Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus )

Our aim for today was to visit Trentham Gardens as it was somewhere Kat was very interested in.   However, the day had to start with a visit to the service jetty.  The wind was much stronger than yesterday.  Pump out completed we had difficulty getting away from the service point as the wind kept blowing us back.  With the help of an ex-naval officer and the marina manager, we got away in reverse.  Kat then reversed Solace all the way back to our berth, against the wind.  Extremely well done.

So off we went to Trentham arriving just in time for an early lunch.  No rush as the gardens are open to 7:00 we thought.  Wrong!  There was a notice telling us the gardens would close at 2:00 to prepare for an event.  We were not best pleased and decided not to go in.  Personally, I find it wrong that the gardens should be charging the normal price but only opening for half the time.

So instead we went a short distance down the road to Trentham Monkey Forest.  Here there a 140 Barbary Macaques living freely in an area of woodland.  What a fascinating visit.  Half the fun was trying to spot them in the trees.  If you failed at that there were plenty feeding in the open on the grassy areas.  

Barbary Macaques are the "apes" seen on the rock at Gibraltar, where they were introduced from the Barbary Coast of North Africa.  They aren't apes they are true monkeys but lacking the long tail of most species.  The colony is helping with research into Macaques to help them in the wild.  Researchers have visited from all over the world including recently USA.