SAFARI park visitors had to be rescued from a jungle cruise after becoming stranded onboard for over two hours when the motor became tangled in weeds.
Dozens of passengers spent two and a half hours onboard the boat in the middle of the lake at Longleat Safari and Adventure Park in Warminster, Wiltshire, last month.
Passengers claim that children on board were forced to urinate in a bin behind a “makeshift door” after another boat failed to rescue them having also become tangled in the overgrow.
A small boat was sent briefly to try and help the stranded customers – but had to divert their mission due to the threat of lurking hippos nearby.
Some parents tried to push themselves out from the weeds using a large barge pole but were only able to shift slightly closer to land.
As dozens of safari workers hustled to rescue the passengers, one employee tried to throw a grappling hook from the shore into a life ring tossed from the raft.
After two minutes of failed attempts the grappling hook finally landed in the life ring and staff were able to haul the boat back to shore.
Having finally managed to set foot on land again the passengers were then given foil blankets and sent on a small train back to the centre of the park.
A passenger who was involved posted about the incident on TikTok on Tuesday (9 AUG), claiming that they were stuck on the safari boat for two and a half hours.
The video has collected over 190,000 views and more than 6,000 likes.
Hundreds of social media users commented on the incident.
One said: “The foil blankets are just a bit excessive.”
Another commented: “They all did really well to be fair. Accidents happen and they gave a refund. I’ve been loads and can’t ever fault the attentiveness of the staff, it’s the best place.”
A third wrote: “The rescue boat getting stuck killed me.”
A fourth replied: “I love how all the dads aboard chipped in to help.”
A fifth added: “Well I’ve never seen that happen before, I bet the seals were laughing.”
Speaking today (THU), a passenger, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Children had to wee in a bin behind a makeshift door whilst on the boat.
“One woman had a three-year-old child with leukaemia who was also stuck on the boat.
“We had to lend the children our jumpers. We’re very fortunate that there were no disabled passengers, as there would’ve been no way for them to leave the boat.
“The boat journey started as normal, when it went to turn around at the end it was blindsided by the wind and pushed into the weeds.
“This clogged the motor and left us stranded at the end.
“The plan was to get the other boat to come and tow us back, but it pulled up alongside our boat and a similar thing happened, causing both boats to become stuck.
“There was a long wooden pole on the boat which was supposed to be used to push us off of things, but it was pretty useless.
“Me and other parents helped to push away from the wall/other boat and rotate the boat so we were closer to the shore.
“The pole was too short to make contact with the ground. A small boat with two people was sent to help us, but they sat and watched before turning around and going back.
“We were later told that they weren’t allowed to travel on the lake because of the risk the hippos posed.
“The staff on the boat threw an orange life ring into the water connected to a rope and the team on the land had a rope with a grappling hook and were throwing, trying to make contact with the orange life ring for around 20 minutes.
“They were so bad at throwing that I had to explain to them that throwing overarm would make more sense. Ridiculous.
“We finally made contact and connected to ropes, and I pulled a stronger rope across. The rope was then tied onto the boat and the staff pulled us in towards the shore.
“I insisted that they open their snack hut so that we could all get a hot drink, as it was quite cold on this day, especially seeing as by this point it had been 3.5 hours.”
ENDS
