I drove down to Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire today with Sue & Emma and had a great day out.  It wasn’t cheap though, with tickets that covered all the attractions costing £22 each, plus food etc.

In 1966, Longleat caused a revolution in the world of zoological collections by becoming the first location outside Africa to open a drive-through Safari Park. 

 

The areas of the park we visited were:-

East African Game Reserve
As in Africa, a herd of Rothschild Giraffe and Grants Zebra graze happily together in this 25 hectare reserve, plus Llamas and Camels.

Flamingo Valley
Where a group of Chilean Flamingos live. They live alongside African Spoonbills, Sacred Ibis, Carolina Ducks and White Faced Whistling Ducks.

Vulture Venue
(The name for a collective group of vultures is a Venue).  White Backed Vultures can be seen free flying in their large aviary.

Monkey Jungle
The monkeys share their reserve with Indian Water Buffalo and Black Buck, but I opted to bypass the reserve as I wanted to keep my car in one piece!

Big Game Park
The Southern White Rhinoceros herd in the Big Game Park. They share their reserve with Ankole Cattle, an ancient breed of cattle domesticated in Africa and recognised by their huge horns which can reach up to 2m across.  Bactrian Camels and the rare Père David’s Deer and Scimitar Horned Oryx may also be seen in this reserve.

Deer Park
Fallow Deer have been on the Longleat Estate since the 16th century, contained by deer fencing erected by Sir John Thynne in 1540.  The Fallow Deer share the park with a herd of magnificent Red Deer.  We purchased pellets of food at the entrance to the Deer Park and fed the Fallow Deer from my car.

Tiger Territory
Perhaps one of the most impressive animals at Longleat.  Unforuntately for us, they were all asleep as we drove past them.

Lion Country
Longleat is world renowned for its lions, making these two enclosures the most anticipated areas within the Safari Park. The two prides are kept separate as the lions are naturally territorial.  As with the Tigers, they were asleep as we drove past.  Very disappointing.

Wolf Wood
I was pleased to read that, despite their reputation in fairy tales and folklore, there are very few recorded wolf attacks on humans. I also read that this enclosure can be very evocative as the wolves stalk around in the dappled light of the trees.  No stalking was taking place when we got there though - yes, you guessed it, they too were asleep.  I think they had all been fed recently and were having an afternoon snooze.

After going on safari, we parked up and had lunch in the restaurant under Longleat House.  Substantially completed by 1580 and now home to the 7th Marquess of Bath, Longleat House is set within 900 acres of magnificent ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland with a further 8000 acres of woodland, lakes and farmland. We toured some of the rooms in the stately home and visited some of the attractions in the grounds.

Thankfully the weather remained dry with sunny spells.