Hey there, it’s been a while! Sorry about that, its been a tough couple of months however the suns shining and I have a recent trip to share with you so i’m back 🙂
As you would have guessed from the title, this blog will be about a trip to Longleat that I recently went on. Why so spontaneous you may ask? Well that’s because that day my boyfriend and I were due to fly to France however due to the lovely traffic controllers (yes that is sarcasm) who decided to go on strike we couldn’t hence why we decided to do something different and go to Longleat.
I’ve always loved animals and for me going to the zoo allows you to get up close and personal with them however Longleat does things a bit different. Unlike other zoos in which animals are kept in enclosures, much of the time far too small, whilst you walk around looking at them through a fence, Longleat Safari Park enables you to go in with the animals and get up close to them. They have freedom where we have to fit in with them rather than them being in small cages. Obviously they are enclosed however there is 9000 acres of land in which enclosures are based so obviously it’s not small!
Longleat Safari Park opened in 1966 as the first drive through safari park outside of Africa and is home to over 500 animals. It is definitely a place to go as a day trip as there is so much to do.
Probably one of the most famous parts of Longleat Safari Park is the ‘Monkey Drive Thru’ where you can drive into the enclosure. It was such a good experience getting that close to wild animals and I think they loved it just as much as us due to the cheeky little devils always stealing things off of peoples cars. As you drive into the enclosure they have a sign full of number plates and hub caps etc obviously not surviving the visit!
Luckily apart from my rear wiper being jumped on and facing downwards instead of up, my little car survived. (and the rear wiper was easily fixed).
Below is Longleat House, every bit as grand as it looks! Unfortunately we didn’t have time to look around the house but the exterior was pretty impressive that you could guess what the inside would be like. We were blessed with the weather being gorgeous and so this helped make the day that extra bit better.
Whilst driving through the monkey ‘drive thru’ I managed to capture this photo on my camera (a Sony a65). This is probably my favour
ite one purely due to the expression on the little devils face, probably deciding which car to jump on next.
The Lemurs were very cute to watch, especially because there was a tiny baby lemur in between the family. Unfortunately it was too fast for me to photograph but it is snuggled in between these two photographed here.
The Tiger section was probably one of my favourite sections. This was the only tiger we saw but I just found it a stunning animal to watch. Basking in the sun as if it hadn’t a care in the world, he is obviously used to the cars. This photo was taken from a fair distance whilst I was sat in my car (for obvious reasons!) but my lens still managed to zoom in far enough and get the detail. ( I used a 75-300mm lense)
As much as it is an expensive day out, it certainly is worth it. There is so much to do and look at as well as Cafés and little shops to buy food, drinks and souvenirs.
Below are a couple more photos from the day. I did take a lot more however I don’t feel they are very strong. Hopefully you enjoyed reading this brief post and hopefully I won’t take as long to write one next time!
A x
