Pecked by a Yellow Bellied Bustard!!
Normally I don't blog about my every day activities, but yesterday Aaron and I found an awesome undiscovered bay area treat and I had to write about it!! Perhaps its not as "undiscovered" as it seems, but I had certainly never known this place existed until my parents told me about it. Its called Safari West (http://www.safariwest.com/) and its up in Sonoma County, between Calistoga and Santa Rosa. Its hidden along a windy road and unsuspecting motorist surely drive by every day, completely unaware that they are driving a dozen yards away from 3 female cheetahs!!! Ok, so I don't particularly love the placement of the cheetah enclosure, but imagine Aaron and my surprise when we look through our windshield after parking the car to see a two cheetahs lounging in the shade a few yards away!
Safari West is a 400 acre animal sanctuary, specializing in African mammals mostly. This is no typical "zoo" experience in any way. Instead its an actual safari, 4 wheel trekking vehicle and all! Its a 2 hour tour and during that time your tour guide/driver takes you all over the preserve, stopping when ever you come across a herd of animals so they can tell you about the species and where they're from, etc.
Aaron and I lucked out and landed in a truck with mostly elderly folks (read: no screaming children! yay!) who were happy to let us have the top tier seats positioned above the canopy of the truck and directly above the driver. From here we had an unobstructed view of the whole park, and even with ducking here and there to avoid trees, they were still the best seat in the truck! We also struck gold with our tour guide, Gideon, who was born and raised in Africa and had all sorts of stories to share with us along the way, from ostrich racing to raising baby zebras. He taught us that just about every african animal is dangerous in one way or another. Ostrich's can run you down and tear at you with their huge talon, Cape Buffalo (2,000 lb of animal!) will run you down and kill you without a second thought (Gideon knew several people killed by these giant buffalo in Africa!), Giraffes use their long necks to swip at enemies and their neck alone weighs several hundred pounds, Zebras are quite vicious critters and will gladly kick you if you try to bother them. In fact while our truck was stopped in the zebra sanctuary one zebra got pissed off at another herd member and fully back kicked him in the face several times and chased him away! That guy was *not* horsing around!!
Highlight of the trip: Driving through the giraffe area and coming up to two giraffes blocking the road. After Gideon proceeds to tell us how these are wild animals and could easily break your neck if they were provoked, he slowly nudges the truck towards the large male giraffe trying to get him to move. So moves he does, right over to the side of the truck, about eye to eye with Aaron and I. He was so beautiful, glassy eyes, chewing his leaf, blue tongue licking the air. Then he decided he needed to duck down and attempt to lick my leg! Aaron's squealing with joy, capturing the short encounter on film, while our tour guide below yells at us not to touch the beautiful beast. I don't think I will ever again get that close to a giraffe. It was awesome!! And here's a short clip of our giraffe encounter: http://youtube.com/watch?v=cgs2HQtTHGE
And you're not done when the safari trucks stop. Then you get a short guided tour of the enclosed caged animals. We walked through the aviary, crazy looking african birds were running by our feet while Gideon pointed out different species of ducks, cranes, ibis's, and other colorful critters. He picked out the Yellow Bellied Bustards and explained they were very friendly and in Africa they roam around villages and villagers feed them corn and other bird treats. The male Bustard came out to the group of us immediately and started following all of us around. It was actually really cute. . . until he bit my finger. And then, while aaron was taking a photo of another bird, the Bustard came over and pecked at his exposed toes!! That Bastard Bustard! He then proceeded to get upset at aaron's camo shorts and started squaking at the top of his lungs at them. It was hilarious. The little Bustard was so enamored with our group that he almost walked right out the aviary with us!
There were also a couple of species of Lemurs, the Black and White Ruffed Lemurs facinated me as they were amazingly aware of their surroundings, and their little baby lemur was far too cute for words. The whole park was full of baby and adolecent animals, some only a few days old! Now that's the sign of a healthy animal preserve!!
So, if you're an animal lover and you're sick of seeing poor critters stuck behind bars and held up in tiny pens at zoos, then look to Safari West as an alternative!! Everything there is by reservation only so plan in advance. And don't let the sarari adventure fee detour you, its worth every penny!!
On top of the truck, getting ready to leave.
Blue Wildebeest and several day old calves
Giraffe road block
Yellow Bellied Bustard!! That bastard tried to eat my finger!!
Happy baby getting some dinner
Baby lemur I wanted to steal....
(And if you go be sure to see if Gideon is working! I'm sure you could request to be in his truck if you ask by name. Although be aware that Gideon is his enlish name, his african name is spoken in clicks and clucks! Seriously! He's awesome. AND if you ask nicely he can sing you a little tune you'd probably recognize from your younger years. You know the opening of the Lion King, when the afterican singers belt it out during the intro to "Circle of Life", well one of those singers was Gideon!! He sang it during the end of our trip and i've had the damn tune in my head ever since!)
Safari West is a 400 acre animal sanctuary, specializing in African mammals mostly. This is no typical "zoo" experience in any way. Instead its an actual safari, 4 wheel trekking vehicle and all! Its a 2 hour tour and during that time your tour guide/driver takes you all over the preserve, stopping when ever you come across a herd of animals so they can tell you about the species and where they're from, etc.
Aaron and I lucked out and landed in a truck with mostly elderly folks (read: no screaming children! yay!) who were happy to let us have the top tier seats positioned above the canopy of the truck and directly above the driver. From here we had an unobstructed view of the whole park, and even with ducking here and there to avoid trees, they were still the best seat in the truck! We also struck gold with our tour guide, Gideon, who was born and raised in Africa and had all sorts of stories to share with us along the way, from ostrich racing to raising baby zebras. He taught us that just about every african animal is dangerous in one way or another. Ostrich's can run you down and tear at you with their huge talon, Cape Buffalo (2,000 lb of animal!) will run you down and kill you without a second thought (Gideon knew several people killed by these giant buffalo in Africa!), Giraffes use their long necks to swip at enemies and their neck alone weighs several hundred pounds, Zebras are quite vicious critters and will gladly kick you if you try to bother them. In fact while our truck was stopped in the zebra sanctuary one zebra got pissed off at another herd member and fully back kicked him in the face several times and chased him away! That guy was *not* horsing around!!
Highlight of the trip: Driving through the giraffe area and coming up to two giraffes blocking the road. After Gideon proceeds to tell us how these are wild animals and could easily break your neck if they were provoked, he slowly nudges the truck towards the large male giraffe trying to get him to move. So moves he does, right over to the side of the truck, about eye to eye with Aaron and I. He was so beautiful, glassy eyes, chewing his leaf, blue tongue licking the air. Then he decided he needed to duck down and attempt to lick my leg! Aaron's squealing with joy, capturing the short encounter on film, while our tour guide below yells at us not to touch the beautiful beast. I don't think I will ever again get that close to a giraffe. It was awesome!! And here's a short clip of our giraffe encounter: http://youtube.com/watch?v=cgs2HQtTHGE
And you're not done when the safari trucks stop. Then you get a short guided tour of the enclosed caged animals. We walked through the aviary, crazy looking african birds were running by our feet while Gideon pointed out different species of ducks, cranes, ibis's, and other colorful critters. He picked out the Yellow Bellied Bustards and explained they were very friendly and in Africa they roam around villages and villagers feed them corn and other bird treats. The male Bustard came out to the group of us immediately and started following all of us around. It was actually really cute. . . until he bit my finger. And then, while aaron was taking a photo of another bird, the Bustard came over and pecked at his exposed toes!! That Bastard Bustard! He then proceeded to get upset at aaron's camo shorts and started squaking at the top of his lungs at them. It was hilarious. The little Bustard was so enamored with our group that he almost walked right out the aviary with us!
There were also a couple of species of Lemurs, the Black and White Ruffed Lemurs facinated me as they were amazingly aware of their surroundings, and their little baby lemur was far too cute for words. The whole park was full of baby and adolecent animals, some only a few days old! Now that's the sign of a healthy animal preserve!!
So, if you're an animal lover and you're sick of seeing poor critters stuck behind bars and held up in tiny pens at zoos, then look to Safari West as an alternative!! Everything there is by reservation only so plan in advance. And don't let the sarari adventure fee detour you, its worth every penny!!
On top of the truck, getting ready to leave.
Blue Wildebeest and several day old calves
Giraffe road block
Yellow Bellied Bustard!! That bastard tried to eat my finger!!
Happy baby getting some dinner
Baby lemur I wanted to steal....
(And if you go be sure to see if Gideon is working! I'm sure you could request to be in his truck if you ask by name. Although be aware that Gideon is his enlish name, his african name is spoken in clicks and clucks! Seriously! He's awesome. AND if you ask nicely he can sing you a little tune you'd probably recognize from your younger years. You know the opening of the Lion King, when the afterican singers belt it out during the intro to "Circle of Life", well one of those singers was Gideon!! He sang it during the end of our trip and i've had the damn tune in my head ever since!)
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