Cool Places: Monkey World / Tank Museum
Ah, travel. Long flights, sunburns, sore feet and a lot of fun cool memories. We have been lucky enough to go to Europe and Hawaii and other “must -see” type places. If we were to go anywhere else, it would probably be another practical vacationy type spot. But if I dunno, won the Lotto or something, I’d want to go to some places a little off the beaten path.
I love odd and historical sites. I’m a huge fan of Atlas Obscura, Weird California, Expedition Unknown and other blogs, books and TV shows about these kinda places. If some weird history thing happened there, was a location in a movie, or an interesting building, that’s a cool place to me. I don’t exactly know when or where I heard about the odd spots on the list, but when I pondered where I would like to go they jumped right to my mind. The first cool place I’d like to go, is actually two different places in one town.
I think I first heard of this strange duo from a meme. It was a freeway sign that said “Exit for Monkey World / Tank Museum.” The caption said: “Tanks and Monkeys what could go wrong?” I was intrigued, I had to look it up and see if it was a real place and if so, where it was. It is a real place! I was hoping it would be somewhere we could get to but alas it’s all the way in jolly old England. Dorset England is in the south of the Island nation. Monkey World and the Tank Museum are right next to one another which explains the sign but not why they’re next to one another. I love the seemingly random and hilarious duality of these spots.
Monkey World Ape Rescue is a sanctuary for rescue apes and monkeys. So like a zoo just for primates. They have some really cool habitats for the monkeys and apes to go bananas with glee. I have always loved monkeys. Some have even suggested I even looked like one when I was young. I find them to be both the best and worst. I mean, they can be face-biting, poo flinging, Human Monkey Pox carrying jerks; or playful scamps, signing like Koko the Gorilla, or teasing tourists like drunken Macaque Monkeys on some tropical beach.
We took an Anthropology Course in College and part of the assignment was going to the LA Zoo to observe some primates. We picked the Orangatangs, but all the Apes were a hoot to watch. The Chimps were the most fun, but it was too hard to keep track of them running around. Any hoozle, it’s hard not to smile when there are primates around. Aside from face eating, there are few antics that can compare to monkey antics which would make a visit to Monkey World rad on its own. But wait, there's more!
Across the road from Monkey World is the Tank Museum. It’s not just any old tank museum, it’s regarded as one of the best in the world. On the site of an old WWI tank training ground, the museum has one of the largest collections of tanks from around the world and the 20th century. While I’m not a huge fan of glorifying war, these machines are historic and cool to look at. I read that in the summer, they have a tank week where they fire up some of the tanks that still work for some sweet demonstrations. Being that the site is a former tank training ground, there's plenty of space to really show off the maneuvers that the tanks can do. The mechanics and science of how all that stuff works is pretty cool, but tanks just have this toy like quality that almost betrays the function as a war machine. I hear they even give rides on treaded tank vehicles too. How cool is that?
Now I know what you are thinking, why are these places right next to one another? What on earth do monkeys have to do with tanks? Well, hopefully, nothing. I think it’s happenstance that the two museums are next to one another. It’s open space near a freeway and the coast; prime location for museums. What's to worry about anyway? It’s not like anything can happen. That is unless of course the monkeys get loose and run amok with the heavy artillery next door. To be able to see the glory that side by side monkey and tank museums though, it’s a risk I’d be willing to take.
So if you would like to send us to southern England to it check out let us know!
