A couple of weeks ago we took Lucas to Knowsley Safari Park*. The safari park is an impressive 5 mile wild animal safari drive as well as a walk round park like you would expect of a zoo. It is currently home to over 750 fascinating animals.
I really couldn’t have picked a worse day to go, it was pouring down to the point that we couldn’t see out of the windscreen driving there on the motorway. However, we didn’t let this dampen our spirits and were excited to see the animals up close.
As you enter the drive, there are 3 paying kiosks to minimise the wait of entering. You follow the drive round and can either turn left to the car park to walk around or continue straight to go into the safari drive. There are also some toilets that you can park next to if you need to use them before going into the safari part. We went round the safari first, my favourite part of the drive is seeing the lions walking so close to the car in their enclosure and couldn’t wait to see Lucas’ reaction. Unfortunately, due to some changes in the lion group they weren’t in their normal enclosure as they needed to be monitored closely. We still saw them but it wasn’t the same experience as I have previously had, I will check before we go next whether they have been reintroduced.
Due to the rain a lot of the animals were hiding, the deer were out in full force, nothing put them off! When we did spot the animals though, it was amazing, seeing them mixing together in a natural type habitat without any bars. We spotted a couple of Zebra, Rhinos with babies, Buffalo, Tigers and Camels. We didn’t go into the monkey enclosure as we were booked onto the Baboon Bus at 12. The safari drive took us about 40 minutes but would have taken longer if it wasn’t for the rain and if the lions had been out.
The weather cheered up and we parked up and had a bit of our picnic before getting on the Baboon Bus. The bus takes you around the full safari, not just through the monkey enclosure. The bus driver introduced himself and said he wasn’t a tour guide but would tell us anything he could. Turns out he knew pretty much everything there was to know, he was very knowledgeable and friendly throughout the journey, pointing out the animals and telling us about them.
Once we drove into the monkey enclosure they were jumping all over the bus, swinging from rope that hung from the bus. Lucas found it highly amusing, touching the window where the monkeys were. We spent about 20 minutes in the monkey enclosure and probably just under an hour and half on the bus.
Once the bus pulled back into the park we had a walk around looking at the other animals. There are some more lions in the park, we also saw sea lions, tortoises, meerkats, birds of prey, elephants and my favourites, the giraffes. There is a bat cave but we decided not to venture in their until Lucas is a little older. There are also fairground rides and a train that you can go on, we will definitely go on the train next time we visit.
We had a fab day out and even with the rain at the beginning it didn’t spoil it. There is plenty to see and do whatever the weather x
