Fortunately it was not an actual fever. Our hosts in Belgium provided us a good recommendation to cure this fever. We were given a prescription for a visit to Le Monde Sauvage!
http://mondesauvage.be
Neither Alisa nor I had ever done a drive in safari so we were interested to experience it as well. We had faith in our trusty Peugeot that it could withstand a Rhino's charge (although this was not specifically noted in the operator's manual) so off we went.
We purchased our ticket and the gates slowly opened in front of us allowing us to drive into a giant savannah like area. We saw zebra, antelopes, and watusi milling around.
It got exciting when we neared a group of zebra. Alisa was driving and our opened windows must have revealed something delicious. The zebra stuck its nose right in!
We have the pictures Alisa took as well as my pictures of Alisa taking the picture. Exciting!
Quickly the zebra lost interest. Just as quickly the windows were rolled up.
We moved on and came near two frolicking elephants. The male was particularly thrilled.
Next we saw some rhinos resting peacefully in the mud, none of whom were particularly inclined to stand up, let alone charge.
As we were rolling past the rhinos, a hippo emerged from the large pond we were circling! I had never seen a hippo up close and knew they could do some devastating damage if provoked.
Please see this factual documentary, focusing on second 36 which documents the hippo involvement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkHA2pf1gvc
Also please note, my brother did the CGI work of the hippo.
(And a shout out to my brother's CGI company! For quality work you can trust, find them here):
http://www.star-beast.com/#
I can see that the Coke executives would say, "Let's have the hippo leap up and bite that boat in half!" instead of "As the guy walks across the savannah, let's have him avoid stepping in dung by having a hippo walk in front of him and scarf it down like kids devour ice cream sundaes."
Because, as we slowly drove by the hippo, it was devouring dung with a speed we found both fascinating and disgusting.
The rest of the drive did not have the same level of excitement but we felt it was a pretty good run.
When we reached the parking lot, we walked into a phenomenal play area, complete with giant boat. Joey and Sammy were off like a shot!
We spent a good part of the morning running and playing in this huge area.
It was a little strange because we were surrounded by animals including wolves.
However, the only thing eaten in that play area were some Belgium frites with ample mayonnaise.
This powered us up to walk around the huge area and look at some other animals.
They had penguins, bison, large birds of prey, chimpanzees, giraffes, ostrich, seals, and polar bears.
We felt terrible for many of the other animals as they were essentially locked up or their habitant was not ideal to the climate. The big cats did not have a lot of space and it was sad to see. The bears had more space (and no Spaniards around throwing them food) which was better. The orangutans were huddled together under a blanket.
On the plus side, it did help the boys see and appreciate much of the wildlife. Joey especially loved the birds of prey like:
The South American Condor
White Tailed Eagle
The huge route took us to an enclosure with giraffes and ostriches next. We stood up on a high platform and were able to commune with the giraffes. One of them who Joey called "Hayseed" due to the hay stuck in its mouth, stayed close to us for a while and Joey was thrilled.
Then we caught the tail end of a seal show and then stumbled upon another enormous playground. Joey discovered the wonder of a zip line.
By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and left this savage world for a relaxing hot chocolate and warm bath back at our cottage.
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