Bristol Wow Gorillas + Zoo Gardens 2011

event :: Bristol Wow Gorillas + Bristol Zoo Gardens 2011
date :: 13th August - 27th September 2011
location :: bristol, uk

[1] As a celebration of the 175th anniversary of Bristol Zoo this year, an exhibition of 61 gorillas statues was held throughout Bristol city centre and the greater area. Each of the statues have unique colorful designs (each of them were design by Bristol local artists) on them and the fact that they were placed on different location made finding them like a big treasure hunt event ;) This one is called Bradisson, located at the Radisson BLU Hotel.




[2] There were a total of 61 gorilla statues on public display. Most of them being located at the Bristol city centre. We went to 53 locations & missed 8 due to some of them being located quite further away from Bristol city. The furthest was 'Guerilla Tourist' located at Birmingham Coach Station. This one is called 'Banana shirt', located at Victoria Rooms near the Triangle and also close to where my University is.




[3] Among the first gorilla that we took our picture with was this 'Gorisambard' gorilla located at Clifton Suspension Bridge. We came upon this gorilla when we were walking to/back from the Bristol Hot Air Balloon Fiesta launch in Ashton Court. I asked hubbykun to take a picture of me with it, but we never planned on tracking the rest of the gorillas because it was during the fasting month.




[4] The gorilla statues were actually on display for almost 2 months but we were busy with other activities before that. Then Ramadhan comes before we found out that they would be taken away after. Among the first people that we heard were doing the gorilla hunting were Farah/Imran. In the time when we were staying at their place while they were away, we didn't have much to do. Plus hubbykun looked at other people's albums and somehow managed to coerce me into doing the hunt with him over the weekend. (Note: This is 'Little fluffy clouds' at St Mary's Redcliffe).




[5] We also chatted with Kak Wan & family during our maize maze visit together and she told us that Sofea was making it her project too to track down the gorillas. On the way back from the maize maze, we headed to the Flowers of Hatch, but they went to Cribbs Causeway shopping mall instead. We didn't join them because but we weren't interested then. There were two gorillas in Cribbs Causeway area: 'Sunny' near John Lewis and 'Telula' inside the Curry's superstore. (Note: gorilla 52 and 53 in video).




[6] The map on location of the gorillas were available on the Internet and hubbykun printed a copy of it to help us track them down. But we found a better map at the from Temple Meads train station. The gorilla here was named: 'Goram'. It was funny that the gorilla was placed in a very compact corner, right next to where the ticket check counters were. So I had to walk really slow in the video :P




[7] We took a total of 4 days to complete the whole hunting: 1 day on foot at central city centre area, 1 day by bus at location further away, 1 day the weekend after the first day of the hunt by car because we were renting car to go someplace else too, and finally 1 day at Bristol Zoo Gardens to cover the gorillas we missed. This was at Narrow Quay/Anolfini and the gorilla was named the 'S Express', fashioned like a train head ;)




[8] We managed to track down 37 gorillas on the first day of our feat. Mostly beause the gorillas were near each other. A very fruitful but tiring day! I remembered we were so tired and we decided to skip cooking and just eat out. The day was sunny which made my throat really parched. I didn't eat much though because so I drank loads of water after the breaking fast time. (Note: 'Grievesy' gorilla at College Green).




[9] Of course I was the ever reliable map reader and planner on which locations to attack first. It was a good thing that we did the tracking, because the gorillas at placed at attractive landmarks that we never knew before. One such example was this charming old church that is no longer in used. It was located at the Temple Church Garden. Loved the open-air concept, where the windows and roofs of the church were removed. The gorilla here was named: 'Tensor' and there were colorful electronics components like diodes/transistors printed on it (electronics is not really my favourite subject, but even I must know this much right? hehe)




[10] The walkway of church garden were really beautiful. Can imagine that it'll look magical with snow ;) I'm ashamed that we never knew this place existed, because we always walk along Victoria Street heading to Temple Meads train station or Hertz car rental. I guess we were so busy getting to our destination that we never bothered to enjoy the view/explore the surrounding area more. Admittedly, even though the church is next to main street, the view to it is slightly blocked by trees. I walked near here alone recently and I was admiring the view and smiling in remembrance of our fun gorilla hunt experience ;)




[11] This is 'Mondo' by Evening Post. The body was a collage of makeshift newspaper cutting. In actual, this trip was video-centric. much more interesting compared to pictures I think ;) hubbykun and I both agree that this is officially our personal favourite video thus far.




[12] Pirate gorilla at a super-busy pub. It was a bit embarassing posing for a photo and video shot here. The gorilla was placed right smack in the centre of the pub outdoor seating area. Because of the sunny weather, there were so many people enjoying drinks outside!




[13] These are new statues at Watershed on 3 adults pingu + 1 kid pingu. So cute! reminded me of 'Happy Feet' animation, one of hubbykun's favourite. (Ramos, the mexican pingu was really funny & cute. i want one!). coincidentally, there was also an Arsenal FC truck near here that day. Some games were available for try outs and counters were open to become the FC member. We were both not football enthusiasts, so we didn't join in the funtivity.




[14] This is the Bristol City FC gorilla. The gorilla was placed inside the stadium compound. We came here on a Sunday and the stadium was closed! I was devastated thinking that we had to come another day. But while we were comtemplating what to do, a van suddenly stopped by and open the gate. I think it was probably a maintenance engineer. We asked if we could come inside for a quick shot with the gorilla and he kindly allowed us to! yay! when we were about to leave, a boy arrived with his father to take a photo with a gorilla too. he was even wearing a full Bristol City FC uniform. How cute was that? ;)




[15] I came across two purple gorillas at Watershed when I went to the Department boat ride (as part of teambuilding activity within the research teams). At this time I wasnt aware that the gorillas were a special event placed by the Bristol Zoo. I thought it was because of the near launch of 'Planet of the Apes' movie.. akakaka very wrong assumption that is!




[16] Because it was the school holidays season, there were many people also doing the gorilla hunt. I remembered that we had to wait quite a but to capture this gorilla at the Colston Hall. Kids came not just to photograph the gorilla, but seemed rather taken with climbing on top of it :P




[17] The ski gorilla at St Nicholas Market. This area is very touristy, with local stores selling decorations and trinkets. Although items sold here could be a tad expensive. My friends introduced a charming little Moroccon restaurant near here recently. The food was good, but we were all saying that we wished it can spicier :P




[18] Besides the big gorilla statues, there were also around 33 mini gorillas on display. This miniature gorilla with colorful buttons pasted on it it at the Coach Station and the only one that we found by accident. The map didn't point where the mini gorilla locations were. We didn't plan to track them too, seeing that we had our hands full tracking even the 61 large ones.




[19] After the time duration when the public gorilla display was over, they were placed inside the zoo temporarily for 4 days before they were auctioned away. Hubbykun told me that on Thursday after 4pm, the Zoo offer a cheap £5 entrance where you can view the gorillas while also enjoy the zoo itself. We took this opportunity to cover the gorillas that we missed. At the front of the zoo, the gorilla that used to be placed in Birmingham was put on public display. hubbykun left early from work that day. There was a huge queue at the zoo entrance.




[20] Even though it is our 3rd year here, the first time that we went to the Zoo. I heard that Bristol Zoo is quite popular (probably because it is quite old?). Anyways, I've only been to another zoo in the UK i.e. the Edinburgh Zoo back during my MSc days/when I was still young & single :P In my opinion the zoo there is much bigger in size and have much more animal varieties.




[21] My favourite section of Bristol Zoo was the penguin & seal coasts. I especially enjoyed watching the seal.. We spent a long time here and even came here twice after we finished exploring the other parts of the zoo. There was a baby seal that decided to fall asleep while it was in water. So it was floating around, while other seals were making a racket zooming in and out of the water. It was sleeping peacefully away (check out our video). Everyone that passed by were commenting on how cute it was. I also liked when the seal jump out of water and slide inside the room. So cool! Before this, i always enjoyed penguins more because I think they are super cute. but after my real experience gazing at seals, I find that seals are definitely much more enjoyable to watch!




[22] The zoo also has a gorilla park, but it wasn't open to the public that day because one of the gorilla mom was giving birth :( There is a kangaroo statue, but none of live ones in sight? :P Besides that, there is also an adventure park inside for children, where you need to pay an additional £4. it looked super interesting and challenging. you are tied to a rope and walk through many obstacles high above ground.




[23] According to Farah, this 'Doris' gorilla on 'The Matthew' ship was especially hard to capture. It is placed on at the head of the ship and because the ship is moving around carrying passengers, she needed to wait a while to capture it. We went to the harbourside, but the Matthew wasn't around and since we were limited on time, we decided to leave & catch it at the Zoo instead. All the gorillas has now been auctioned off and the money will be used for vital gorilla conservation work and for local Bristol charity. Hubbykun told me the most expensive was the gorilla at Clifton Bridge, auctioned for ard £19k. All for a good cause ;)




[24] finally our video! enjoy! ;) If you can't see the video, click right here.












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