SHANGRALA'S

LONGLEAT'S MEALS ON WHEELS!

"Meals on wheels" - The moment cheetahs try to peel open a three-wheel bubble car as it trundles along 'on safari'!       Intrepid Mail man Paul Harris drives a Trident Peel Electric Car around Longleat Safari and Adventure Park in Wiltshire and meets its inhabitants, up close and personal!       Here's a question you probably thought you'd never have to ask: what happens when the world's fastest cat meets the world's slowest car? Answer: it chases it, catches it - and eats it.       That was the result of a cat versus car challenge at Longleat safari park to discover if the latest incarnation of the reborn 1960s Peel Car could ever hack it in the 21st century urban jungle. To be perfectly honest, there's not much point trying to out-accelerate a cheetah when you're driving a Peel Trident.       Here's How His Adventure Played Out... Enjoy! :) One of the park's cheetahs spots supper in a strange red can.       The battery-powered three-wheeler is no match for the awesome four-legged sprinter.       Paul hopes the car's British engineering is strong enough to keep the big cat at bay.       Paul: 'I try not to make eye contact, despite the fact that his big, amber eyes are almost burning a hole through the Trident's rather flimsy glass-fibre panels'       There must surely be few drivers who can boast that their windscreen has been licked clean by the rasping tongue of Acinonyx jubatus - which is useful, as it turns out, because the Peel boasts only a single, hand-operated wiper.       Casey and Max, both three-year-old male residents of the 300-acre Wiltshire park, can do 0-70mph in a matter of seconds.       The Trident - a whining, three-wheel soap-bubble of a battery-powered car - struggles audibly when challenged by anything tougher than a gentle uphill slope.       The only thing to do when you find yourself face to face with two high-speed cheetahs clawing at the bodywork is to stop. And to keep very still. And perhaps to pray that British engineering will prove robust enough against the visibly sharp teeth of two far from happy cats.       Not to mention their rather disconcerting determination to access the meat inside the curiously shaped can of cat food that has just trundled into their kingdom.

Casey and Max, both three-year-old male residents, are worryingly close to their potential feast.       Outside, meanwhile, the big cats at last appear to be losing interest and are loping off to shelter from the rain.       Time to go. I turn on the ignition, floor the stop/go pedal and take off at dodgem-car speed across the grass.       Max gives me a disparaging glance. But where's Casey? Fifty yards away, I spot him running parallel with me. It's that long, low canter that you usually see only on David Attenborough documentaries as a cheetah prepares to run down its prey. Suddenly there is a massive thud from behind. Casey has clearly had enough of this nonsense and has raced up in my blind spot to attack.       The Peel Trident is a newly developed sibling of the P50, a Postman Pat-style oddity first seen on British roads in 1962, and rarely since. Bet the cheetah didn't know that. Had I been a gazelle, it would be lunchtime right now. With the car somehow surviving, however, he gives one tyre a casual chew and wanders off.       Longleat does not normally encourage its 1million annual visitors to get this close to the big cats, of course - but you're welcome to get your car dismantled in the monkey enclosure if you wish, the Safari Park equivalent of taking it to Kwik-Fit.       The Trident proved a big hit with about 20 of them. Elsewhere, wolves encircled it; the zebras didn't bother crossing the road to see it; and the giraffes simply took the long view.       And the cheetahs? 'They were only being inquisitive', said Ian Turner, Longleat's deputy head warden. 'If they really wanted to get in, they would.'       And as for the other animals...       While the wolves just encircled it...       The monkeys tried - and failed - to dismantle it...       And as for the giraffes, they took the long view before sauntering off.

Share These Safari Smiles

With All Your Adventurist Friends! :)

        

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World Of Big Cats!-
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Johan's Noah's Ark!-
Leopard Vs Crocodile!-
Margaret The Giraffe!-
Beautiful Aerial England!-
Amazing Albino Animals!-
Longleat's Monkey Shines!-
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