The VA Safari Park is exactly what it sounds like. It's an out of this world drive through zoo with tons of exotic animals, and many no one has probably ever heard of much less seen up close. The best part? We were given a bucket of feed and were told we could feed any animals we wanted, but we had to stay in our cars. Driving through a zoo at our leisure with animals surrounding our car sounded amazing by itself, but getting to touch them and feed them!? Even better.
They had TONS of watusi (an African cow) with enormous horns, llamas were scattered everywhere, water buffalo, wildebeest, emus, ostrich, zebras, shaggy cows, camels, bison, and elk! That's not even all of the species. They were scattered throughout the park with lots of free roaming areas and obviously they didn't have a shortage of food!
We drove along with our windows down and we were nothing short of bombarded by beautiful, awkward, and just plain cute and odd animals. The second we stopped for the first time sever wildebeest flocked to Will's window and stuck their heads in our car demanding food. Several bison visited me on my side.
Several animals knew just the right place to stand so they could maximize the amount of food they received instead of having to share it. We encountered the smallest long haired cow we'd ever seen near a clearing in the trees just patiently waiting for someone to drive by. The second we stopped it would meander up to our car and look up at you trying to convince you to feed it. That guy had adorable begging down to an art.
About halfway along our journey we came to a road block. Apparently an ostrich got disgruntled when a car didn't have any food for it. It was prancing around the field in an angry fashion and decided it would take out its anger on several other cars. Luckily the animals are closely monitored, as well as the people driving in the park to insure safety for everyone, human or not. One of the workers had the lovely job of shooing the ostrich away from the cars. It was quite the spectacle to watch!
As our journey slowly came to an end we came upon another road block. This time two different watusi families were trolling the exit hoping to get whatever was leftover from peoples' buckets of feed. They walked casually up to each car in front of us and stuck their heads right in the cars from both sides if the windows were open! They knew how to get what they wanted! Plus when a gigantic cow with horns spanning 8 feet stick its face in your car you listen. Two cows had finished with the car in front of us and wandered over to my car and repeated the process.
This is such a fun detour on our otherwise uneventful 6 hour drive home that we still talk about it over a year later. The area is known for hiking and of course the famous natural bridge along a hiking trail and the infamous skyline drive. If the hiking along isn't enough to convince everyone you know to head out there, then the safari park should seal the deal!
"Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer."--
No comments:
Post a Comment