Monday July 23, 2007 Safari West - Part 1
Last Monday we drove up to Santa Rosa (via Walnut Creek so that we could drop off the dog with Grandma), to stay at Safari West, a wildlife preserve and African tent camp. The plan was to have dinner there on the Monday night, sleep over in one of their tents and take the Tuesday morning safari tour.
Nowadays I personally hate camping, but this really was nothing like any tent I've ever slept in before. It has a king size bed, electricity (complete with power outlets), ceiling fan and en-suite bathroom. Think of it like a hotel room with canvas walls. Note that, because of that, if the weather forecast predicts 88 degrees during the day and 55 degrees at night, you can be sure that it will get down to 55, in your room at night. Thankfully they supply electric blankets for the bed and a space heater for the room. No cell phone reception or wireless Internet access available though. Also no television. We were really roughing it.
We had one of the tents up by the lake. There was also a little rabbit (or baby hare -- I'm not sure) living under a large upturned dead tree stump just outside, that was very friendly. I was able to practice my zoom camera technique on it.
Looking down the hill from our tent, you can see the enclosure where the giraffes are kept at night. That's also the area where the cottages, reception area, gift shop and cafe are. We had a very enjoyable evening meal there. It was buffet style with lots of good choices for both adults and kids. Three dogs and a spoonbill named Delilah will quickly collect any food you accidentally drop.
I was tentatively worried about how noisy the animals would get at night. In the end, we found that it was only one animal that was really loud and persistent and that was the visiting Canadian geese. I was prepared and just put in some earplugs.
There are three safari tours each day. You can see one of the evening tour vehicles going up the hill past our tent. More on our tour of the Sonoma Serengeti tomorrow.
( Jul 23 2007, 06:42:12 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink
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