So on a sunny Saturday morning Kylie and I picked up Harry and Sally (yes like the movie), and we headed out to Longleat Safari Park, loaded with coffee and bacon baps, for a day of awe inspiring adventure. We arrived at around 11am and decided we would head straight to the ‘drive thru’ section (thank you company car). With our audio guide CD for assistance we drove through to the first section which was made up of different deer /ibex type things that I can’t remember, you’ll know why as I get into the highlights. Next up were around 10 of each of zebra and giraffes, just majestically strolling around a huge paddock.
Following this it was strictly windows up and no opening of doors as we were heading into ‘Monkey Island’, now an organised person would have taken off or taped down window wipers etc but we just weren’t that organised despite the large sign saying ‘YOUR CAR WILL BE DAMAGED’. As we rolled in we could see some monkey in the distance and when we finally came around the corner there were monkeys EVERYWHERE! Immediately about three monkeys jumped straight on our car, two of which made short work of my rear window wiper, deciding they would take the whole thing (again why didn’t I think of that before entering). Feigning defeat we decided to roll with it as it was just so much fun and windscreen wipers can be replaced... with a story of local hoodlums or as my mum used to say local monkeys. We eventually moved on when we saw some poor bugger’s roof racks on the ground and one particularly evil eyed chap jumping on the car carrying an aerial.
The next section (still windows up mum) was filled with Ostriches, Rhinos, Camels and some viscous looking cattle. Again so amazing to drive through these animals. There are always rangers patrolling in their Jeeps so you don’t even consider the threat of a charging Rhino. We reluctantly moved to the next section consisting of varieties of deer. We even bought some feed as this was a windows down moment where you could park up and feed. I was thankful to leave this section unharmed as there were some pretty serious antlers rather close to the car (I can feel Dad squirming whilst reading). We drove past the flamingos and an elephant before we came to the serious action.
It was time for the predators! First up was the largest of the felines, the tigers. Casually four of them were roaming around literally metres from the car. This was followed by two sections of lions, one of which was the older and grumpier males and females, followed by a pride of around 15 younger lions. The pictures really tell the story, I feel there are only so many ways to say awesome.
Next up was the cheetahs, the only large cat which can’t retract its claws, followed by a wolf pack. We were just in awe of it all and decided we would definitely do another drive through later in the day.
Arriving back at the main house and grounds, we parked up the car and headed out for more animal adventures. First up we took a boat cruise to look at some hippos and silver back gorillas and watched as people fed the sea lions fish. We then went on some very dated motion master styled rides thanks to the two ladies insistence, a defining low of the day, before venturing into a bat cave where the bats constantly whoosh past your head as you hear their little sonar clicks.
We then went through the butterfly farm and into the handling section, which the girls were excited about, but instead of bunnies we were greeted with a python and a tarantula. Hamish and I both held the snake, and Kylie to her credit touched it with a finger, before Kylie sent Sally running from the room when she tricked her over to the tarantula by saying it was baby bunnies. I held this little chap for a while and could still feel him for a while after that.
To calm everyone down we ate some burgers and chips before the next stop the lemurs, where you could walk through their little sanctuary. One kid beside us nearly grabbed one before Kylie called out to its mum who was oblivious.
We jumped back in the car eager for round two of the safari. We were quickly surrounded by monkeys again but cleverly Hamish and I had taped down the remaining front wipers, just to show how smart we were. Yip you guessed it, that viscous little bastard found the tape quite interesting so he bit it and the wiper clean off. Sigh. Eventually I decided the car couldn’t take much more, well I mean much more that I could explain to a garage.
As it was getting late in the day all the big nasties were getting much more active, probably waiting for food. At one stage we had around seven lions walk past our car and rub it as cats annoyingly do to you in a hallway, not to mention an awful lot of teeth and claws assessing our tyres. The wolves were far more up for it as well and our car was completely surrounded by the pack, either smelling the lions or the dead squirrel I hit on the way there.
We finally pulled ourselves away and limped back to London. A truly amazing day with some very ‘special’ friends.
xx
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