Safari West - Part 2

On Tuesday morning, we said goodbye to Bugs, headed down to the main area at the bottom of the hill, eat breakfast, checked out, watched the parrots being bought out and then waited as the guides packaged up several tours. Sometimes there is an advantage in being selected last. Because of a cancellation and one party that didn't show up we were just sharing the last vehicle with one other family and our tour guide Kelly. As the two Dads didn't want to ride up top, there was just enough room for the two Mums and the two boys, which worked out perfectly.

A co-worker had pointed out that it would be like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, without the severe breaking and swerving. That's about right, at least for downstairs. Lynea reported it was a little bit more exciting up top, especially as she was sitting just behind where the opening was, and didn't always have something to easily hang on to. Don't forget the Dramamine!

There is about 800 acres of land and we covered a large part of that. I believe we got lucky and were able to see one or more of each of the animals roaming on these lands, in some cases, very up-close-n-personal. I've added names to some of the Flickr photos. If there is anybody from Safari West reading this, feel free to add some comments with the various names for the ones that's I've missed. All that was provided to us was a species list. It would be great if they could put together a color guide of Safari West and sell them in the gift shop. I know I'd've bought a copy. In lieu of that, I'll try to do a Google image search for each remaining unnamed animal on the list and try to match them up.

The tour consisted of the following parts. First we went out in the vehicle seeing the animals in their "natural habitat". Then we came back and drove through the enclosures and saw some of the animals that don't get to go anywhere they want. That took about two hours. Short bathroom break and then we toured the aviary and the caged animals. That's about another hour.

I took loads of photos and I'll spread them over the next couple of days as well. Today I've just included the ones taken from the vehicle as we toured the estate. That little baby you see is one day old ("that's why it's so clean"). That's an ostrich egg, about 2-3 pounds in weight and all squishy inside. As I soak up trivia, I remember Kelly saying that if you made an omelette with it, it would be like using 24 chicken eggs. Yum! That's Kelly holding the skull. She was a great tour guide. Very funny and just full of interesting information on each of the animals.

More tomorrow.

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( Jul 24 2007, 07:23:26 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink