Longleat Safari Park was Britain’s first drive-through safari park outside of Africa when it opened in 1966. It is now the home to over 500 animals including lions, tigers, gorillas, snakes, sea lions and giraffes.

I have been lucky enough to visit the safari park three times. The first time being when I was about eight years old. I couldn’t believe I was so close to all of these beautiful and wild animals that I’d only ever seen on television before.

We began all of our Longleat journeys by embarking on the drive-through safari multiple times throughout the day. Once you have purchased your safari ticket, you can drive around as many times as you like in one day, so long as you don’t leave the safari vicinity. We were touching distance (not literally as it is rightly prohibited to touch any of the animals for health and safety reasons) from wolves, lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, bears and rhinos - just to name a few. I was amazed at how blasé these potentially dangerous animals were of our presence on their territory.