Out of Africa!

Posted by lovebug March 08, 2014

Out of Africa!

I have been wanting to go here, since I first saw the "Out of Africa" billboard on the highway, one of the first few weeks we moved to Phoenix.

But we never made it.

And we had no idea that it was actually in Cottonwood until we passed it when we came to look for a house here. We now literally live within 5-10 minutes of the place.!

Kind of funny I think =)

And we finally went this week while Mom was here!

Personally, I loved it. To me, being able to be that close to all of the animals (yes, we even got to be so close to the tigers, lions, and hyaenas) was SO worth it. I have never been so close to these things before. THEY ARE HUGE!

No wonder people are scared of tigers.

The tiger and hyena we saw, could literally lick your finger if you put it through the fence or.... bite it.... they were that close! So cool!

And for the record, I am now terrified of hyaenas. They were made to be scary on Lion King for a reason. And yes they actually "laugh"... which is NOT a good thing.

The place also had a couple of shows. We only went to the one called, Tiger Splash. This was cool. The tigers are not trained in anyway, nor are the people really, so it was kind of exciting to watch because I just kept thinking, "Wow, you guys can really be eaten at any given time"...

There were three young adults that would hold up floaties and run around, trying to get the tiger to run, jump, and splash into the water. Some parts were actually pretty funny. The coolest part was when the one put a rope around his waist which was connected to a surfing type of thing at the end, so when the tiger started to chase this white device and got his paws on it, he basically surfed for a while as the guy ran.

Until the tiger was finished. Whereas, the guy fell completely back on his back because he seriously was no match for this tiger in a tug or war game. It was crazy to see just how strong and big this cat really was.

I wanted to go to the snake show but "others" did not lol so we didn't. But it was okay. We walked around, got some popcorn and drinks and made our way around the exhibit until we boarded the bus for the Safari. There were trams stopping at stops all along the exhibit which was nice because a couple times if we wanted to get to another part of the park and not walk, we could just be picked up by a tram. And everyone was so easy going, so it was very nice.

Anyways, we almost didn't even do the Safari, but oh my lanta! It made the whole trip! I am SO glad we did! Both the kids LOVED it... well Lexi did not like a particular part, but they both were just memorized by all of these huge animals that really will walk right up to the bus.

It honestly felt like a real safari in the way that again, you got to be SO close to all of these animals. So it was a lot of fun.

The only part that Lexi did not enjoy, was being completely 100 % licked in the face by the 12 inch tongue of Pilgram, the giraffe. He got her good. She definitely thought she was going to be eaten alive.

The tour guide gave us all these plants to feed him but I think he was attracted to her bow a little bit more than the plant she was holding out...

She screamed bloody murder and cried for a good couple minutes. But she quickly got over it and even fed it some special treats that the tour guide gave her for being such a good sport.

We now use the term "giraffe kisses" over here. We'll never forget that experience!

So it was awesome. I LOVED taking pictures of everyone and all of the animals.

There are definitely some things that would make the place a little bit more comfortable but if you go just for the animals, then I think it's impossible to be disappointed.

Thanks so much mom for taking us!

Here are some of the pics, and by some, I mean lots =)

The walking around part