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Oakeley’s trip to Longleat

Recently, Oakeley’s House went on a trip to Longleat safari park. At first, we expected the journey to be much longer, but with the help of Mrs Jeffery’s chocolate treats, we were beginning our tour before we knew it. Our first stop was the giraffes and we all got out to take some photographs and have some fresh air.

Then we started the audio CD, in which Kate Humble lead us through several animal enclosures. We saw lions, rhinos, wolves and camels. But best of all were the tigers, which were lying in the sun, looking like royalty.

When we arrived at the house, we all split up and explored the rest of the grounds. We were all given passports which meant we were allowed into practically every attraction. We all loved the infamous Longleat maze, in which the total length of the paths is almost 2 miles! Everyone got so lost, and we kept going in circles. When the teachers entered the maze, it turned into a race for who could complete the maze first... and, obviously, we won in the end. We were so proud of ourselves that we were awarded medallions that say “I completed the Longleat hedge maze”.

After that, we went into the Adventure Castle, where we enjoyed going on the death slide. It was so much fun! We also climbed the spider’s web, whilst other Fourth Formers amused themselves on a roundabout.

We then went into the Animal Adventure attraction, where we saw some household pets and, in contrast, we all took a turn to hold a tarantula!

The weather was perfect for the safari boat and that was our last trip before heading back to the bus. We watched the sea lions being fed and we were escorted around gorilla island, on which their resident gorilla, Nico was posing in the sunshine. He is a silverback western lowland and has Sky TV in his house!

It was a great day and all the year groups thoroughly enjoyed it!

By Emily Wright and Flo Moore

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