EU trip (England), Days 19-22

DAYS 19 – 22

We did not plan much during these few days and just relaxed and enjoyed around the area. First of all we called our friends Rehman and Samha who happily came to Milton Keynes to spend a couple of days with us. We had a seekh kababs session one evening and ate as much as our stomachs could fill up. Kababs were really delicious specially when we had such kababs after so many days and made them ourselves to our liking.

We visited the malls close by to do some shopping. We also visited the outlet mall Bister Village that offers nice outlet stores selling things at a bit cheaper prices than the regular mall stores.

One day we planned the whole day out to the Woburn Animal Safari. Our kids have grown a tremendous love for animals specially since they started keeping several pets at home therefore this safari tour was a real treat for them. We left early with Waseem to drop him off at his office. After leaving his office we went to the super market to get some stuff for children and some picnic for the day. The day was cloudy and rain was expected today but we had only this day before leaving for Manchester tomorrow so we just went ahead to Woburn and got in the line before its opening. There were about 15 cars ahead of us at the opening of the safari park.

We drove in at the opening time and started our car safari right away. We saw some nice and healthy animals. Giraffes, Zebras, Lions, Tigers, Monkeys to name some. We did the safari really slow as the kids wanted to spend time at each animal enclosure. The beauty of safari is that you are face to face with the animals without having any barrier or cage between you and the nature. The animals really got closer to our car and we all had good time here. Once we completed this round on the car in about 1.5 hours we parked our car to have the foot safari in which we went through tracks going through lush gardens with different kind of animals. As close to the natural habitat has been provided to the White Kangaroos, Squirrel Monkeys and many more. It was real fun when the kids found three squirrel monkeys outside sitting next to the track and they were able to touch them. These were tiny monkey of the size of a hand – very pretty.

After finishing the foot safari we saw a bird show followed by a paddleboat ride in the small lake with ducks and swans around us. There were few very small ducklings with their moms. Rain had started by now; we were lucky to have lunch break during the bird show without rain. After the boat we got in line for the train ride around the park and that’s when the real showers started and lasted until evening. We got off at a station closer to the parking and drove off for another round of the safari to enjoy and see the animals in rain. After completing the circuit we stopped at the big birds show. Although it was raining and we were the only spectators, the lady was nice to display some birds including a falcon and a big owl. As we were the only ones there she let the kids to hold the animals on their hands. One could imagine their joy at this point. It was 5pm and that was the time to pick up Waseem from his office so we said bye to the animals and drove off. One more fun filled exciting day was over once we reached home after picking up Waseem. This day ended with the famous fish n chips from Milton Keynes.