A few weeks back, we took the kids on a day trip to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, which bills itself as "African Safari. Texas Style", so we were half expecting the animals to wear cowboy hats or something equally horrific. Fortunately they weren't.
There is nothing like an getting an early start, and this was nothing like it. Despite only being an hour away, we got there early afternoon, with three extremely excited kids. A quick stop at the restrooms, and we set off for the first loop round the park, She Who Must Be Obeyed driving, me armed with assorted cameras and lenses, and the kids hanging out the window.
I took a 200-400mm zoom lens to try and get some decent shots of the animals, which turned out to be absolutely useless when the animals like sticking their heads in your car.
Also learnt that Zebras smell like sweaty horses, surprisingly enough.
First animals we came across were a herd of assorted deer, with a few buffalo and goats thrown in. Didn't have a video camera with me, but watching a buffalo toss a goat out of the way with a flick of its neck was a sight to see. It was trying to eat some food the buffalo wanted.
About half way round the loop, you meet some friendly two legged creatures who like to stick their heads in the car.
We thought it would be nice for the kids to have a bag of feed for the animals each, after warning them that they shouldn't eat it themselves, and hoping they'd listen. If an animal came within 20 yards, Alex would throw a hand-full of food and had run out half way round the first loop. Amy would get all excited as animals approached the car, then when they got too close panicked and backed away. Unbeknown to me however, Katie, being both the eldest and most mischievous, decided it would be humerus to line up food along the window, right underneath the camera lens as I was taking pictures. So I'm snapping away as this ostrich gets closer and closer, filling the viewfinder, then suddenly lunges at me (or rather, lunges at the food that I didn't know was there). Certainly got my attention, so thank you Katie, that will not be forgotten.
At the end of the loop, a trip to the petting zoo was in order.
And that went about as expected. Katie liked feeding the animals, since she had saved some food. Stopping Alex from chasing them was a full time job. Amy was a mixture of fear and excitement, but wouldn't get too close. Oh, and a goat adopted me and kept trying to eat my t-shirt every time I crouched down to take a picture. Every single time.
A couple more loops of the park followed, several hundred pictures for me to sort through, and that's probably the best behaved the kids have ever been on a trip.
Anyone know how to stop the car smelling of sweaty zebra?
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