I mentioned in the previous update that weve always had terrible luck with the safari. Weve rarely seen any animals, and the one time an animal actually got close to our vehicle, it was an ostrich and it scared the crap out of me. I was sitting at the edge of our row and it was
right there. I started crying/hyperventilating and tried to lean as far away from it as I could. It was not fun. But this time around, all of those bad memories were replaced with some amazing ones. The number of animals we saw and their proximity to us was incredible. It was really exciting!
First up, we saw some Black Rhinos taking a nap. They were precious.
But at the same time, those black birds you see everywhere were flying insanely close to the vehicle. I was praying that our driver would step on it and get us out of there ASAP.
Here are some deer-like critters doing deer-like things. I cant remember what either of them are called.
Heres a Hippo chillin underwater.
And then it was time to head out to the savannah. Its gorgeous.
We wound our way past the Thompsons Gazelles and the Zebras, and came upon the giraffes.
I love giraffes. A lot. I always have, I always will. As a kid, I used to watch shows about giraffes on Animal Planet, wishing that I could meet one and feed him some browse so we could become best friends. I really wanted a friend who was an animal. Humans just werent cutting it at the time. Plus, theres just something so cool about giraffes. Theyre so unique. I used to envision myself riding to school on my giraffe friends back, with my arms wrapped around his neck. I was a strange kid.
So what happened next quickly rose toward the top of my Coolest Things That Have Ever Happened to Me list.
This giraffe walked right over to me. Literally, right over to me. He (or she, I guess) wasnt like Oh, Im just gonna wander over to the truck
it was more of an I see you and Im walking right to you. We even made eye-contact.
He got closer than this, but I was in too much shock to take another picture.
I didnt really know what to do with myself because, really, what do you do when your childhood fantasy comes to life? I really wanted to reach out and touch him, but I figured that someone from Disney would come running out with a tranquilizer gun to take me out, so I settled on saying hello to my new giraffe friend the cordial way with baby talk. Some combination of OH MY GOSH HELLO! ARENT YOU JUST THE CUTEST THING EVER! I JUST WANT TO CUDDLE YOU TO MY CHEST AND TIE LITTLE BOWS AROUND YOUR HORNS AND LOVE YOU FOREVER came out of my mouth. It wasnt food, so my giraffe friend wasnt all that impressed. But he didnt like run away or anything, so Im taking that to mean that he liked me.
After like a minute of my ooohing and ahhing, he started to walk away, so our driver took that as his opportunity to start moving again. But before we left, I snapped one final picture of my new giraffe BFF.
Yknow how sometimes when people have really good experiences with a CM, they write Disney a letter/e-mail to acknowledge their amazingness? I kinda want to write a letter acknowledging this giraffe. I mean, he was wonderful, and he definitely deserves some extra leaves or something.
We continued on our safari and passed by this closed road. I love all the little details on this ride. I mean, it would have been easy for Disney to scrimp on the details because most people are so focused on the animals they dont notice them, but they didnt. Because theyre awesome like that.
Up next, we encountered the 1-2 punch of pachyderms: elephants and rhinos! Not together, though that would have been fun. Do elephants and rhinos even get along in real life?
As you can see in that last picture, there was a baby! It was adorable.
He was getting a drink from that watering hole, but he leaned so far in that his whole body wound up in the water. It was the cutest thing. I wanted nothing more than to jump out of the vehicle and join him for a swim. But, again, I thought of the tranq gun-wielding people jumping out of the bushes and decided against it.
Heres a rhino family hiding in the foliage.
Again, the baby was absolutely adorable. He filled me with warm fuzzies.
Next, it was time to meet some lions. I was hoping that an African choir would appear out of nowhere and burst into NAAAAAAAANTS INGONYAMA BAGITHI BABAAAAA while a lion dramatically took his place atop the rock, but instead we got this
Not quite the same. But I cant say I blame him. Being king must take so much effort. Poor guy probably just needed a moment of Hakuna Matata.
At this point, the relaxing, lets look at the pretty animals part of the ride ended, and the What? Poachers captured Little Red? OH NO THEY DIDNT. Somebody hold my earings part of the ride began. I quite enjoy feeling the wind through my hair as we chase down the poachers. Ultimately, Little Red was safe, the warden found the scumbags, and we made it back in one piece. Hooray.
Safari complete, we decided it was time to head back to the Polynesian for a nap and some pool time, so we made the (insanely long, but remember I didnt complain this time) trek from Africa to the bus stops.
Of course, just as we made it to the buses, the Polynesian/Contemporary bus was pulling out.
Did we A) jump up and down like crazy people hoping the bus would see us and stop B) wait for the next bus C) curl up into the fetal position and cry or D) none of the above? Youll just have to stay tuned for the next installment to find out.
Can't wait to hear what you did in response to the bus problem. 
I just caught up with your TR and I'm loving it! Will Smith, NSYNC, B*Witched references? I'm in. 
Kara I am all caught up!! 
Never gets old to me. Just ask Jess. I freakkk out when the animals get close to the safari vehicle. But in a good way. LOL.
