On the weekend of September 17-18th we had a rugby game in Norrköping - another weekend with a long drive (just over 5 hours). So to make the most of it, we decided to stay at a cabin for the weekend and visit Kolmården Zoo on the Sunday
We had previously visited Kolmården when we were in Sweden the first time and the kids remembered the rollercoaster - The Wildfire as well as the gondola ride over the open habitats.
We stayed in a small cabin at Asplunda Gård, it was small but comfortable for the night.
After a relaxing night we arrived at the park on Sunday just as it was opening.
Kolmården opened in 1965 and is the largest zoo in Scandinavia, it houses Indian Elephants that were gifted to the King of Sweden by Thailand as well as 11 bottle-nosed dolphins, gorillas, rhinoceroses and Eurasian Brown Bears.
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| Eurasian Brown Bears |
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Bush Dogs
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| Red Panda |
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| Vicuna |
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| Mara |
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| Tapir |
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| Capybara |
We ended up managing to do most of the zoo with all five family members as we got a video call from Alana who was working on a Uni assignment and who joined us for most of the park. However we did lose Tomas early on as he ran off to ride the Wildfire rollercoaster seven times while we checked out the animals.
Next stop was Tiger World
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| Dhole |
This took us to the Wildfire. Kristine couldn't ride because of her shoulder, so she chatted to Alana while the boys and I rode. The Wildfire is the faster wooden rollercoaster in Europe and the second tallest roller coaster in the world. It takes 2 minutes to ride and has three inversions and twelve 'airtime hills' and a max speed of 115 km/h.
It has a height of 56m with a 49m drop and length of 1,265m. At least it wasn't raining this time!
After the Wildfire we stopped at the Seal enclosure and had a picnic lunch.
Next stop was the dolphinarium. Kolmården has 11 dolphins, 8 females and 3 males:
After the dolphins, we headed to the cable car ride - "Safari". The ride goes over five areas:
The Highland - with Llama and Ibex
Forest of the Bears - Eurasian Brown Bear
The Savannah - Blackbuck, Giraffes, Common Eland, Gemsbok, Wildebeest, Ostriches, Ankole-Watusi, Grévy's zebra, Lechwe, Chital
The Scandinavian Forest - Red Deer, Moose, Fallow Deer, European Bison
The Valley of Lions - African Lions
The cable car is 102m high at the drive station, 2638m long with a speed of 1.5 m/s and was build in 2011
The last part of the park was the apes and the African plains as well as the playground:
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