Safari near London

 Whipsnade Zoo

In this post:  you don't have to travel to Africa to take a safari!!

May 7th, 2012 Bank Holiday Day Trip

Enjoying the elephants - this was the first time in my life that I had ever seen elephants roaming - really cool!

Although the zoo animals captured our attention, so did the "local" animals of the area - the zoo is home to many maras who run around wild, and fascinated our kids who had never seen these minature deer-like animals before

The seal show is spectacular!

Near the pygmy hippo enclosure, these rare little hippos were quite fun to observe

Included in our membership to the ZSL London Zoo is Whipsnade ZSL, an expansive area where elephants, rhinos, cheetas, lions, chimpanzees, hippos and other exciting animals have wide open spaces to roam.  Not to pass up on any aspect of my membership in any organization, I put it on the list of "to-dos" for our family, because we had become members at ZSL London.  One big obstacle:  how to get there?? We don't have a car, so public transportation needed to be our method of travel.   On a lovely Bank Holiday Monday in early May, we set off on our adventure.  And we were not disappointed.  Well, maybe a bit by the rain, but not by the outing itself.

Okay it wasn't a real safari....
Excerpt from the website:

"As the Zoo has such expansive grounds, visitors have occasionally been known to think it is a safari park. However, visitors are allowed to bring their cars into the grounds, which are allowed into the one large drive through area, ‘Passage through Asia’. Alternatively you can take the free Safari bus around the zoo which stops at all the main exhibits.

The Zoo does offer another impressive way of seeing its animals: The Jumbo Express. Visitors can take a ride our two steam engines, Excelsior and Superior. These trains weave their way through the territories of some of the Zoo’s most impressive and inspiring animals, such as the elephants, rhino and camels.
Whilst most of the Zoo’s inhabitants are kept in specially designed enclosures, a few species are allowed to roam freely around the grounds. These include Patagonian mara, Chinese water deer, wallabies and peafowl."

Want to go to the UK's biggest zoo?  Home to more than 2,500 animals, many of which are endangered in the wild, the Zoo’s impressive 600 acre (2.4 km2) site can be found on the Chiltern Hills, near Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

Day trip details!
Took the tube to St Pancras, got a 9:00 train to Luton, arriving 9:20.  Wandered trying to find the proper bus stop for a 9:55 bus to Whipsnade.
Arrived at Whipsnade at 10:45.
Tried to take the 3:00 bus back to the Luton Rail station, but we were on the wrong side of the road =(
The bus zoomed past.  We didn't realize we needed to be at the same spot in which we got off the bus to return to Luton.  I guess it's like a circular route.  
You'd think we take taxis all the time, living in London.  Surprisingly we hail a cab infrequently.  Times we do are like this, where we really have no other options.  Therefore we called a taxi and paid 18 pounds to get to the station.  Got on a 4:00 train to London, arriving at 4:30 at St Pancras.