Longleat Safari Park

We left for Longleat at 8:30am and picked up all the children en route. We arrived at the safari park at 11am and bought park brochures at the entrance for the children. Once we had parked up, we made our way into the park. The first place we came across was the bat cave. We were able to walk through the bat cave and come up close and personal with the bats. They were eating their lunch of fruit and flying past our faces. We had a lady that gave us lots of information on the bats and how they live. Kyeran seemed to have a good knowledge of this and asked lots of questions.

We then moved on to do the boat trip which introduced us to the sea lions, gorillas and the hippos. The children had the chance to feed the sea lions with small pots of fish and were rewarded with 4 sea lions jumping up out of the water alongside the boat. They were making noises and had their mouths open ready to catch the fish.

We saw the second oldest, silver-back gorilla in the world, sat on his own private island, soaking up the warmth from his built in heaters on the cold winter day. He was as still as a statue and barely acknowledged our presence. We also saw another gorilla, in a separate area, which he shared with his two brothers. He was roaming around outside and then sat to eat a banana. The hippos were barely in view as they were grazing in the field. Although hippos are dangerous animals, they are very people-friendly as they have lived in the park for 35 years.

After the boat trip, we wandered around the park, looking at various animals on the way. The boys had a go at feeding the multi-coloured birds, originally from Brazil, which landed on their heads, arms and shoulders to get closer to the food. One bird even attempted to drink Miss Lipscombe's coffee! Next we entered the reptile house and we had a chance to hold a snake and a tarantula. All the boys had a go and managed to overcome their fears. After the intensity of holding scary creatures, we let off some steam by getting lost in Britain's largest Maze and playing in the adventure playground.

Last on our list was the drive-through safari. We saw lots of animals, such as, lions, tigers, giraffes, elephants, deer, wolves and of course, the cheeky little monkeys. The boys became very excited about the monkeys, as they were jumping all over the car. One attempted to steal the windscreen wiper, about which Miss Lipscombe had a mini panic attack, ha! A scary moment in the safari was when the lion weaved in and out of the traffic and came right up to our window. Although a little frightening, it was a great photo opportunity for Miss Samuels. At the end of the safari, we headed home. We grabbed some food and dropped the children off at home. We arrived back to school at 7pm.