Now, the Wild Animal Park will use the word ‘Safari’ a lot, but don’t expect to feel as if in South-Africa. Albeit, I haven’t been to South Africa but at the Wild Animal Park never ever does one get the feeling that they are truly in the ‘wild’. Singapore Night Safari still takes the crown for that one.
The Wild Animal Park isn’t an all inclusive park. The charge of $35 for entry into the park which includes a tram ride and stuff you can do walking. But there are large sections of the park that are just unavailable unless a special tour is taken. Which usually run anywhere from $35 to $150. So plan your budget accordingly. If you think you’ll frequent the park or you are a group of 4, take the park membership for $90.This gives unlimited access + 2 free guest passes. I say this here since it’s not clearly mentioned on the park website.
On the way, we saw ducks, quite a bit of them, and they were not scared to approach us. We went to a petting cage where there were 2 types of about 15 deer (no horns). One could feed & pet them. We saw some other birds, parrots, macaws, a weird looking rodent like creature called Pudu. (Yes, I remember its name).
Finally, we boarded our ‘African Safrai Ride’. It was a tram much like the one at Disneyland which brings people into the park from the parking lots. The tram driver stopped at designated stops pointed out animals around us, deer, cheetah, giraffes, zebras, more deer, African rhino, buffalo etc. It was a good 30-40 min ride.
After the safari we made our way along the paved trails to elephant enclosures. We were fortunate to watch a big dude push aside a smaller elephant one who tried to steal his food. This was probably the highlight of the park - The animal behavior was on display rather than the animals themselves. We sat on benches by the enclosure watching the elephants and plotting our next move.
After the ride, we walked up a trail towards the condor enclosure stopping at the Tiger enclosure on the way. But the tiger eluded us. Later I found out not many people have seen the tiger at the park. May be next time! Meanwhile, Puneet, Anup and co went to see the 4-D movie. Condor is a large endangered bird found in the Grand Canyon area. We were lucky to see 3-4 birds. They are gi-normous.
By now it was getting dark. The animals were returning to their caves/shelters and so did we.
by Kartik Gupte
2 comments:
Great post - like reading your travelogues.
thanks for share...
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