Safari Adventures at Longleat

You Baby Me Mummy

11 years ago

On the Sunday before Baby turned two, we were invited to Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire. Mr Hubby and I have been to Longleat a couple of times before, but we were very excited to see what Baby thought. It was great to have Baby’s Aunty come with us too.

Unfortunately, we were not blessed with good weather as you will see from the pictures. However, we were determined not to let the rain dampen our spirits.

First stop was Jungle Kingdom, where you can walk through the Meerkat enclosure and see a great variety of animals. One of our favourites was the Binturong, which is sadly an endangered species.

Baby insisted on calling them Cats!

From here, we walked through the Monkey area and found the beautiful Lorikettes. Baby and I were brave and went into the aviary, unlike Mr Hubby and Aunty J. As soon as we went through the door, the beautiful birds landed all over me (even on my head!). We hadn’t bought food for them, so they quickly moved on the couple beside us who had; Baby loved it though, such pretty birds.

The Animal Adventure area was our next destination. This is a really child friendly area housing Skunks, Rabbits, Parrots, Butterflies and lots more. The Parrots were just chilling waiting for their show when we arrived.

As 12pm struck it was time for the train ride. It was Baby’s first time on a little train and she was very keen to get going!

She loved it and spent the entire journey hopping between all our laps and gazing out of the window. She had missed her nap slot, so she decided she really must have some milk instead, while she admired the view. It was such fun, even the wet and wind couldn’t spoil the magic of this train ride.

Our tummys were telling us that it was lunch time, so we made our way the Tropical Storm Cafe, which is in the centre of the village area.

If I am honest, lunch was a little disappointing. My lunch was fine (Lasagna and chips) and Baby seemed to enjoy her kiddy sausage, chips and peas (well as much as she ever does anyway!). The problems lay with Mr Hubby’s £9 burger and chips, which was very dry and quite cold, which meant he ended up leaving a lot of it. Baby’s Aunty had a jacket potato and beans. She also left half of hers, as it was watery and not very tasty.

Soon the animals were calling again and we headed to one of our favourites, the Penguins. Despite her protestations we had put a very tired Baby back in her pram, which was a shame, as there was a great little walk through in the Penguin section.

The stingrays were awesome and they came out of the water to touch your hand. I also had a quick spin throughout the Butterfly enclosure.

It was time for the Boat Safari, which we were really looking forward to; Baby had never been on a proper boat, but does love water. On the walk there she fell asleep, so we let her have a brief nap, while we waited for the boat to arrive.

Then it was time to set off and as the boat cruised the lake, Sea lions swam alongside. Baby was utterly delighted and kept saying our names, while pointing to the Sea lions, just to make sure we had all seen them. It was wonderful to see the amazement on her face, certainly one of our best moments ever.

Boat fun

After the wet and windy boat ride, we needed hot drinks to warm up so we went back to the car and Mr Hubby got drinks for us on the way back. When we were all cosy in the car we headed for the safari drive through. As you go in you are given a CD, which talks you through the various enclosures and gives you some interesting facts about the animals.

We were a little sad about not seeing any Giraffes, as they are a big hit with all of us. We did, however, get up close and personal with the Ostriches!

Here are a few more of our favourites that we met along the way.

We had such a fabulous time at Longleat and would love to go back again on a sunny day! There was so much that we didn’t get to cover such as the Maze, Mirror Maze, Postman Pat village and lots more.