Safari in Kent




Fancy Glamping

Shelley is now 7 months pregnant and so I thought I would organise a family summer holiday that wasn't too far from home.  We went Glamping at Port Lympe Wildlife Park in Ashford http://www.aspinallfoundation.org/elephant-lodge/elephant-lodge.  Geographically speaking this is 50 miles from home, but in our mind's eye we were in Africa.




Shelley still looking elegant

It belatedly occurred to us that this would be our last family holiday without children for many years, and what did we choose? A zoo!  Surely an adult-only spa or gambling in Las Vegas would have been more appropriate.  But isn't it great that we all love animals, when group activities so often involve one or two people enjoying themselves whilst the rest look on indulgently (and bored)?  Motorcross, Mastercheffing, shopping, golf and art galleries for example. 




Ben and Killian

The highlight of the holiday was our Sundowner game drive, when the park was closed to the public and it was just the six of us, Andrew (our ranger) and the animals.  Andrew's knowledge and enthusiasm for wildlife was inspiring, and his South African accent and stories of safaris back home added a touch of the exotic to our evening adventure.  At sunset Andrew pulled the jeep over to where there was a beautiful view of the park and the Kent countryside beyond, all the way down to the coast at Dungeness.  We popped a bottle of fizz and toasted Ben's new job.


Brad multi tasking

Liz feeding a rat to an hyena

I enjoy my creature comforts too much to be wild about camping, I mean, it's difficult to get by without a hair dryer and straighteners isn't it?  To balance up the nature loving weekend we took a detour to the designer outlet at Ashford to indulge my inner retail desires.  I made some purchases in Baby Gap -  nawhhh, they're gorgeous.