Jacob?s 3rd birthday was fast approaching and as it was a Tuesday during term time, Paul and I thought we?d take him out for the day as we knew most places would be fairly quiet. We set about finding somewhere we hoped he would enjoy. I was looking through my latest Tesco Clubcard Deals brochure and noticed that we could use our vouchers to get into Woburn Safari Park. I had very vague memories of visiting there as a child myself and knew I?d enjoyed it. So after some frantic present opening first thing in the morning, we set off south down the M1. Woburn is a small town just south-east of Milton Keynes and is home to the safari park and Woburn Abbey. It is easily accessible from J13 of the M1 or the A5. It is fairly central for most places situated about an hours drive from London, Birmingham, Leicester and Cambridge. From Nottingham, it took us an hour and a half. Once you enter Woburn, the safari park is quite well signposted but you do have to be on the ball to spot the small brown elephant signs. We almost sailed passed a right turn until Paul carried out a Dukes of Hazard style driving manoeuvre and managed to keep us on the right track! Our first view of the wildlife was on the drive up to the entrance booths. A deer and her two fawns were snuffling around in the grass at the roadside. Deer are kept on the Woburn Abbey estate and are a common sight in the safari park grounds. A few yards further and we paid our entrance fee (details at the end of the review) and were also handed a map of the park. For an extra £1.50 we purchased a commentary tape which can be played as you drive around the safari circuit. This is also available on CD. Guide books can be bought for another small fee but there weren?t any in stock on the day we visited. Once in the park you are free to complete the safari circuit as many times as you wish during the day. We decided to follow the route straight away. Safety guidelines are clearly highlighted on boards as well as on the taped commentary, the main ones being don?t try to feed the animals, stay in the vehicle and to keep windows and doors closed at all times. This is worth considering if you are planning to visit the park in summer and don?t have air conditioning. ~ ~ ~ The Animal Reserves ~ ~ ~ So we started our drive around the Animal Reserves. The commentary matches the route that we were taking and is useful for pointing out where to look for animals that we might not have seen straight away. It gives interesting facts about each of the animals, funny anecdotes about what certain animals have done while living at the park and the conversation work Woburn Safari Park are involved with. We found following the commentary closely a little difficult as Jacob was making himself heard over the top! Almost immediately animals were roaming around in the open space surrounding our car. Zebras crossed the road in front and behind our car, we stopped and admired three rhinos in their shelter and a fourth caused much amusement to Jacob as he slowly plodded past the car. There was a hippo lolling in a pool of water, three elephants all minding their own business and soon we were entering the carnivorous animal enclosure. At this point the tape warned us that these animals are very dangerous. Security and safety is obviously taken very seriously by the park. There is a double set of automatic gates before gaining access to the tigers, wolves and lions. Only when one gate has closed will the second open so at no point can the animals escape into the rest of the park. Although these animals are in effect closed in they still have an immense amount of space in which to wander. We saw two tigers, one roaming quite close to the car and the other shading himself under a tree but due to work being carried out, the wolves were all kept in a caged area so viewing them was difficult. Further round the track was the home of the lions. One female was sleeping near her five cubs and was soon joined by one of the two males. We stopped by the lions for several minutes as they were gathered close to the edge of the road and Jacob was enjoying the excellent view. Stopping to watch any of the animals is not a problem as the road is wide enough to comfortably fit two cars side-by-side. Therefore passing other vehicles is no trouble. No sooner had we exited this secure enclosure we were entering another, housing the Black Bears and monkeys. In between we observed several giraffes. We were looking forward to this part of the drive as the monkeys have a reputation for being cheeky and luckily we weren?t disappointed. Three monkeys were play fighting by the side of the road and we pulled up alongside to watch. Suddenly two of them charged towards the car, scampered up the side and carried on playing on the roof. Jacob thought this was hilarious and the sentence ?Some monkeys jumped on the car? has cropped up in several conversations since. And then we were into the final stretch which took us past the read more