One should not be afraid to do new things. Need to discover new places. And there are a lot of them around. I have never been to Wroclaw before. However, I heard a lot about the local zoo and it was just praise. It mainly concerned the local zoo jewel. Oceanarium, the largest in Central Europe. Specifically, it is called „Afrikarium“. And it is far not only from Africa, but also from the sea itself.
Honestly, I couldn’t imagine much in terms of an oceanarium or an Africanarium. My imagination was able to recall only the faint memories of my childhood, when my parents and I visited a small dolphinarium with trained dolphins by the Black Sea in Constanta. My curiosity and expectations were all the greater.
Wroclaw is a city of water. There are countless streams and lakes. The city boasts one incredible number. There are reportedly 303 bridges on several river branches of the Odra River and its smaller tributaries. Water is just everywhere. Maybe that’s why there is an exhibition built here, in which there is a lot of water. To change salt water. Afrikárium itself is a rather monumental building surrounded by rather impersonal steel plates. The entrance to the pavilion is protected by a kind of moat, a shallow reservoir, more than a hundred meters long and about twenty meters wide. Although quite industrial, a mallard duck brought its young out on several flower islands in the middle of this decorative body of water.
Wroclaw is a city of water. There are countless streams and lakes. The city boasts one incredible number. There are reportedly 303 bridges on several river branches of the Odra River and its smaller tributaries. Water is just everywhere. Maybe that’s why there is an exhibition built here, in which there is a lot of water. To change salt water. Afrikárium itself is a rather monumental building surrounded by rather impersonal steel plates. The entrance to the pavilion is protected by a kind of moat, a shallow reservoir, more than a hundred meters long and about twenty meters wide. Although quite industrial, a mallard duck brought its young out on several flower islands in the middle of this decorative body of water.
I consider myself a nature photographer, especially birds. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this joy very much here. I found the bird pavilions in the phase of total reconstruction, more precisely their construction from the ground up. On the large bodies of water that the local ZOO has, as otherwise available in the city of water, there were only a few species of water birds in a not very photogenic environment. However, the wonderfully lit water tanks and aquariums, whether with artificial light or the sun’s rays, provided plenty of suitable photographic objects.
The bird photographer’s heart pounded a little more in the nearby area of the Japanese gardens. The several-hectare area of typical Japanese wooden or stone garden buildings was full of flowering rhododendrons and other shrubs bursting with diverse colors. Of course, there could be no lack of water. Both flowing streams and a relatively large lake, in which all the flowering beauty was reflected. Here it was possible to observe and photograph the Gray Heron, Mallard or Green-footed Booby in the immediate vicinity.
A trip to Wroclaw was a very pleasant experience. Despite the fact that the heart of a bird photographer has not completely recovered here. However, the aquatic environment in the local Afrikaaria offers very interesting opportunities for any photographer. It is definitely worth planning a visit to the local zoo sometime next time.
