It was a privilege to accompany the 54 Ukraine refugees on the Barnes Coach to the Longleat Safari Park.
Funded by The White Horse Rotary Faringdon club, with support from Rotary International the bus, entry to the park and lunch was our gift to the refugees.
The names of the refugees from the Faringdon & Shrivenham area were organised by Katie Foot, from the Faringdon Sanctuary, added to the bus were two refugee families from Clanfield
Thanks must also go to Sjoerd Vogt and his partner chair the Sanctuary, Rotarian Clive Clark, his wife Heather and my wife Carol who all accompanied and helped in the logistics on the day.
All our Ukraine refugees were supplied with an emergency wrist band, water and a map of the park.
Our Coach driver,Dave of Barnes Coaches was great, he got us to the park on time, git involved with the fun of seeing the various animals in the park(as well as the driving). And returned us to Faringdon in a safe and timely manner.
The guys and gals enjoyed the Safari park, the ride on railway and the boat trip to see the Sea Lions ( when Anna, who we were very grateful for being our interpreter, described the boat trip, she said they would see the Sea Lions, but the Ukrainians thought they would see more LIONS.)
There were lots of other things to see including a parrot, who’s feathers were the colour of the Ukraine flag.
The smiles on folks faces, and the peacefulness on the journey back, showed how much they all enjoyed the day