Could a day out at Drusillas Park finally be the much-awaited recipe for total child exhaustion? Helen Geraghty and 10-year-old Tiffany gave it the “wear them out” test.

The plus side about having children that wake you up by bouncing on your bed at 6am is that you can always get up early and beat the traffic.

While the rest of the world is still asleep, you can head out from Kent for a day at Drusillas, off the A27 near Eastbourne.

By the time you’ve twirled around the numerous roundabouts, following the many brown signposts with a picture of stag on, you’ll have beaten the traffic and be there as the gates swing open.

This outstanding zoo, combined with a no-holds-barred children’s visitor attraction, has some new arrivals this year. One, little Shola, an adorable baby lar gibbon, can be seen as you arrive at the car park. Inside, you’ll find tiny delicate black and white colobus monkey, Makena. Down at the lagoon, Fandango, the new baby flamingo, is practising the traditional flamingo lifecraft of standing on one leg.

New acquisitions include a robust iguana, named Winston and two red pandas, Tibao and Mulan, who were asleep in the trees when we passed by.

At Lory Landing, you can feed nectar to small Australian parrots, called rainbow lorikeets, while they sit on your hand.

There’s a programme of keeper talks and feeding times and we found out lots about the inhabitants of Lemurland, where you walk through the enclosure of ring-tailed lemurs, all soaking up the spring sunshine.

Tiffany loved the Zoolympics Challenge, which is a series of fun activities dotted around the park and the neighbouring farmyard. We weighed ourselves and filled in a little booklet, to find that Tiffany weighed as much as a beaver. I weighed as much as a warthog, which was good to know.

She found out that she could pull as much weight as a big cat but not as much as a carthorse. At the hanging bar, she could hang on for four minutes – a monkey can for four hours. We found out how high we could jump compared with kangaroos and how far we could see, with a periscope in the neck of a model giraffe. We took turns to stand in an old phone box to find that Tiffany and I could each shout at over 100 decibels, only half as loud as the sound of a blue whale.

We failed miserably to stand on one leg for more than two minutes. A flamingo stands on one leg for hours, apparently to reduce heat loss by keeping the spare leg tucked under its feathers. And we failed to compete with the zoo’s penguins, who can hold their breath for 20 minutes.

Maybe the biggest triumph of the day was when Tiffany was the only person who could climb to the top of a slippery metal bell tower and ring the bell, so competing with the climbing skills of a lar gibbon, one of the best climbers in the animal kingdom. Note to kids: Warm boots and no socks is the trick – it makes your feet sticky.

There are also some extra attractions here for an additional charge. As I only had one child with me, the money involved wasn’t too bad but if taking a few, you would need to lay down the law on these before arriving. Tiffany had a good long go on Vertical Limit, where a young man was teaching children the basics of rock climbing. And she seemed to sneak a few extra goes for her money on Penguin Plunge, a large inflatable slide. Steering away from the “additional charge” area, we found the soft indoor play area Amazon Adventure and the Go Bananas adventure playground, with zipwire, old-fashioned swing boats. I was a bit daunted when, already three hours in to the visit, Tiffany said: “There is loads to do here, can we do all of it?” We stayed until closing time.

As for eating, don’t count on Drusillas for a hearty breakfast on a chilly morning. At the Explorers Restaurant, a self serve cafeteria, we shared a sausage roll which we warmed up ourselves in a microwave. I think it is maybe more of a lunch place. There is also fast food at the Oasis Cafe, which opens on to the play area. We learned that packed lunches are the norm here and there is a large green with proper picnic benches, where you can eat them. At bedtime, I just slipped downstairs to get Tiffany a drink and when I came back up minutes later, she was fast asleep.

Total child exhaustion? Ten out of ten.

Drusillas Park is just off the A27 at Alfriston, East Sussex. The attraction opens at 10am and last admission is 5pm. Prices vary considerably depending on the day of your visit but as a guide, admission for a family of four on a weekend during May is £63.99. Visit www.drusillas.co.ukor ring 01323 874100.