SPOOKY SPECIAL AT THE ZOO

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SPOOKY SPECIAL AT THE ZOO
November 19, 2010
by Colin Clarke
The Isle of Wight Gazette



WHERE WOULD you go for a paranormal investigation on the eve of Halloween? Carisbrooke Castle? Appuldurcombe House? Osborne House? Quarr Abbey?

Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong – it would be the Isle of Wight Zoo, if you joined the special spooky search organised by VIP (Vectis Investigations Paranormal) on the night of October 30/31. But it was a strangely suitable location.

Firstly walking in the dark through a zoo is scary enough and arriving at the large bonfire outside the ‘cave’ gave a spooky safari air to the whole experience.

Leading us over towards the enclosures, Zoo owner Charlotte Corney called to her majestic tigers by name and they came loping over to make an investigation of their own. “What were all these strange humans doing in their neighbourhood after dark and why were they flashing lights in our eyes?”

To see the big cats come to Charlotte’s call was most endearing, as well as exciting, as she told us that she had known them all since they were tiny cubs and had even hand reared some of them.

Inspection over and the cats lumbered off into the darkness as the group of sixteen were led into the cave to sit at a long table bedecked with spooky skulls, flashing orb lights and Halloween themed candles – all very atmospheric.

A three-course meal, which included the choice of sausage hot pot or vegetarian lasagna, was accompanied by a film made by the VIP team about their exploits and a discussion about our personal brushes with the paranormal.

In discussions it transpired that two ‘believers’, who had brought their ‘doubting’ partners with them, flanked me at the table. The lady to my left did not see a conflict between her paranormal beliefs and her Christian faith, although I wondered if her fellow parishioners would agree. At the head of the table a well seasoned paranormal sympathizer and alternative practitioner was dressed as a witch – and had even brought her own pendulum, which many use to ‘sense’ a visiting spirit.

Names of those on the adventure I will not reveal, suffice to say that some preferred to remain anonymous. The paranormal topic often opens a floodgate of unsympathetic responses.

After eating the hearty home cooked meal we were led to the remains of the old fort that surrounds the zoo. Palmerston built this in around 1830 to ward off invasion by the French.

Much of the original building has been lost but the large room we entered had housed two large guns. It had been reported that a young boy had been ‘sliced in half’ accidently when one of these guns was being moved.

Into the candlelit room and the bewitching began. A sensor across a door area was triggered and Linda from the VIP team could sense a presence in the side room housing the PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) pump that had pumped fuel to France during the war.

Apparently the spirit that had been encountered was of a man who had drowned accidentally at sea, according to Paul from VIP. “There is also the spirit of a woman here but he cannot communicate with her,” he added.

One of the guests later reported being overcome by the spirit of a young boy – an experience that she found very upsetting.

Trigger items had been placed in front of one of the old gun emplacements to see if the spirits might move them and a computer that played white noise that could pick up spirit communications if you listened hard enough. I could make out the words “Help Me”, but it could have just been an aural aberration.

Later two séance style tables were used to try and communicate with the spirits but by this time I was beginning to wilt, although to the question “When did you die?” it replied “1967” – quite a contemporary ghost I thought.

Leaving at around midnight I later heard that the party formed a ring and the spirits had pushed people who chose to stand in the middle. Spirits had also pushed one of the VIP team off of a chair.

My feeling for the spirits, if there were any, was that they perhaps ought to be either left in peace or allowed to make their way onwards. But it made for an very different way to spend a Saturday night and at a very reasonable £20 per person a sizeable donation towards the building of new enclosures for the big cats in the Zoo was raised – the VIP team donated their services for free to the zoo in return for allowing them to stage the event.

Charlotte Corney said: “On the way out we asked everyone and they said they’d like to do it again and it’s good that the evening stretched over the bewitching hour of midnight.

“When we were stood in a ring toward the end of the evening my colleague Sonia and I had our backs to the Pluto room and the door opened and shut twice and there were no other doors open to cause a draught. Sonia and I looked at each other and laughed.

“It was a huge success. Some people had more intense experiences than others and I certainly feel a little bit more uncomfortable about being around the fort late at night, especially as the nights are drawing in.

“One man said that he was happy to do a sponsored sleep over at the fort to raise more money for the tiger’s enclosure because he was such a skeptic, which was very generous of him, but I don’t think I’d want to.”