Friday, September 4, 2009

AFRICAN LION SAFARI!

While we were on holidays, last week, we decided to take our grandson on a last "fun day" before school resumed for the year. He wanted to go to African Lion Safari, which isn't too far from us, so off we went. It was a chance to see lots of animal up close and it was a lot of fun, although we had been warned against taking our own car through. Apparently the baboons love to reek havoc and enjoy ripping the windshield wippers off of cars, as they travel through their area. Having bought a new car in the spring, we decided to take the tour bus and it was a good idea. The baboons did not disappoint us - they provided lots of entertainment, and it was fun watching, since it wasn't our car getting dimolished LOL!

We saw variey of animals up very close - some of them, too close LOL! Our daughter and I leaned as far left as we could, while riding a tour train in an enclosure, where two camels were standing on the track. They slowly meandered one or two steps off the track and we literally could have petted them on the way by! There were lions, cheetahs, zebras, ostrich, rhinos and lots of other birds and animals, wandering their areas freely, coming up to the cars for a peek. I was so annoyed that I missed a perfect picture of an ostrich as he put his face right up to the glass where our grandson was sitting - he loooved it. We saw two bird shows and an elephant show, and although it is sad to see such wonderful animals performing tricks, I'm sure the cost of feeding and maintaining such a large park must be very high. They have one of them most succesful cheetah breeding programs in the world and release back into the wild, which is gratifying. Anyway, I've posted so many pictures - I just couldn't decide which ones to leave out, so enjoy!

Petting area

European deer

Peacock with babies

White peacock

LLama next to our train

Lazy camels who finally moved

Caribou

Papa & Corson on the tour bus

Pair of gorgeous lions

Lion cub with his mother

Lazy cheetah

Baboons having fun!

Like a group of teenage vandals LOL!

Straight for the headlights!

Relaxing group of Ostrich

Cars didn't faze the Rhinos at all!


Grazing Ostrich

Zebras and Gazelle

Giraffe passing by

The lead Giraffe having lunch - he was HUGE

North American Bison

Fun in the water park!

Parrot riding a bike!

Colourful birds!

Pony rides

Gentle pony!

Baby Alpaca

Baby camel

Beautiful bald eagle

Magnificent golden eagle

More raptors!

Lily the elephant - she paints pictures that they transfer onto Tshirts!

4 comments:

Cheryl @ Bingle Bears said...

It looks like you had a fabulous time!! My brother's family went there this summer on the way to our house (central NY) and they also said it is a GREAT place.
Warmly,
Cheryl

The French Bear said...

Wow, those are some great shots!!! Looks like it was a wonderful day!
Cheers,
Margaret B

Karen ~ Cider Antiques said...

A great day! So many amazing photos. I bet you are glad you took the bus and not your own car with all the monkey business. Looks like they go-to-town on all the vehicles. I think I like Lily the best. What a sweetie! Karen

Brenda said...

Thanks for the posts, everyone! It certainly was a lot of fun - I'd recommend it to anyone loving animals. It's a great way to see them up close.

hugs,

Brenda