Woburn Safari Park

After flying for 13 hours, finally the plane touched down Heathrow International Airport at early morning, around 6.30 am.

The only person who get to sleep considerably well on plane was William. Sure, we were in the bulk head seat and I let him slept on the floor in front of us (though the stewardess warned me not to, in her long-black face).

As for Vincent, KS told me he only slept for 2 hours or so. The whole night, he watched 2 movies and played various games continuously. I was puzzled how he could manage to load those games all by himself since KS was not sitting next to him to help. Then I knew the old English couple who sandwich him helped him to get through all this. KS told me this couple even 'spoon feed' him pasta. What? I almost choked while I was drinking water. See, I really didn't understand why this couple won't want to switch place with KS? KS think they love kids so much that they actually like to have Vincent sitting between them.

Heathrow immigration is still as suck as 8 years ago when I have my 1st encounter with them. Those officers were like interrogating the "terrorists". They don't care a single bit to clear the long long queue in front of them. Thank God we have small kids tagging along this time, that we could enjoy a short pass. Still, we were interrogated for about 5 min. Imagine, they spend 5min to approve 1 entry. That means only 12 visitors can get it through in 1 hour. And there were like only 4-5 counters opened in the early morning. How frustrating !!

After collecting our baggages, we walked straight to the car rental counters. Nobody was there in the "Enterprise" desk, so KS called them to inform our reservation number. They asked us to wait for their shuttle bus to come, in about 10 min time.

As soon as we walked out from the building, we felt the chill air right a way. Although it's summer time there, the weather is fluctuated around 17-23C. Just nice to me. Just pray hard it won't rain every time, everyday.

After we got the car by swiping card to pay for £310 (inclusive rental fee for 8 days + max coverage of insurance + full tank of fuel) at the Enterprise car registration center, we drove off to Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire. The time by then was around 9 am.

It was raining all the way, not too big, but not too small too. Luckily, we won't need to get out from the car for our first stop, Woburn Safari Park.

Woburn Safari Park is located in Woburn, Bedfordshire. It is Britain's largest drive-through safari park. At Woburn Safari Park, visitors drive their own vehicle through the animal enclosures which gives them the opportunity to view the animals at close quarters.

Notes :-

The entry fee is expensive. Adult : £13.5 ; Children (above 3) : £10.5

Currency exchange rate is £1 : HKD 15.6

(Compared to year 2000, £1 : HKD 10.5 What a huge difference. Cry...)

Woburn Safari Park first opened in 1970, established by the 13th Duke of Bedford on the grounds of his estate, Woburn Abbey, as a means to help improve the financial position of the estate and restore the Abbey, which had fallen into disrepair during the second world war. He is quite a smart business man, isn't he?

The visitors can also visit nearby Woburn Abbey which has been home to Dukes of Bedford for almost 450 years. There are outstanding collections of paintings, furniture and antiques in the hall, with pleasure gardens and a beautiful 3,000 acre Deer Park in its surrounding compound. Boy, how luxury!

Anyway, we didn't buy the ticket to enter the Abbey, cause it charges additional £4 for each adult and child. Furthermore, it was raining outside there and we were all very tired. Just forget about it.

So, we just drove through the Safari Park free and relax. From time to time, I wind down the windows to snap some photos.


At first, it was nothing too fascinating, unless we could see dinosaurs running around, haha...


Some kind of goats were staring back at the visitors when they stopped by to stare at them.

I like the setting of the park though. It's very safari feel. Also, the good thing is, there isn't many trees or thick bushes for the animals to play hide-and-seek with the visitors. For sure, we can see them with 100% guarantee.



At first, we saw the animals from far. But not long later, we got excited when we saw a group of zebra walking towards us. They walked nearer and nearer to the road side, didn't even bother to stop to see right and left for cars. They just crossed the road like no body business. Boy, this is the first time we actually gave way to the zebras.




They walked to the other side of the road....

I think they just feel the grass on the other side of the road is more sweet and juicy. Feeling itchy, zebra?

Photo hunt : See the elephant? Yes, there it is.

This cow got such impressive horns. What happen to its body? Got burn?


Inside the park, there are some playgrounds, restaurants and gift shops. But we adhered to the warning signboard seen everywhere : Do not get out from your vehicle! Actually, we were really too tired to want to walk in the rain, ok.



They boys were getting very excited to see this tiger from near. When I wind down the window to snap a quick photo, Vincent kept yelling at me to close the window fast.


Truly safari feel.

This wolf look so similar to the dog we see at home. Next time if I see this kind of wolfy dog, I will stay my nose out from it.


Bear, playing with logs over there for fun. Although we pull our car aside the road, hoping to see more actions from it, it disappointed us. Come chase us lah...

Ok ok, we saw some actions now. A ranger car was chasing after the lions who invaded other animal's territory. To be honest, I was kind of expecting a furious fight between the beast and the man...

But too bad, those coward lions just ran away without any defense. Anyway, it's still a pleasure to give way to them to go home first.

When they don't show the world their true colors, they are nothing more than a big cat.


Here's another one. Although they like to invade other animal's land, they do no harm to anyone.


The Duke of lion king and all of its wives and mistresses in their kingdom.

The park is committed to animal conversation and is involved in international breeding programs to help save endangered species. The park has had recent success in breeding Rothschild Giraffe, an endangered sub-species of Giraffe. They are almost extinct in the wild, but Woburn has many. Photo hunt : see that baby giraffe? Isn't it so cute?



The monkeys are very friendly. They like to jump up the car for joy ride too. How the boy wished they would pick our car. But who know, maybe they did sit on the roof of our car, just we have no way to find it out.

The rain by then was getting bigger. I didn't bother to wind down the window to snap photos anymore. After all, we entered the zone where small animals like squirrels, wild rabbits, monkeys are living there. Really nothing too special about them.

We drove some more till we reached the Abbey site, made some turns to the gift shops, then decided to leave the place.

While the boys and I were sitting in the car motionlessly, KS grabbed the map to look for the location of the Novotel hotel he had booked on-line before our departure. As a map-blind, I have absolutely no idea on how he found his way to the place. I just heard him cursed several times for the wrong and incomplete information that he had got on hand. After many turns at the round about, he said he found the place, YES. I checked my watch, the time was around 2 pm. Not bad.
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Before we checked in the hotel, we detoured to the nearby shopping mall to fill up our empty tummy. Everything seems bloody expensive there. Even though we just ate burgers at BURGER KING, it costs £4.99 (HKD78) per set. Well, what to do? Have to eat to stay alive.

Lastly, we bought some breads, fruits, a big bottle of fresh orange juice, 6 big bottles of mineral water before we drove to the hotel. Then, I quickly bathe the boys and cleaned myself while KS was studying map for tomorrow's adventures.
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By the time everything was done, it's 5.30 pm. We all were too tired by then, Vincent could hardly opened his red eyes anymore. So, we closed up the curtain and asked them to go to sleep. They didn't have the energy to object though they felt strange why they were asked to sleep when the sky was still so bright.
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We all slept like dead pigs that night.