Longleat

You may have seen the pictures. Apparently some went on Facebook (or something similar)! On Saturday we went to Longleat Safari Park. It was originally planned for earlier in the year for Zac’s birthday, but it got postponed. So we went on Saturday for Meg’s birthday. Great when it works like that! Whatever you think about animals in zoos (and there are some positives), it is incredible to be so close to so many animals you otherwise would never see. We began by taking the safari. Slightly nervously we chose to go through the monkey enclosure. They didn’t disappoint. Well not us anyway. But the guys in the car in front had no idea what happened to their truck! First the monkeys ripped off the handle of his open back cover! And they then proceeded to take off all the letters and numbers from his rear number plate! Happily clicking away with their camera, taking pictures of all the cute little monkeys all over the truck, they had no idea of the devastation being wrought in places they couldn’t see! Mind you, the monkeys weren’t the only ones entertained by their antics! We saw some Oryx’s extinct in the wild, but safe in the park. We saw animals we didn’t even recognise as animals: some kind of stick insect that looked so much like a leaf it was hard to know if you really were looking at an insect or a leaf. Brightly coloured parrots who climbed all over you to get the nectar from the pot in your hand pulled in the crowds. But what we all wanted to see were the big animals: the lions, tigers, gorillas, cheetahs and hippos. And we did. Just. They don’t always make themselves easy to see! We heard some extraordinary facts about these animals: did you know for example that the hippo is by far the most dangerous, killing around a thousand people each year? Or that more people are killed by corks (yes…corks) than by gorillas? I couldn’t help wondering as I gazed at the extraordinary array of creatures from tiny to huge, from innocuous to dangerous, from ugly to cute, how did this all become the world around us? These animals all have their habits, behaviours, habitats and diets all unique to them. They can’t survive without them. And they do it all out of instinct. They don’t read a script. Nobody tells them how to be. They just are. And they just do. And I wondering how that is possible? If it all began by chance the odds are extraordinarily low. Extraordinarily low. Ridiculously low. It’s less than 1057800 (which is 1 with 57800 zeros after it!) To give you some idea of the size of the number there are 1080 in the universe! If, on the other hand it all began from the hand of loving creator it speaks of one who is endlessly good, uncontrollably generous and irrationally loving. And I know which one I go with.