Having left the Cornwall Road and followed the signs, my wife, daughter and I, soon arrived at the entrance to the impressive example of an Elizabethan prodigy house, the seat of the Marquis of Bath, and I wished I had visited earlier.
Longleat House dominates an enormous estate of approximately 1,000 acres of landscaped parkland and 4,000 acres of woodland, and accommodates a Centre Parcs Holiday Village, as well as all of the attractions around the house, including the first drive-through safari park outside of Africa. This safari park opened in 1966, and is home to over 500 animals including giraffes, monkeys, rhino, lions, tigers and wolves and the latest additions, cheetahs in 2011.
The safari tour is an eclectic mix of large and small animals, and there are also places where you can get out, or at least have your windows open, although there are enclosures where you must have all the windows closed.
It starts at Wallaby Wood, where you can get out and view the red necked wallabies, and then goes through African pygmy goats, warthogs and then ring tailed lemurs, who show amazing agility on their rope swings, before getting to the larger animals.
Having cleared those zones you start seeing the more iconic African animals namely Rothschild giraffes and Grant’s zebras. I will never stop marvelling at the gracefulness of giraffes as they lollop over the ground, and to see them at such close range is a privilege. After driving through Flamingo Valley and Vulture Venue, you reach the enclosure which was my daughter’s favourite, the Monkey Jungle. Here, as you drive through the enclosure, your car is greeted by the monkeys who clamber over your car and take great interest in your windscreen wipers and washers. If you don’t fancy having your car examined at such close quarters you can skip this part of the tour, but my advice is take any aerials etc. off, and just take a chance, as it is great fun watching the monkeys clamber on to the cars, and if you want them on your car, my tip is flick on your windscreen wipers occasionally as this intrigues them. We spent about 20 minutes in the Monkey Jungle, and my wife and daughter didn’t want to leave it!
After visiting Anne, an Asian elephant and the Big Game Park with rhinos, ostriches and camels, you can then take a break by feeding the deer out of your window by buying a cup of feed before the main attraction of the big cats.
The big cats are the highlight of the safari, and their enclosures are well segregated with high fences and double gates to enter and leave through, but between these enclosures are the home to two prides of African lions, tigers, cheetahs and Canadian timber wolves, and it is a rare privilege to be so close to such majestic animals, all from the comfort of your car.
The safari takes approximately 2 hours, so leave enough time to fully enjoy the experience and make sure you have a cd player as you are provided with a cd to play when you first enter Longleat, giving you informative commentary in a really accessible way, perfect for providing information to both children and adults.
Longleat is not just a safari park, with visitors also being able to visit the house and also travel on the Half Mile Lake Boat and the Jungle Express Train. The lake boat takes visitors past the enclosure of Nico, the oldest gorilla in captivity, and over to a lagoon, the home of two hippopotamuses and a colony of gorillas. On the way back the boat is followed by a number of Californian sea lions who you can feed from the side of the boat. Bags of food are on offer for £1, but be warned, the food we were given were two fish heads, so what my daughter thought would be a lovely experience, was soon given over to me, and we had great fun watching and listening to the grateful sea lion who was lucky enough to catch his lunch from us!
There is also a zoo with stingrays, penguins and a number of other smaller animals, and a number of rides for smaller children, so makes sure you have allowed enough time to see all there is to see. I am so glad I decided to make that turning to Longleat and my family and I spent a lovely and fun-filled day at one of England’s premier attractions.
Tickets can be bought online in advance, where you can take advantage of discounted prices, so for further information, please visit www.longleat.co.uk