Skip to main content

A weekend with a difference


What an amazing weekend we've had, with such lovely memories to treasure. To be able to
experience a conservation park such as Port Lympne out of hours and see these rare and endangered animals at all times of the day without crowds of people around is a real privilege, particularly when you can scoot around the park and take private short cuts in your golf buggy - the highlight of the trip for some!


Our weekend didn't start particularly well, with the normal stress that comes with any Drinkwater trip. Glenn is not a patient man when it comes to getting 2 kids and various bits of luggage into the car, and of course it required more than one attempt before everyone definitely had everything they wanted, where they wanted it! We set off and quickly hit traffic - and so inevitably we ended up needing to stop for a comfort break (for me - rest of the family never seem to need to stop) and to feed 2 increasing snappy girls. I made the decision to take us off the route to Maidstone - hmm, not the most salubrious of places.


The first place we went into (mainly as it had a toilet) turned out to be a vegan café - ha ha not for us - but we quickly managed to find somewhere which fitted everyone's needs and it was fine - as I said it would be. Feeling slightly better we then went back the car via a fraught trip to Matalan to buy cheapo trainers - this because half way down the M3 the kids admitted they hadn't picked up their shoes as per the request and had only flip flops with them - arghhhhh!


We arrived at the Park at the perfect time, no need to hang around and we were immediately whisked away for welcome drinks to the Treehouse Hotel clubhouse, a lovely little oasis with on-tap marshmallows and a permanently burning fire pit to toast them on - cue 2 girls weekend's made.


Our tree house suite was lovely with amazing views across the Romney Mashes to the sea with the added bonus of a grazing Rhino in between. We unpacked and then set off to explore as most people were leaving. We were able to spend ages with the gorillas, I then fell in love with the Tapirs (unfortunately despite them being perfectly suited to living in the woods at the bottom of our garden we cant have one because they are endangered, shame!)


We fell asleep to the sound of the lions roaring and woke to the Howler Monkeys off in the distance. Before breakfast we toured the park, seemingly the only visitors around, to see everyone getting breakfast. We watched with hearts in our mouths the gorilla baby getting dragged around the enclosure by a slightly unpractised Mum - first baby, like all of us at the 3 month stage, still getting the hang of it - and then onto the cheetah's, tigers, wolves and more rhino. It really was just fab.

We also had brilliant weather, and to top it off we had the Olympics with gold seemingly now coming thick and fast, along with some really fantastic silvers - Jess Ennis-Hill in her come back and Max Whitlock picking up 2 gold medals in Gymnastics, not to mention the track cycling which is just electric. Seems it's not just us though. The girls got up this morning and Abi said '"Wasn't Becky James amazing?" Given this was after they had gone to bed we asked how they knew - turns out they had worked out if they lay at the right angle at the foot end of Izzy's bed they could see the living room TV - so they had watched this and all the men's sprints from there! Give them their due - they had clearly watched carefully as they gave a very detailed account of what they'd seen - lets hope its inspired them!


So we headed home today inspired by the conservation work of The Aspinall Foundation (all of which started when John Aspinall decided the monkey, tigress and 2 bears he'd acquired / rescued from the Harrods pet store in the 1950's and 60's couldn't continue living in his Mayfair maisonette!!) and inspired by the Olympics.  We also acknowledged a few home truths to bear in mind for next time:


1) Glenn has never been good at queuing or waiting, and it's not going to get better with age
2) Safari parks are magical after hours - much more so than when full of everyone else - and we should always have a golf buggy at our disposal if we visit one
3) Despite the whole family complaining in advance that they'd rather stay at home than be dragged off to these places, actually it's all worth it when we get there.


Must remember that last one in particular! Lovely, lovely weekend.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas...

I was sure I write the blog last week.... but, it seems another 2 weeks have flown by and now we are staring down the barrel of the Christmas holidays and the end of the year! Currently it's all about Doug and what a star he has proved to be so far. He has now been with us for 3 weeks and he is (so far, I keep thinking at some point it will change) a pretty chilled out puppy. As a second dog he has been thrown in at the deep end and has been to Sunday lunch with Alan & Sarah (which he loved), socialised at home with friends and their dogs, met babies (he loved Elsie) and started to go for walks. The walking has been a bit different to our previous approaches with new dogs. In the past we have ventured out carefully, making sure that our new baby only walks a short distance so they can experience all the new sights and sounds. Doug's first walk was after Sunday lunch last week, just him and 8 other dogs for bout 45 mins - he loved it! In our defence we didn't let him wal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Naked gardening!

How wonderful it is to be of an age that when the sun comes out you just strip off and get naked.  Izzy is definitely still 'get naked whoever is around'. Abi is now a little more conservative and does at least check who might be watching, but yesterday there was none of this as they both enjoyed the early May bank holiday sunshine and a spot of 'gardening' (otherwise known as 'mud-pies').  Watching them as they played on the patio, then roaring around the garden chasing each other just reinforced again how lucky we are to have the house and garden we do. So 2 days of playing together, inseparable as ever, followed by today where Izzy was invited to go to Marwell Zoo with Aran, on her own!  Poor Abi was devastated that she hadn't also been invited ("Why didn't they invite me Mummy, it's not fair!"), and even Izzy was a bit put out ("Don't they realise we are sisters Mummy?"). So after many tears and suggestions they get u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cough, cough

Izzy - can't do a photo without rude finger gestures It's fair to say that the last couple of weeks have been rough. I managed to get the cough Mum had a while back and it has been horrible! Both Dad and Glenn seemed to get a very mild version of it but Mum and I got the full dose and I can safely say that it has been a stark reminder of just how bad a viral infection can be. It also illustrates the whole Covid experience - some get it worse than others. For me it has meant that for over 2 weeks I have had the worst cough which has left me unable to sleep properly. I still can't sleep lying down fully, and have to be propped up on pillows on my back which is not my favoured sleeping position! It has also meant that Glenn has spent the last 10 days in the spare room because I have been coughing so badly he is unable to sleep in the same room. Thank goodness we didn't all have it - we'd have shaken the house to its foundations! It has also meant that I have been exhau...
Post a Comment
Read more