Tuesday 29 April 2014

The Sea Life Centre, Tynemouth


The Sea Life Centre in Tynemouth (19/01/14)

What a brilliant place to go on a wet Sunday!  Not only did we have in the background Tynemouth’s tempestuous seascape to rouse the senses, with  but we also had a warm, indoor escape that our nine year old grandson could explore comfortably, whilst we followed on very happy to gaze on the watery beasts that inhabit the shallows of the world.

I absolutely loved it!  Of course, I adore anything to do with creatures so… maybe you have to be into natural history – but hey- aren't we all?

If you fancy introducing your youngster to more than the pretty angel fish and flashy neons that you can find in your local garden centre, then get yourself a family ticket to the North East’s own water world (easily printed off from their website – we paid £25 for two adults and a child- or just go to the door.  The tickets last all day too).

You’ll walk through a Perspex tunnel under the elegant fins of skates and ray fish, with sharks patrolling the surface water above you, peer though bubble glass at seahorses and come close to a kaleidoscopic array of Nemo’s friends and relatives, complete with monstrous pink anemones – nothing tiny here!

Otters have got to be the cutest water mammals and the aquarium has several housed in an ingenious indoor pond, complete with wooden holt and branch walkways, which allow the furry beasts to examine their human visitors with an equal amount of curiosity. All this complete with that indescribable musky stink, which tells your senses that these are not tame animals.

But save the best for last…

The SEALIONS!

Lucy and Finn (real sealions) and their seal friends live in an outdoor aquarium and, yes, we did brave the drizzle and it was totally worth it. If you want to see intelligent, dog-like sea mammals, with obviously friendly personalities, respond to their equally well trained keepers with tricks and kisses, well… you’ll get that that all right but you’ll get more: a sense for something marvellous and magical in the natural world that you simply won’t get going to Dobbies or even Flamingo Land.

These are big, powerful creatures with wet fur that gleams like dark satin, big brown spaniel eyes and clumps of long, silvery and sensitive whiskers.  (If you pay an extra fiver, you can get a kiss too -just imagine those whiskers in your ear!)

And it’s right here in the North East.