I am nearing the end of a two week holiday off work. We didn't really have much planned, just to relax. But after a few days we decided we had relaxed enough and decided to take a day out at Longleat Safari Park.

The Ferry takes half and hour to cross the Solent and from Limington it is a fairly straight forward drive getting up to Longleat. We headed towards Salisbury as we have been there several times and know that Longleat is just outside and very well signposted from Salisbury.

Some people might recognise the name from the TV show all about Longleat House, the animal keepers and Lord Bath himself.

Longleat was the first Safari park to be opened outside of Africa. With 8,000 acres of lakes and woodland no wonder it was voted "Family attraction of the year 2002".

The Safari Park Drive through!
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You obviously need a car to be able to drive around but a bus is available for people who arrive without a car. They do specify that motor cycles and soft top cars are not allowed to enter the Safari Drive through. There is also a warning when entering the monkey enclosure do to car damage but they let you know you can bypass this section if you are worried about how much damage will be done to your car.

Coming out of that enclosure into the next, you see the flamingos chilling in a little lake and follow the road round into the monkey field. The monkeys were everywhere and so were the remains of various cars windscreen wipers. I drove in with some caution as I didn't fancy running one over or being ambushed by a group! They looked so cute and we stopped to watch a couple of babies play fight. As we drove on we were blocked in by other cars which were covered in monkeys! All of a sudden, three were on the car staring at us, they then proceeded to chew on my screen wash dispensers, sit on my wing mirrors and rip the rubber off my back wiper!!! Other cars had a lot more damage so I think we got off lightly.

The main building itself is pretty large 13th century building which houses a lot of antiques and portraits. I can't really comment on a lot of the bits inside as I don't know a lot about antiques etc. There are a lot of pretty rooms and it is certainly worth a look.

This attraction is strictly for children so we didn't go into this but it did look impressive for the children. As it is a large wooden castle with the usual mazes, rope ladders and climbing frames. You cant really see a lot from the outside but it does look big.

Now we managed to catch this train as there are certain times that it departs through out the day. There is a 4 o clock one which we caught (meaning we missed the parrot show in pets corner), and to be brutally honest we weren't impressed. The train itself was very cute but it took you through what looked like a building site at first and then through some woods (all not very interesting!). It did end up coming back over the lake with the seals in but you couldn't see any seals from the train.

This was my absolute favourite part of the day. We didn't have to queue long to get onto one of the Safari boats which go out into the main Lake which is home to the Seals (sea lions), Hippo's and Gorilla island. The boats leave every 10 minutes and the trips are only 10 minutes long. As you leave on the boat the seals follow the boat along and jump out of the water. They really come up close especially when you are able to buy some fish (50p) to feed them! They loved it! The hippo's were, as a lot of the other animals, just chilling in the depths of the water but we did manage to see a big yawn! You get to stop alongside gorilla island and have a look at the two residents that are strolling around. They looked so funny just like out of Planet of the Apes!.

Now I will confess to something quite embarrassing! A main reason we didn't have time to go on some of the attritions was that I got lost in the maze! My boyfriend and I went in together and he thought it would be funny to run off and let me chase him. Well it was funny at first but after I lost him and couldn't hear his shouts anymore I started to get frustrated. The maze is really quite big and the hedges are really high. He was out in no time and called me to see where is was. I had already been in there 30 minutes and wasn't getting anywhere (except back to where I came from!) I started to get really stressed (added with the fact you cant smoke in the maze I was getting really irate!) Another 20 minutes passed with me walking round in circles and getting angrier by the second and I decided I need to have a cigarette (hoping they will see the smoke and come in to reprimand me and take me out of this torturous place!) No such luck, no one came but I felt a lot calmer. Another 30 minutes passed and I hear my boyfriend calling me. He had to drag me through a bush to get me on the right course! Otherwise I would have never got out! There are apparently boards that you can lift if you are lost that give you directions but I only saw them around the exit! Typical.

Thanks for reading x x x x x