Last call for summer?

 You went to Scotland for a safari experience?! I hear you cry. Are you mad?!

Probs. But in our defence, we're not likely to travel to Africa anytime sooner (or anywhere else for that matter), so why not? 

The weather played ball, with clear skies and a warm sun, so when we arrived at Blair Drummond Safari Park, we were so excited. We had booked the earliest available time slot (basically opening time) which was also feeding time for the animals in the drive-through safari section. 

Possibly the most awesome animals we drove past were the fabled unicorns and the majestic lions. Especially when the latter stood, holding up his breakfast for all to see. 

We had booked one of the BBQs for lunch so once we parked the car, we shot around to see a few of the animals that hadn't been part of the drive-through experience - zebras and giraffes and elephants. We also tried to see the chimps but none of them were out. 

The BBQs were such a highlight of the day - BBQs aren't in parks like they are back home and while you can get little alfoil disposable ones (which we have but haven't had the chance/guts to use yet), I just can't see it doing the trick. The BBQs on Saturday however, they were the real deal. 

We had bought a fresh loaf of sourdough, got some steak and snags, and brought along some salad bits and wow did that taste delicious. First BBQ in eight months was always going to be delicious though, to be fair.

We wandered through the World of Dinosaurs after we got coffee and fresh donuts - life size replicas complete with robotic movements and sound effects. Pretty awesome if you were a kid - and kinda cool as an adult ;)

Next on the itinerary was Doune Castle - used as a location for Outlander, Game of Thrones, Monty Python, it was built in the 1300's and became a royal castle in the 1400's though never as grand or as organised as Edinburgh or Stirling Castle. It was left to ruin from the 1600's but restored in the 1800's to what we see today. If you want a little more info, you can visit here. 

I forgot to mention! We finally saw a red squirrel! Technically, it's the second we've seen but the first one was more of a blur as it ran across the road in front of our car a few weeks back. This time, we got to admire it as it sat in the tree! 

We see plenty of grey squirrels in our area but the red ones are becoming more rare. Their grey cousins were brought over from North America and have slowly becoming more dominant, so to see a red squirrel - it's just a bit blodoy exciting. There's actually a website you can visit to log your squirrel sighting, be it red or grey, which is an interesting way to see how the sighting trends can shift over the years - though obviously not super accurate since we've never logged ever grey squirrel we've seen and I can imagine everyone else does >.>

So there we have it. Possibly one of the last great warm days here in Scotland but spent well with friends, BBQs, history and animals.