Indulge your wild side with a safari in deepest Kent

Get up close to the animals at Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve, says Matthew Partridge

Lion Lodge at Port Lympne
Nosey neighbours at Lion Lodge
(Image credit: © Port Lympne)

As I ambled down the track in the twilight, making my way to the treehouse where I was to spend the night, I could hear the howling of wolves and the shrieking of primates. However, the savannah on either side of me was not African, but was, like myself, located only a few miles from the towns of Folkestone and Hythe, around 90 minutes by train from London, in Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve.

Set up by conservationist John Aspinall, Port Lympne combines several elements. Firstly, like most zoos, you have the animal enclosures, which hold 900 animals from 75 species, ranging from European wolves to Asian tigers and African rhinos and baboons. Many of these enclosures are extremely large, allowing for good views of the animals in as close to their natural environment as possible.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri