Continued from here.

Sunday was probably one of the most enjoyable outings we had on the entire 10-day road trip. We spent the day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

We arrived at the park, paid for parking (premium again so we wouldn’t have to hike across several parking lots) and got in line for tickets. When we reached the ticket booth we asked the guy about taking the Photo Caravan Safari tour, and he directed us to the other ticket stand that had an even longer line. He gave us a coupon for a couple of bucks off of admission, and fortunately the second line moved pretty quickly.

There are three Photo Caravan Safari tours available: Africa, Asia, and a tour that combines both. We wanted to do the 4-hour tour that combined both Africa and Asia, but that one was sold out. However, they let us do the two 2-hour tours for the same price. That turned out to be a good thing because that let us return to base, go to the bathroom, and let Janet buy more film.

The photo safari tours we were on didn’t start until about 2:45 PM, and we wondered if there was enough to see for the 4 or 5 hours before hand. We needn’t have worried. The San Diego Wild Animal Park is huge and there’s a lot to see. We did a ton of walking but it was worth it. There are tons of interesting birds, tigers, cheetahs, giraffes, herd animals, apes, elephants, monkeys, endangered plants, rhinos, and on and on.

We managed to see most of the park before our 2:30 safari briefing. We sat down and they gave a talk on what we’re going to see, discussed the evolution of the various animals with regards to colors and patterns without once mentioning the evil “E” word, and had us climb on to the back of a truck.

During the trip to the field, the guide told us that sometimes it takes a lot longer to get in to the safari area because there were so many primates walking around who weren’t paying attention and didn’t look out for the trucks. I know this primate always watches out for such things.

The first thing they had us do was take a handy wipe and clean everything off of our hands. They didn’t want anything on them that might hurt the animals. The reason will become evident shortly.

Our first tour was through the Asian part of the field exhibits, and to get to it we had to cross part of the African area. We got to get a first look at several of the animals that we would see more of on the second part of our tour.

As we were driving along the woman conduction the tour mentioned that by the time we left, we would change our opinions of rhinos, and that from now on we would think that they were sweet animals. I was a bit skeptical.

But first we visited the Indian Gaurs. These are ill-tempered cattle-like beasts who don’t appreciate humans coming around. We got some really dirty looks as well as aggressive displays from both individuals and the herd.

After pissing off the Guars for a while we trucked over to the rhinos. The reason for the handy wipes we had to use early became clear. Our tour guide brought out a bucket of apple slices and started dropping them in to a rhino’s mouth. Then it was our turn. Everyone on the truck got a chance to feed a rhino. There’s almost nothing like having your hand in a rhino’s mouth dropping apple slices. We also got a chance to pet the rhino as we were feeding him. They really can be sweet creatures.

Me Feeding a Rhino
Me Feeding a Rhino
We also got a real treat in the rhino area. The sky was kind of overcast and the weather had cooled off a bit. That made the animals a bit more active than they would normally be. Two of the younger male rhinos started chasing each other around the field like a couple of puppies. They’d get to a pond, get wet, then chase each other some more. They even rolled around in the dirt. It was fantastic.We continued our journey through the Asian portion of the preserve and we got a ton of pictures.While we were taking a break, we saw some guys from Kenya walking around in their native garb. The guide said they took the Kenyans on several tours through the area to show them various things about like if the US, and when the local surfers met them, the surfers decided to do a fund raiser to help their village. I quipped that they should take the Kenyans for Mexican food. Turns out that they had done that. The Kenyans liked carne asada, and didn’t like salsa. When they took the visiting Kenyans to an Italian restaurant, you’d have thought the Americans were trying to kill them. They hated Italian food.Janet had to go buy more film during the break. We got back on the same truck with the same guide after a snack and a drink. Once more we had to wipe off our hands before we journeyed in to Africa. The African part of the preserve had lots of varieties of birds, antelope, gazelles, and so on. We took more pictures, especially of the babies. We were told that sometimes a pair of California golden eagles comes in to the area, and the keepers have to round up the babies and get them to a protected area so that the eagles won’t nab them. They even have to count every animal every day, and some of those buggers are hard to find.

We pulled over and giraffes started coming over to the truck. Our guide pulled out a bucket of leaves and started feeding them. Then it was our turn. The giraffes would wrap their tongues around the leaves and take them. If you care that you’ll end up with giraffe spit all over your hands, don’t do this. Otherwise, I highly recommend it. Feeding giraffes is a lot of fun.

Me Feeding a Pair of GiraffesMe Feeding a Pair of Giraffes

Finally, we were out of leaves. One of the younger giraffes came over to me and Janet begging for food. Like the guide did earlier, we showed him that our hands were empty. He went away a little disappointed.

More touring through the African area brought us to the ostriches. Ostriches combine meanness with stupidity. If an ostrich approaches you, back away because he will nip you and it will hurt. The guide opened and closed her hands in front of one of the birds, and it started to swallow. It was so stupid that it thought it was being fed.

We finished our day at the Wild Animal Park by taking the tram around the preserves. This is the tour most people take, and while impressive it isn’t nearly as fabulous as the photo safaris. Note: they no longer have the monorail and the tram is temporary until they get a more permanent solution installed. It’s worth taking the tram, though.

It was dark when we left, and our only regret is that we didn’t know about the cheetah run until it was too late. We would have loved to see a cheetah run full speed. One interesting thing we found out – cheetahs are really high strung and easily spooked. To help them out, the keepers have them grow up with a dog, and the two become best friends. When the cheetah starts to get spooked, he can look to his dog buddy, see he’s calm, and calms himself down. It’s fascinating.

Next time we go south we will try to make plans to go back to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We absolutely loved the place.

To be continued.

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