Trentham Monkey Forest

This post is a little late but the past week was my last one in Keele for 3 months and it was a little chaotic so my priority was certainly not blogging at the time. But now I'm settled back into life in Cornwall it's time to show you all the cute little monkeys we spent last Sunday with...

It wasn't until the end of last year that I discovered the existence of the Monkey Forest only 20 minutes or so from where I live in Newcastle-Under-Lyme but we waited patiently for it to reopen for the Spring and a sunny day to go. We somehow managed to wake up at a decent time after a late night of BBQs, drinks, music and a 3am wonder around the woods involving climbing steep hills and piggy backing Faye over a river - just call me Wonder Woman. But, there we were waking up from 9am onwards with the sun shining and the instant desire to get out of the house and join the monkeys outside. We'd all missed breakfast so a big lunch was in order, and once we parked up and got into the monkey forest, they had a lovely picnic area for us to tuck into our lunch.

We ended up spending more time then intended munching away but we're all big lovers of stuffing our faces, and we knew the monkeys would understand and wait patiently. And that they did:

 

This chap was from the French section of the Forest, with the monkeys down the hill being German - which my friend Sara pointed out was a little controversial, but these monkeys didn't appear to have any qualms...or any interaction at all for that matter. He sat posing away and gave us all the chance to get a selfie with him - I think he quite enjoyed the attention to be honest!

Here's one of my boyfriend and I, with him looking super excited to be in a photo with a monkey. (Excuse the photo quality, my camera's been playing up so we only had my boyfriend's iPhone). The reason I look so terrified in this photo - or at least a little concerned - was because the chap behind me had just done a mahoosive yawn and revealed his teeth to me that I wasn't previously aware of...(looking a little something like this)...

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Can you see why I was suddenly a bit terrified to turn my back?

 Though this photo is of awful quality, how adorable is this little one month old baby barbary macaque?! It was definitely the highlight of our visit. We spent so much time just standing at the side cooing over the little cutie - though we learnt from the young monkeys that getting a little too close to mother and baby would receive a telling off. Some of the males also had a few tiffs during our visit and it was really interesting to see them sorting out their disputes and all running to the defence of their friends - it was kind of like watching a bunch of drunk guys have a fall out in town, but the monkeys were more intelligent and organised about it. 

Here's us three girls making a new pal. As you can probably tell I still look a little uncomfortable, I was just expecting them to jump up on my back like they do at London Zoo and was constantly anticipating a little curious monkey hand playing with my hair again! 

It was such a lovely day and we spent a good few hours there with the sunshine on our side. I'd highly recommend it for a day out if you live in or visit the Stoke area as the guides tell you loads of interesting facts about the monkeys and the jobs they do there. You learn a lot and you get to look at cute little monkeys (with very big teeth) all day long!

MissIsGoode

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