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Day trip to Longleat Safari Park. I have been at least three times before, once back in the seventies with my family and grandma and grandad (my main memory of that occasion is Grandad trying to stroke a camel, which promptly attempted to bite him), then on a stop off on a Lee and Herring tour, which I only remember from a photo of us sitting on a Postman Pat ride looking bored and with Stew (I think) smoking and then
on date 28 of my 50 dates (when I’d become a bit obsessed with Okapis) And now I have the shock of realising that last visit was over 17 years ago!
This time we had a car full of three generations of the family, with my mum and dad, mother-in-law, wife and kids all along for the ride.
It was a mixed trip - the safari park part was excellent from the beginning, when an ostrich pecked at the driver window the minute we were through the gates and some kind of antelope doing a spectacular wee right next to the car and then adding in a poo for good measure (this is definitely the one moment the kids will remember in 50 years time). A couple of monkeys climbed on our car, but the car in front was like a monkey magnet and had about ten monkeys on for a ride at some point, including a mother suckling a cute baby monkey and a couple of yobbo monkeys who ripped off a windscreen wiper and some trim. We had felt jealous of them being so popular with the monkeys when we were being shunned, so were delighted when they got this payback. The fuckers.
We saw a tiger facing off against one of the staff vehicles and got very close to the lions too and we fed some deer through the car windows. This was probably worth the high entrance fee on its own, which was lucky as the rest of the day was a bit of a wash out.
We got there early hoping we could get on the boat ride, but there was already a big queue which hadn’t moved much after 30 minutes and only one boat and we figured we wouldn’t make it on the next ride and so bailed out. It seemed a bit of a shame that there wasn’t a chance to book a time slot or at least some indication of how long the wait would be. If nothing else it meant customers of Longleat were not spending any money for an hour (and I know that money is very important to Longleat - open Cheddar Caves you monsters). We then spent £50 on sandwiches and crisps before heading to the safari.
After the safari the weather looked great and we left our coats in the car. But within five minutes it turned cold and then started to rain and you can’t really blame Longleat for that or for our daughter dropping her ice cream or my wife tripping over our son and nearly crushing him, but it felt like the park part was trying to tell us it wasn’t for us. We sheltered from the rain next to some otters (they were in a zoo, not sheltering with us) and then when the rain stopped, headed home.
Luckily the safari part was so good that the other disappointments didn’t really matter and we made the right choice to escape when we did. And it was really great to enjoy something with the family again. And to remember the fun we shared with those we have lost too.
An extra RHLSTP added (to test the live stream equipment) on the afternoon of the 29th August. Anyone with a live stream pass (and I believe all monthly badgers and gfs club members) will get this one for free.
Or come and see it live.
