To be worried about the drive through safari?

[slipperandleggings]

Anyone been?
Do the animals really wreck your car? Kids are begging to go but I'm worried about loosing a mirror!
I know we can walk a different route but they really want to drive... just risk assessing before booking!

West Midlands safari park is great; no monkeys!

We did this at Longleat when I was a child. This was the 1970s and we had a car with those little triangular windows on the side of the main window. Little monkey had came in and took a big bar of Old Jamaica chocolate ( rum and raisin, v tasty) which it then ate happily.

You can avoid monkey drive throughs usually, .go have fun the other animals are watched by keepers in vehicles

We took the bus at longleat, which was excellent. We saw cars being damaged.

I love the Longleat bus to watch the monkeys trash other people’s cars. I’d never drive through.

Bits seem to be falling off my car without any outside assistance, so I wouldn't worry too much about taking it through. I'm tempted to take it to Longleat as a last hurrah before it's scrapped.

A newer car - I'd definitely think twice!

Just take the warnings to lock the doors seriously!

I know I shouldn’t laugh, but we went through Longleat one year and a monkey was full on pulling off the door trim of the car in front. It had both back legs jammed against the front door and was heaving it off with both hands… it’s an enduring image.

So yeah… avoid Longleat.

Take your aerial off beforehand if you can.

DH removed our blades when we drove thru, so no damage there.
The monkeys took up some roof strip but we paired it easily.

If it’s Longleat you can go through the monkey part on a bus.
We took an old banger, complete with aerial - they didn’t touch it! lol It was great fun!

Have you tried sitting out two outfits and letting her choose between them?

Yes to the Longleat monkies being dicks. We had an ariel snapped off by them years ago and they're always picking at rubber seals! One of my son's best memories though was a monkey sitting on our sunroof showing us it's asshole

Knowsley baboons are pros at removing screen wash nozzles and windscreen wipers.
They had a go at at removing an entire panel from an older banger we took through once. Managed to get their fingers under the rusty edge and were just pulling away as a team.
This was about 30 years ago but from what I've heard they are passing their skills on and improving with every generation 🤣

Yonks ago, at Woburn, a tiger licked our (black) car. We didn't think much about it, but when we got home, we could clearly see the top layer of paint had gone. It polished out unless you knew where to look though.

I wouldn’t bother. It’s bloody expensive in the first place and then your car gets trashed. I don’t particularly want a monkeys arse in my face smearing it on my windscreen. No thank you!

Get the bus through the monkey enclosure if it's an option. I've been in a car through the one at Longleat twice and each time the monkeys ripped something off the car.

We went to Knowsley last year. At the monkey bit there are big signs up saying please don’t offer the monkeys food. The car in front stuck a banana out the window so of course attracted the monkeys. One monkey then proceeded to pull of the windscreen wipers off his car. This pleased me greatly.

So weird reading this as we’ve been to all the drive through safari parks in the UK and never once witnessed any of the shenanigans mentioned in this thread! Our car was fine every time as the monkeys stayed well away and that went for all the other cars there at the same time, too! We must have been lucky/unlucky (depending on your point of view) 😂

A slightly different safari park worry, but probably not so much of an issue with today's cars... DH and I went on one of our early dates to Longleat, about 20 years ago and I was driving my little 1l Renault Clio. It overheated when we were stopped in 'traffic' in the tiger enclosure, it had smoke pouring out of the bonnet, very dramatic looking! I had to sound the horn to get the keeper over and one kept the tigers at bay while the other towed us to safety. I was really embarrassed, but they said it happened all the time, especially in the summer when it was hot and they had loads of cars driving through at once We managed to escape unscathed by the monkeys on that occasion, although they have had my rear windscreen wiper on a more recent visit - much to the DCs' delight!

We went to one in the 70's. The monkeys started trying to pull bits off the car so DF started sprayng then with the windscreen wash. That distracted them and they started drinking it. Fortunately it was only water - there was no antifreeze. It was the 70s. We couldn't afford it.

Yes!!! They really do wreck your car. We moved close to Knowsley safari park, bought a family membership etc, first time there feeling proud to be supporting the park, this one looked me straight in the eye, then bit off the screen wash jets, stripped the tubing out, and snapped a wiper.
Learned that one the hard way!
(Ignore the Sesame Street count)

We skip the Longleat one now. We saw someone in the car in front have their windscreen wipers pulled off. At the time we had a 15 year old banger. Now we have a newer car, I'm afraid they're out of bounds! Other than that it's never been a problem.

If baboons pee on your car you need to wash it off that day otherwise it can damage paintwork.

Longleat is just down the road from us so we used to go multiple times a year. The monkeys never touched our car for some reason but we saw them picking bits off others. My boys were always disappointed that they didn't come on our car whilst I was always relieved lol