FORTY years ago, Longleat was the first place outside Africa to open a safari
park. Lions? In Wiltshire? What madness, fulminated an editorial in The
Times: “This is one of the most fantastically unsuitable uses for a
stretch of England’s green and pleasant land that can ever have entered the
head of a noble proprietor. The wildest follies of the past pale before it.”
It would all certainly end in tears: “The fecklessness of a minority of the
great British public knows no bounds and who will deny that sooner or later
a fatal accident is likely to occur?”
But it didn’t, and despite all the controversy, the park was a roaring success
from day one, with cars crawling bumper to bumper to see the 50 lions, all
extras from the film Born Free. These days, Longleat, in Wiltshire,
is home to more than 40 species, as well as a range of other attractions,
from glorious Longleat House itself to Postman Pat’s Village, via a steam
train, safari boats, a huge hedge maze and a butterfly garden.
In 2005 it had a record-breaking 716,000 visitors, feckless or otherwise, many
of whom know all about life on the estate from the long-running BBC series Animal
Park (presented by Kate Humble and Ben Fogle). They love the fact that
the animals have some 900 acres landscaped by the great Capability Brown in
which to roam, rather than living cooped up in a zoo.
Our safari started off gently with the herd of Rothschild giraffe and Grant’s
zebra, which were grazing happily together, along with some ostriches, pygmy
goats and Shetland ponies. My pair of small wild animals, Holly and Rory,
got the chance to handle an ostrich’s egg (it takes about 40 minutes to boil
one, apparently), and learn some fascinating facts from signs dotted about
the observation deck. Now they know that ostriches pee on their legs to cool
down, and that there are more chickens in the world than there are people.
But I could tell that the children thought this was just a warm-up for the big
event and were keen to get back into the car, wind up the windows and move
on to the monkey jungle. This part of the tour is optional and it’s
hilariously obvious why. Roof aerials and windscreen wipers are nectar of
the gods for rhesus monkeys, and the Ford Galaxy in front of us was stripped
of its trim in double-quick time.
For a moment I thought the little devils were going to ignore our shiny big
Volvo and leave two extremely disappointed children, but fortunately there
were lots of little leaves tucked round the bottom of the windscreen. Three
monkeys scampered up to enjoy this al fresco salad and did a quick cabaret
on the bonnet, hanging on until they saw juicier offerings on the car
behind. After checking for damage (there were just a few pawprints), we
followed Ford Galaxy man, who was bashing his trim back in place and looking
fed up, into the Big Game Park, home to the impressive Southern White
rhinoceros herd, which sauntered nonchalantly across the road. But it was
the next enclosure that was the real hit for the children because this was
the only place where they could feed the animals — beautiful fallow deer.
“Can we give them ice lollies?” said Rory, hopefully. Sadly, no, but the
cups of brown pellets were wolfed down by the soft-faced creatures that
thrust their heads through the car windows.
After this stampede, the lions, tigers and wolves were almost an anti-climax,
especially as the tigers were nowhere to be seen (Longleat’s pair are
getting on a bit), all but one of the lions were having a postprandial
snooze in a heap and the wolves failed to howl in the prescribed manner. But
the joy of Longleat is that there is always something else to do. After
lunch, Holly and Rory got to grips with tortoises and rabbits in Pet’s
Corner, took a leisurely trip on the dinky steam train, spotting the
inhabitants of Gorilla Island on the way, then ran riot in the Adventure
Castle with its bridges, nets, slides and swings. After a quick visit to Old
Joe’s Mine and its colony of Egyptian fruit bats, and a wander round the
Mystical Garden filled with fairies, hobgoblins and an excellent smoking
dragon, we were exhausted — and there was still so much we hadn’t seen.
Happily, the Longleat passport ticket allows you to go back any day until
the end of the season (November 5) to tick off the attractions you didn’t
manage the first time.
We headed back to Woolley Grange, one of those wonderful family-friendly
hotels that cossets adults and small children in equal measure. While I had
a cup of tea by the pool, Holly and Rory played in the Woolley Bears Den
crèche — the perfect enclosure for my own mini-beasts.
WHERE TO SAFARI IN ENGLAND
Knowsley Safari Park, Merseyside There’s been a baby boom at Knowsley — more
than 50 births recently, including two white rhino calves, baboons and
wallabies. For younger children, Mizzy Lake Farm, with its Highland cattle,
llamas, goats and guinea-pigs, is popular, while creepy-crawly fans will
enjoy the bug house. There are bird displays several times a day, a sea lion
show and amusement rides.
(0151-430 9009, www.knowsley.com). Adults £10, children £7.
Woburn Safari Park, Bedfordshire Woburn’s drive-through safari includes
tigers, lions, giraffes and antelope, and on the Navajo trail bears and
wolves run together as they would have in Britain 1,000 years ago. Woburn
also has talks and demonstrations as well as VIP tours. You can Breakfast
with the Carnivores (£240 for up to four people) and watch the lions and
tigers as they are let out into the reserves, or go off-road with a guide
and get extra close to the animals before touring the deer park (£260 for up
to four).
(01525 290407, www.woburnsafari.co.uk). Adults £15, children £11.50.
Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, Kent
Port Lympne includes Palace of the Apes, the world’s largest family gorilla
house, the world’s largest captive breeding herd of black rhino outside
Africa, snow leopards, wolves and red pandas, tigers, rare Barbary lions and
hunting dogs. Visitors walk around the 400-acre park or take a trailer ride,
and if you really want the full-on African safari experience, book a sunrise
(with full English breakfast) or sunset (with supper) trip in one of the
park’s safari trucks for £25 per person (no reductions for children).
(01303 264647, www.totallywild.net). Adults £13.95, children £10.95.
Combe Martin Dinosaur and Wildlife Park, Devon Set in 25 sub-tropical acres on
the edge of Exmoor, Combe Martin has a great mix of exotic animals and other
attractions. Children love the animatronic dinosaurs, including a spitting
Dilophosaurus, and they can also take part in lemur encounters and animal
handling sessions. The park has a tropical butterfly house, the UK’s only
wolf research centre and fun attractions such as the Tomb of the Pharaohs
and the Earthquake Canyon train ride.
(01271 882486, www.dinosaur-park.com). Adults £12, children £7.
West Midland Safari Park, Worcestershire The African Big 5 are the main
attraction at West Midlands in its four-mile all-weather safari, and new for
this year is the Buffalo Boma exhibit. The park is also hot on reptiles and
creepy-crawlies and its new twilight cave is home to a bachelor group of
rare Rodrigues fruit bats and a breeding pair of Madagascan giant jumping
rats.
(01299 402114, www.wmsp.co.uk). Adults £8.99, children £8.99.
NEED TO KNOW
Longleat: Passport tickets: adult £19, child (3-14 years)
£15, 01985 844400, www.longleat.co.uk.
Woolley Grange Hotel: Double rooms from £190, half-board.
Children are accommodated free and pay only for their meals. 01225 864705,
www.vonessenhotels.co.uk.
For a free colour Family Fun map and stickers, call 0845 223 8977, or visit
www.enjoyengland.com/family.
