A Rainy Boxing Day Safari! (Part One)

Happiness is being stuck in my son’s luxury car in heavy traffic inside the ‘Big Cat’ enclosure at Longleat on Boxing Day – with an ‘unopened’ tin of M&S shortbread biscuits close at hand! The rain dribbling down my firmly shut side-window – obscured almost all hope of seeing anything furry moving through the trees – apart from a huge tiger – WOW!

Stuck at a box junction.

The only other furry thing in full view all the time – was my ‘lovey’ hot water bottle dumped on the dash!I didn’t need my cuddlesome comforter with the luxury of a heated, leather car seat! We were very content despite being stuck on the Longleat ‘dual-carriageway’ for an indeterminable length of time. Although, I think they are going to have to consider turning it into a three-lane carriageway eventually – then four and counting – until one day there’ll be no room left for the big puddicats to roam – sounds like the real World on the other side of the high fence! We were happily entertained in our cosy cocoon listening to ‘Heart’, munching a whole tinful of bickies between three – and ‘People Watching’! It was like feeding time at the zoo – only us humans were the captives. Entering ‘Wolf Wood’ we observed a whole tube of ‘Pringles’ being wolfed down not by a wolf – but by a trapped occupant in a ‘passing’ stationary car; we undertook them! Thank god no one needed to use the ‘facilities’ – especially post-Christmas dinner!!!

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Moving swiftly on but in reverse…

Warning: Low Flying Bananas…

We’d earlier enjoyed a couple laps around the Monkey circuit. The monkeys are the stars of Longleat – they are so endearing and so naturally funny – that seeing any other wildlife has to be a bonus…the ancient trees around the park are pretty awesome and spectacular too.

Ah so cute – and so wet! I wanted to open the window and let ‘Monkey-Paws’ in the warm – I didn’t though!!!!

After a thoroughly entertaining drive-thru safari – we got to see some amazing wildlife on foot – a whole host of animals that came out after dark. Bears, owls, deer, wolves – in fact a whole ark-full complete with flood water!