06 April, 2008

Longleat Continued

Longleat Safari Park #94
So anyway, we had finished the (excellent) Safari park section of Longleat, and then drove past the extremely impressive house to the car park behind (which was actually pretty full, despite being there firmly out of season), we wandered around taking in a bit of the gardens -
Longleat Safari Park #58
Longleat Safari Park #57
Longleat Safari Park #73
- (very nice indeed) and then past the mini electric railway -
Longleat Safari Park #59
- and into the mini-butterfly house/gift shop (it's about a 60-40 split)
but actually that's a bit of a relief as huge butterfly houses can be a
bit draining (humidity-wise) especially dressed, as we were, for
indeterminate weather -
Longleat Safari Park #61
Longleat Safari Park #64
Longleat Safari Park #66
Longleat Safari Park #71
- and from there on to the Safari Boat -
Longleat Safari Park #75
- flanked by noisy Sealions -
Longleat Safari Park #76
- past invisible Hippos -
Longleat Safari Park #86
- and finally to the famous "Gorilla Island" where there now lives but one, extremely old Gorilla (who apparently is now of the equivalent age to a 90 year old man), and yet they still torture the poor old fellow by hiding his food all over the place -
Longleat Safari Park #78
Longleat Safari Park #81
- then into "Old Joes Mine" where fruit bats fly free (and right past you using their incredible powers of echo location) a quite extraordinary experience -
Longleat Safari Park #84
- however, flash photography was banned, so the only way we managed to get a decent shot was by me using my green focus assist lamp and Flyingpops to shoot low light, click the picture if you want to see them close up (however, they look like hamsters with wings) -
Longleat Safari Park #85
- next we went on the Gorilla Adventure simulator ride -
Longleat Safari Park #87
- which made Flyingpops feel distinctly unwell, and then on to the house itself, which has a zero photography policy (probably wise, considering the taste in art) -
Longleat Safari Park #92
Longleat Safari Park #90
Longleat Safari Park #89
- we stopped for a spot of lunch, and then headed back to the hotel, the plan to eat in Farley-Hungerford later on... ;)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Great shots mate, especially the bats.

Anonymous said...

Loving all this stuff

-Mr X-

Anonymous said...

LOL - Thanks Tommo