Mike Laycock and family go to the zoo - and hope you can go too.

We watched spellbound as they rolled around in the deep mud, then slithered and slid up the muddy bank before playfully pushing each other back down the slope.

Never mind hippos enjoying mud, mud, glorious mud. These were baby elephants that were having the time of their lives, providing the highlight for my family of a trip last week to Chester Zoo. The animals were taking advantage of the preceding day's torrential rain which had turned part of their enclosure into a quagmire.

But the storms of last weekend had had a more negative impact on other parts of the zoo. We were greeted at the gates by a sign warning that the gales had brought down branches, forcing the temporary closure of the Zoofari monorail which normally takes visitors round the complex.

Not that this was going to stop us pressing on with our visit. Our trip to the zoo, the biggest in the North and visited by around a million visitors every year, had been keenly anticipated by all members of the family, young and old.

Our eight-year-old daughter had been most excited at the prospect of seeing the giraffes, which we found huddled indoors, with only one brave soul peering his graceful head out into the open to inspect the visitors.

Next door, the camels were also staying indoors, and their exotic but overpowering smell meant we passed them hastily by.

I was particularly looking forward to seeing the big cats. Such magnificent grace and power. We were lucky enough to walk by the lions' enclosure at feeding time. A keeper threw in huge slabs of raw meat, and the beasts tore them apart in front of us, while we were fed interesting titbits of information by another keeper. For example, that the lions went unfed each Friday to prevent their digestive systems clogging up.

The enclosures were encouragingly large, in line with founder George Mottershead's vow in the 1930s to build a new humane type of zoo without bars, and the animals seem well cared for.

The best living conditions of all are probably in Spirit of the Jaguar enclosure, which has been funded through a £2 million donation from Jaguar Cars. The only problem during our visit was that the vegetation was so thick that the Jaguars had almost disappeared from view. But that won't put us off making a return visit to Chester Zoo in the not-too-distant future - when, hopefully, we can ride on the Zoofari as well.

Updated: 10:04 Saturday, November 02, 2002