Picnic in the Park

Today was spent at Woburn Safari Park and we had a great time!

I really wanted to go somewhere for the day as Sophie wasn't working but it was difficult to find an attraction that we would all enjoy, wasn't too far away and didn't involve a lot of walking (Keith's hip operation can't come soon enough) so Woburn fitted the bill exactly.

I bought some picnic foods the day before and was up early making sandwiches and packing our coolbox. We decided to take the Passat as the monkeys at Woburn can be a bit naughty and I didn't fancy having the windscreen wipers ripped off my new car!

We did a safari tour first and it was very busy with lots of cars driving slowly through the different park areas. We saw rhinos, tigers, bears and wolves before moving into the lion enclosure and trying to work out if a couple of the lions were young males. This could have been the reason why a magnificent lion was caged all alone as we exited this part of the park - fighting perhaps?

Next came the monkeys and the children were delighted when one of them jumped up onto the bonnet and went for a short ride with us! Luckily he wasn't in a destrcutive mood! From the monkeys we moved into the larger part of the park and spotted giraffes, zebras and camels.

As it was now lunchtime, we parked the car in a quiet part of the picnic area and enjoyed our lunch which was delicious. I have no idea why people would pay through the nose for food in these parks when you can take your own picnic and a big flask of tea!

After lunch we spent a couple of hours wandering around the foot safari seeing marmosets, penguins, pigs and goats and the children took one of the Swan pedalo boats out onto the lake. We were all really enjoying ourselves but we couldn't help comparing Woburn to the Orlando theme parks (unfair, I know, but bear with me). It wasn't cheap for us to go for the day, about £64 for the four of us, and the park was very busy. What annoyed me was that in lots of places it was shabby and worn and it wouldn't take much to give the place a lick of paint and to keep the grass trimmed.  The penguin area in particular was dirty with flaking paint on the walls, scruffy vegetation and dirty water in the pool. The road through the car safari was full of potholes which could have been patched up and it just looked generally tired.

Some of the signs giving the public information on the animals were worn and faded and the indoor play area was alarming - in several places there was padding missing and it looked grubby and very tired indeed. In Orlando, the theme parks were spotlessly clean with staff going around and picking up litter and the places were beautifully maintained.

I just felt like the place needed a good shake-up...I have no idea of their overheads but surely as we go into Spring and Summer the owners could smarten the place up a bit?

Anyway, we still had a very good day and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves looking at all the animals and taking photos. On our second drive through the safari area a big black bear came walking towards us which made me stop the car pretty quickly! He ambled off to the side of the road but it was great to see him so close!

Back at home we watched the Grand National and I was pleased to see that my horse, Cappa Bleu, came fourth so Keith won a bit of his money back!