Dorset – the best county to work in!
We’re fortunate at Authentic Style that we work in such an amazing part of the country, and so close to many great brilliant places to visit. So looking for a great team day out venue is only difficult because we’re truly spoilt for choice.
Having fun
We like to work hard at AS HQ, but having downtime, where we get to relax and enjoy ourselves away from the studio, is really important to us too, so our ‘Summer Team Day’ needed to have plenty of opportunities for ‘fun in the sun’. Our destination of choice this summer was https://www.longleat.co.uk/.
AS on tour
We left our creative brains and technology behind (there was literally no phone signal at Longleat), packed a sumptuous picnic and headed northwards to the stately home and estate of Lord Bath.
On safari
We started the day with a trip on the Longleat Safari Bus, feeding the Giraffes…
… then cruising with Lions, Tigers, Cheetahs, Wolves, Rhinos, Monkeys, Lemurs and loads more amazing animals.
We didn’t even get eaten by the lions!
Fortunately, we discovered that the lions had just been fed and were lazily sleeping it off in the grass, completely oblivious to all of us passing by on a bus! The one in this pic could barely be bothered to rollover let alone eat us – for which we were grateful!
Gary didn’t know what the fuss was all about, being from South Africa this was all ‘old news’ to him, the Safaris he’s familiar with are taken in open top Jeeps, cover hundreds of miles and involve taking security with you in case things turn nasty and you’re charged by an angry rhinoceros!
Monkey business!
Our small scale trip to Africa on a double-decker was amazing though, and a particular highlight were the Monkeys, who regularly dismantle cars passing through, apparently they have a penchant for windscreen wipers on expensive Porsches – it was great to watch, safe in the knowledge that Will’s BMW was not going to be ripped to pieces, as we’d thought this all through in advance and had booked the bus as a precautionary measure (we’re smart forward thinkers here)!!
The Safari Bus was followed by multiple amazing animal encounters, like feeding nectar to the macaws (who seemed rather fond of Gary – he was crowded by these adoring feathered friends), cuddling armadillos (who were amazingly friendly, which was a surprise to us all), meerkats, giant otters and more.
The day ended with Luke and Will braving it out holding a tarantula and Luke and I holding a large Python – which was pretty amazing until it decided to wrap itself around my camera strap and seemed to be sizing me up for lunch, at which point I decided it really needed to go back to the keeper!
The weather was perfect and a great day was had by us all, including Chelsea who was with us on Work Experience for the week from Shaftesbury School – not a bad intro to the world of work!
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