looking at them, it is amazing that anyone can deny that we're related.
We ate an uninspired burger (with fries for Thorsten, sweet potato fries for me) at the café, wandered around in the zoo until they closed at 4 pm, and then drove off to park closer to the seaside promenade.
Once on the beach, we followed the promenade until it stopped, and then just kept walking on in direction the Point itself. By then the weather had become quite nice. The farther we walked, the more complicated did it become walking on the beach, as it was covered in fallen and washed-up trees and branches. Though the landscape around here doesn't look too different from Bergen, the beach with all the trees and the clay wall rising from the beach (inscribed by hundred of people -- see picture) were quite different from what we know. For some reason it reminded me of Robinson Crusoe's island.
We climbed on the best we could. When we passed a man walking his dog, Thorsten asked him if it was possible to continue this way. The man replied that there was a path that went up the hill not far from here, and explained to us how it looked. So we kept walking until we got there, and then headed up into a lush forest consisting of huge trees. The birds were singing all around us.
After walking on for some twenty minutes we made it up to the main road that circles the point. We followed the path running parallel to it, and continued to a main lookout. There we crossed the forest to get back to the car. All in all we had walked some ten kilometers, and we were pretty tired by the time we made it home. Again a good day, where we got to do something that would have been difficult without a car.
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