Longleat and Bath

Another Bank Holiday on 31 May. So we took advantage of the extra time and made a trip to Bath to stay with my cousin Mark and Kerrie and family. It is great for us to get out of the big smoke of London every so often. On the Sunday we went to Longleat in Wiltshire, most well known for a safari park but also has a very grand house and kids attractions like a maze and adventure playground. We had a fantastic time there.



This is Longleat House, photo taken by Phillipa. Bit of history about Longleat here if you are interested. Beautiful drive from Bath through Wiltshire to Longleat. The Longleat estate is very big and also accomodates fishing which was happening close to where this photo was taken. I was watching one bloke and he was using a rod without a reel - and the fish must have been his pet!! When he caught the fish he did a Rex Hunt, well you would if it was that easy!



It was a semi dillema on what to do first, the safari or the adventure playground etc. For Ben's sake we did the safari forst as he fell asleep last time they were here, and a good decision that was as well. Oh, this is a Llama with Giraffes in the background.



Another Llama.



The Longleat safari park is reknowned for it's monkey population. They have a reputation for stripping cars i.e. rubber strips, aerials, loose number plates etc. We escaped unharmed but I have spoken to people who were not so lucky, and Mark did threaten to hide bananas in my car boot!! We also saw a bmw that broke down right in the middle of the monkey enclosure.



A monkey sitting in top of a car next to our car. Looks like he is interested in nibbling on that aerial....



This monkey jumped on our car bonnet and then walked up the windscreen to sit on the roof.



And next were the Rhinos. Same as you'd see in the zoo. Don't suppose they change a lot? At Longleat they did have a guy sitting on a tractor and when the rhinos approached the road (remember there is a steady flow of traffic), the tractor would be used to move the rhinos away. The tractor has a massive metal plate at the front bit like a snow plough.




The next enclosure contained Deer. This was fun. Had to stay in the car but we were allowed to feed the deer with some sort of pellet food.







The next enclosure (and most popular) contains the tigers and lions. Bit of a let down as they were both asleep. I still say a live chicken would have fixed that.



Just look at this !!! Danger, what danger ? A pride of lions....wish I had that live chicken.



This is the maze, not many of these around the world and Nic was looking forward to this the most. More info here and here (this guy suggests buying the postcard to help - I saw only lady who did that and she said it was not helping one bit). Also saw people sneeking through the hedge - damn cheaters!! We certainly had to put our thinking caps on. The aim was to reach the centre, then take the obligatory picture (this one) then make your way to the exit (which took a bit longer). This picture only shows a quarter of the maze.



Then we ventured into the adventure playground catering for a mix of age groups.



Jes whizzing down the slide.



Jes and me walking along one the walkways.



And then there was the butterfly house. Phillipa took Jes in to look at the butterflies.



Apparently the butterflies were very tame...



One of the last things to look at were the Pets.





Nic was very braving to hold a snake!



Outside Longleat house just before leaving. We drove back to Timsbury that afternoon and had a takeaway Chinese for dinner. The next day we went spent some time in Bath at a kids playground, followed by a nice pub lunch just outside Bath.

Then drove home back to London. Made it in good time about 2.25 hrs.



Beautiful picture of Jes, Ben and Nic.