We were invited guests of Knowsley Safari Park. We were given free access to their Family Workshop in return for this review. All images and opinions are our own.

During the gloriously long Easter weekend we hotfooted it to Knowsley Safari Park to feed the boys burgeoning obsession with giraffes and cheeky monkeys.

We went primarily to check out their “Food and Feeding Family Workshop” which is two hours of fun and animal education for just £6.50 each.

The workshop was hosted by knowledgeable rangers, Nicky and Sue. They started by telling us about herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, then we got to meet and touch some. We met a Australian tree frog, some giant land snails, a rat and a pair of weird but harmless hissing cockroaches, as well as looking at some animal skulls and checking out their teeth.

We were then put to work preparing breakfast for the meercats. This involved stuffing fruit, dog biscuits and mealworms into holes drilled in small logs, then plugging the holes with melon. This was great, messy fun. We then carried our logs to the meercat enclosure and watched them eat their goodies. Meercats are really popular and they’re such funny little creatures close up. We watched them for a little while and they seemed to really enjoy their breakfast.

Later moved on to meet the giraffes. We climbed onto the feeding platform and we were set to work feeding Oliver. Oliver was a very handsome giraffe, he’s 14 years old and really very beautiful. We fed him carrots which he ate by reaching his long, black tongue out for, curling it round the carrot, then munching away. The boy loved this, giraffes are one of his favourite animals. I think he was quite taken aback at the size of them though.

Once the giraffes had full bellies we walked back to the safari school. We were soon put to work again making fruit kebabs on ropes for the Egyptian fruit bats. This was sticky, but fun work. Once we’d all made a kebab and washed our sticky hands, we took our bat treats to the indoor bat forest. The rangers hung the fruit kebabs from the trees while we all stood and watched them feed.

I’m not easily spooked, but bats brushed my face and hair a few times and I wasn’t keen to stay for long. The boys loved it, so I stayed with them. As our eyes adjusted to the dark we watched the bats swoop onto the trees and devour their dinner.

Then it was back to the safari school to collect our certificates and badges and say goodbye. I think the family workshops are tremendous value and next time we go to Knowsley Safari Park, we’ll be looking to see what’s available. Our boy loved it. He was a bit young though, and the workshops are only really suitable for children aged 6 and over.

The family workshop was so much fun, we all really enjoyed it and we all learned something new. Not only that but we got to get up close and personal with some of our favourite animals. We’ll be back!

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of Knowsley Safari Park and were given free access to their Family Workshop for free in return for this honest review. It was brilliant and worth considering doing if you’re going.