Yes, you read right! There is an actual place you can go just a couple of hours outside of London ( Port Lympne in Kent to be exact) to have an England Safari experience! ( England rather than English, because can you imagine going on a safari for all native English animals.. 😛 )
As someone who lived in Namibia for almost four years, I feel like Africa is part of my soul. I know that sounds cheesy but Southern Africa is my ‘happy place’ and so when I received an email from Secret Escapes ( not so secret anymore 😉 ) advertising an England safari getaway at Port Lympne in Kent ( a mere two hour drive from London) , I HAD to check it out.
I was initially worried it might just be some huge money-grabbing , glorified zoo (which I definitely wouldn’t want to fund)- But this couldn’t be further from the truth!
Port Lympne Background Info:
– Port Lympne ( set up in 1976) Reserve is a breeding sanctuary, the aim being to ensure the survival of various endangered species- putting the animals first!
– The Safari reserve runs alongside sister Wild animal park Howletts (set up in 1975) that all work alongside ( don’t quote me on this :P) the Aspinall foundation.
– The Aspinall foundation’s goal is to conserve endangered animals through breeding as well as reintroduction into the wild, to their natural habitat. The founder, John Aspinall, had a dream to reintroduce gorillas bred in the two parks back into the wild and has been doing so since the 1970’s ( his son has now taken over this dream since his passing).
– Their ‘ Back to the Wild’ initiative has released animals including 8 black rhino, 49 Javan langurs, 9 Javan gibbon, 11 European bison and over 60 western lowland gorillas back to their natural habitat, so far. ( Info taken directly from their website!)
..And basically, all the profits that they receive from the parks ( including day visitors, short breaks and animal ‘experiences’) go back into the charity and their conservation work. Okay , Conservation knowledge aside…
Here’s a bit of what you can expect and do at Port Lympne & their England safari experience :
Alongside ‘short break’ stays which include accommodation, meals, safari’s and free entrance into Howlett’s park there are also various types of outdoor experiences you can also choose from;
These include animal experiences – where you can get up close and feed various animals, ‘keeper for the day’ where you take on the role of a keeper ( there is also a ‘junior keeper’ experience for kids), as well as the Safari rides.
Alongside the ‘animal-based’ activities there’s a whole list of other activities you can get up to including:
A full day photography course, learning to survive in the wild with a bush crafts course, laser clay pigeon shooting, zorbing, archery, horse riding, croquet, badminton, drone flying, helicopter rides, hot air balloon rides…. I think you get the point 😛
And if you do decide you want to stay over then there’s something ridiculous like 11 different options of places to stay. I was instantly attracted to and fell in love with the idea of Giraffe Lodge- which has luxury, double bed en-suite tents with electricity, robes and a heater, for some proper ‘glamping’ 😛 Each tent is up on a wooden deck with a balcony, where you can overlook a watering hole. All the better to enjoy the England safari experience!
If that doesn’t sound like your jam there’s the Port Lympne Hotel itself, bear lodge for another glamping experience, wolf lodge alongside the wolf enclosure, rhino lodge, bear lodge, Giraffe cottage and Tiger Lodge ( where the living-room wall is basically a big glass screen looking into the tiger enclosure! eep!) just to name a few…
And my absolute favourite- the self-catering ‘Treehouse Hotel’, which basically looks like paradise but , unfortunately, is for four guests! ( it even comes with golf buggies to drive yourself around certain routes within the reserve).. Definitely planning on going back to try that out with another couple! ( and more of the experiences so I can report back to you on whether they’re worth it!)
OUR EXPERIENCE:
Let me start my saying that NOTHING can replace the feeling of seeing these amazing animals in their natural environments, in the wild. I mean it’s fairly obvious that an England safari experience isn’t going to be the same as one abroad- but it’s the differences that make is charmingly unique!
My partner and I arrived at Port Lympne just a few minutes before our 1:30 check-in time, signed some paperwork and then had a quick picnic while waiting for our first Safari ride, taking us to Giraffe Lodge.
The Safari itself was around 1.5 hours, where we learnt all about the animals in the reserve as well as lots of interesting animal trivia ( lots of which I didn’t know! :P), and this is where things differ to an African Safari- Unlike in Africa where the animals are anonymous, in Port Lympne every single animal has a name and a story and we get to know them all and I think that, in itself , is amazing. We learnt about Sammy the horny ( In both ways 😉 ) Rhino and Izzy the Cheetah with attitude and, unfortunately that’s where my memory for names ends 😛
We also got to meet one particular male Giraffe who was on a lady-timeout because he was doing his breeding job a little TOO well. Hilariously though we met him as he stalked the gates into the female enclosure hoping to time it so that when the safari trucks go through the gates , he can try and slip through ‘unnoticed’ and head back to all the women . Poor fella! ;P
After getting dropped off at Giraffe Lodge where we were welcomed with complimentary drinks at the Laapa, ( I don’t really drink so Rhys ended up drinking both of ours and I had some juice :P) while watching the animals from the balcony. Guests had the next couple of hours to either socialise in the Laapa or head to the tents ad relax. R and I chose to head to the tents and promptly had a nap ( what can I say. Wild!) , waking up in time to head back to the Laapa for our African braii/buffet style dinner.
As someone who struggles with social anxiety , I was a bit nervous that the Laapa seating comprised of one big table and one medium table for all the guests to sit around and I probably made quite the impression when post-dinner I sat silently at the table just smiling and nodding along to everyone else’s conversations like a loon, as if I actually took part in the conversation ( which i didn’t. I didn’t say a single word…. not even one! – Instead I responded to their conversation by saying ‘my piece’ quietly to R :P).
Dinner was amazing for both R and I as it had Braii style meaty options for him ( Including a Potjie cooked lamb stew which takes me right back to my childhood camping trips around Namibia where we basically threw everything we had into a Potjie and hoped we’d end up with something edible at the end :P) and plenty of delicious veggie options for me ( and by delicious, I mean DELICIOUS!).
Sorry for the phone pic – A sampling of the dinner selection
sample menu taken from their website
We ended the evening by sitting on our balcony and watching the animals ( just at Giraffe lodge we saw Rhino, Ostrich, Zebra, Wilderbeest… the list goes on) . There’s something quite disconcerting but also magical about seeing all these amazing African animal species surrounded by English country-side, with the sea on the horizon.
Day Two:
On Day two we had an early start for the 7h30am full english breakfast buffet before being picked up at 9 for the second part of our Safari drive.
The giraffe didn’t actually want to come and visit up at Giraffe lodge during our stay so instead we were treated to our own giraffe feeding experience, which was amazing!
Note: At the Port Lympne reserve the animals come first and they never lock animals out of their ‘housing’ so it’s really up to each individual animal if it wants to be seen on any given day. This may not be so good from a paying customers standpoint but this reserve doesn’t put profit first and I really like this about them- Another reason this England Safari definitely shouldn’t be seen as a ‘zoo’!
ADORABLE baby Rhino was jumping all over the place and annoying ‘mum’ to no end
When we arrived back at our base-camp at Port Lympne to collect our luggage , R and I actually didn’t explore much of the remaining half of the reserve by foot, instead choosing to head over to sister park, Howletts.
Coming off the back of seeing all these majestic animals grazing freely in large , open spaces, it felt quite hard to then see them in smaller enclosures, completely surrounded by glass and metal ‘caging’ – BUT ( and it’s a big but), knowing about the conservation and re-introduction efforts of the park definitely helped.
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with ‘zoo’s’ – Hating to see animals kept in small enclosures but also happy for the conservation work many do to help keep these species going. More and more animals become endangered and even extinct in the wild these days and these reserves and (certain) zoo’s are actually helping to keep these animals alive, hoping to reintroduce them into the wild in a safe, controlled environment -so I don’t think it’s as black & white as it may sometimes seem.
Discalimer= I 100% believe that the best place for all these animals is in their natural environment, roaming freely. However, I also care deeply for the conservation of these animals and the chance for them to still be here for plenty of future generations and so I will always support these charitable organisations.
So for anyone who’s feeling the itch for an African/Asian safari but doesn’t have the time or money to go abroad- then just a couple hours drive from London is Port Lympne and England safari that is a daydream away from the busy city lifestyle! Enjoy watching the Giraffes and Rhino and Gorilla’s and learn about the important work of the foundation!
Till Later,
