Mostly, I’ve found, things don’t always go quite as one expects, for good or for bad, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health. The unexpected happens, a piece doesn’t fall into place, a wrong turning is taken, something wrong is said, a trip doesn’t quite work out as planned, a drink is spilled, a plan goes ‘wrong’. We’ve had many such experiences in the past few months and, to paraphrase a quote from a recent film, most things don’t work out quite as we expect but sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff. The following few posts are some recent examples. Let us know about yours.

After a snack and a coffee we drove back to the safari entrance to join our pre-booked VIP safari  tour. After a cup of tea while we waited for the other VIP tourers to arrive we climbed into eight-seater zebra-painted Longleat Land Rovers. We were in a Land Rover with just two other adults and our guide, Richard. This was going to be fun because Richard could drive pretty much where he liked, the wrong way around the enclosures, stop and take short-cuts where he wanted, and over the grass to get us right next to the animals. As Richard drove between the giraffe in their paddock they were clearly bemused, lowering their enormous necks to peer in on us. Now, of course, we could also safely enter the monkey enclosure and we quickly confirmed that we’d made the right earlier decision not to enter the enclosure in our own car. The rhesus monkeys just attacked every single car and we watched them damage many cars in some horror from the safety of our 4×4. First the monkeys would bite or break the windscreen wipers and washers, then they would climb on the roof and bend or break the car radio aerial. Some of the monkeys had learned to jump up and down on the back window wiper until it snapped and others had the job of removing the reversing sensors from the rear bumper which they did with considerable dexterity. We sat and watched the monkeys do their work and there was not a thing the adults in the cars could do about it. We saw the children inside the cars squealing with delight. They all thought it was hilarious, of course, but the adults knew they were in for a hefty repair bill. Richard said, and we agreed, that he had no idea why people continue to take their vehicles into the monkey enclosure despite the large warning signs at the entrance. 

Then on to the rhino, amazing creatures chewing safely behind railway-line fencing, then on to the big cats. First, a jaguar calmly tucking into a loin of something then, my favourites, two magnificent tigers patrolling their enclosure together. Richard positioned us so they both walked right by us on their late afternoon circuit. Amazing. Then into the lion enclosures and we saw and watched two separate prides. One male lion, relaxing next to a tree, completely ignored us all gawping and photographing him. These big cats are remarkable, seemingly benign but hugely powerful wild creatures and we felt honoured to be sitting and watching safely beside them. All the animals seem to ignore the vehicles, they’ve seen them all before, I guess, and we were able to drive up to within a few feet of them all in our 4x4s. This was the way to do the Longleat safari park and actually, we thought we probably got just as good a view of the animals as on a real safari and so much better to see them in the open than through the bars of a zoo cage. We drove back to the start where we had left our cars and where we ended our second Longleat safari of the day but this one had left us really pumped up with what we’d seen. Richard was very knowledgeable about the animals and their management at Longleat and he made our second safari educational and much more enjoyable. We got back into our own cars and drove back to the house for our included VIP guests cream tea in the cafe. As we still had an hour or so to wait before a special ‘spectacular Longleat fireworks display’ we had time to tour the great 430+ year old Elizabethan house and found it to be one of the most beautiful and impressive stately piles  we have ever  visited, a real treat. The current, 7th, Marquess of Bath, Alexander George Thynn, is an English politician, artist and author, he of the flamboyant velvet kaftans, berets, wild hair and beard. He and his two ‘wifelets’ (one a former Bond girl) apparently still live on the third floor. Lady Bath, Hungarian-born actress Anna Gael, whom Alexander married in 1969, lives in Paris for most of the year, visiting Longleat only on condition that the wifelets are absent. It was Alexander’s father, “Harry” Bath, the 6th Marquess, a storybook Lord who hero-worshipped Hitler and, desperate for money, came up with the idea of opening the house to the public and turning his grounds into the world’s first safari park outside Africa. After his father’s death in 1992, Alexander sacked Christopher, his brother, as estate controller and evicted him from his home. In 2010 the Marquess passed the management of Longleat and neighbouring Cheddar Gorge, which they also own, to his son,  Viscount Weymouth, the rather less flamboyant but seemingly no less complex Ceawlin Thynn. In 2013, Ceawlin married Emma McQuiston, a much  younger half Nigerian and half-sister of Iain McQuiston, husband of Lord Weymouth’s aunt, Lady Silvy Cerne Thynne (daughter of Ceawlin’s paternal grandfather the 6th Marquess of Bath by his second wife). Caewlin’s family boycotted the wedding. In 2014 the viscountess gave birth to the couple’s first child, John Alexander Ladi Thynn. In late 2016, the couple’s second child, Henry Richard Isaac Thynn, was born by surrogacy at a private clinic in West Hollywood. All pretty normal by Thynn family standards so far then. We didn’t meet any of them but Emma, the viscountess, is much in evidence in pictures in the house kitchen cum shop where she sells expensive luxury treats apparently cooked in the house kitchens….Apologies, I digressed, back to our day out.… The fireworks were great too so it actually turned out to be a quite wonderful day despite our hesitation after the first safari. The VIP tour is expensive but worthwhile and without a doubt, is the best way to see the animals of Longleat. Highly recommended.