Animal Kingdom & Grinning ghosts

More Disney layouts to share and this one is from the Kilimanjaro Safari. We took literally hundreds of photos during the many times that we went on, so again there are lots of layouts. As well as a general Safari layout, I’m doing ones of specific animals that we saw.

I used Basic Grey, which is taking a real hammering at the moment, plus there’s a sheet of some very old paper as the background. I must have had it for at least ten years!

This layout needed to be a double. I had too many lion photos that I loved, and one of them needed to be BIG. Assorted older papers used and I heat embossed some chipboard for the title. 
This one is one of the Photopass photos, where they put a border on. I used more old papers & some cardstock laceThis one is from Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We have loads of photos from that night so there are more layouts to come, but I loved this photo so much that I printed it huge and it’ll be the section divider for MNSSHP.

I’ve been waiting a long time to use that embossed Mickey paper!

The album is starting to look quite full now. I’ve had to buy a second one.

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Animal Kingdom and Olive Garden

I had a second birthday today. We didn’t spend much time in Disney yesterday, apart from our resort, so I had my Disney birthday today and wore by birthday badge. We went to Animal Kingdom for early entry so were there at a few minutes after 8am. As usual we made a bee line for the Safari and went on twice before park opening at 9am. We took one or two photos, which I’m sure you guessed. This was our last full day at Disney so here are the last Safari photos of the trip.

Black Rhino

White Rhino

I’m pleased with the photo of the Black Rhino, with his reflection and I love that we got a shot of some of the White Rhinos all lined up like that.

Sable Antelope

Hippo

I’ve been trying to get a reasonable photo of the Sable Antelope for ages, and that’s the best I’ve managed. They’re either on the other side of the truck or hiding in the grass. That’s the first time we’ve seen a hippo all the way out of the water.

Giraffe

Mandrills

That giraffe was really close to the truck. We could almost have reached out and touched him. The shot of the apes is a bit blurred but they are so hard to get a photo of. We have lots of shots of Monkey’s point with blurred black blobs in it so this one isn’t bad by comparison. I’ve posted it as there was a humorous situation. We had a truck load of kids, as usual and a split second after this photo was taken, the Mandrill on the right leapt onto the other one and started doing something not suitable for minors, if you get my drift. There was a stunned silence on the truck and then the driver quickly pulled away saying “Time to go see the Elephants now, I think!” Most of the adults on the truck were highly amused.

Cheetah

cheetah

Both the Cheetahs were on the move today so we got a few reasonable shots. We’ve been really lucky this year and have seen them most times we’ve gone on Safari.

After we’d done both Safaris we went to get coffee. While I was waiting at the window to pick up our drinks, the server noticed that I was wearing a Birthday badge and wished me a happy birthday. He vanished for a moment and reappeared with this.

Elephant Ears

He put it down in front of me and said it was for me, for my birthday. Wasn’t that lovely? It was on two plates too so ready for us to share, which we did. It was very nice.

We went for a stroll around the Pangani Forest Trail and we saw some Elds deer and Blackbuck. They were quite close to the wall so we got several good photos.

Elds Deer

The Asian tigers were hiding today but we got a terrific view of this Sumatran tiger.

Sumatran tiger

Sumatran tiger

Isn’t she beautiful! She’s three years old and is the most gorgeous deep bronze colour. She has such a lovely face too.

Siamang

We watched the Gibbons playing for a while. They were swinging all around their island and playing with various hanging toys. Then we made our way to the theatre where my favourite show is and watched it for the second time this trip.

Nemo, the musical

I love that show so much. The performers and the way they interact with the puppets, the colours, the costumes and the music. All fabulous! I was a bit sad that it was our last time in Animal Kingdom so on the way out, we picked up this to keep me going until we can return.

We went back to the Beach Club and did most of the packing before heading out to Olive Garden for lunch. We’ve never been there before but it gets good reviews and the menu online looked very nice indeed. Both of our entrees came with soup. I had a Chicken & Gnocci as I’ve never had Gnocci before. It was delicious. Really creamy with melt in your mouth chicken pieces. Stephen had a dense, vegetable-filled Minestrone.

For our entrees, Stephen had Garlic rosemary chicken, and I had Grilled chicken on creamy Alfredo linguine, tossed with butternut squash. Both were excellent. I was quite full after that but really fancied a dessert so I had one of their Dolcini desserts, a tiramisu. Stephen had a full size dessert, the Black Tie Mousse cake.

Our server was brilliant. She decided that Stephen’s cake was a bit small so only charged us for another Dolcini, which knocked about $5 off the bill. She was pleasant and friendly throughout our whole meal, not rushing us, but not neglecting us either. I tipped well 🙂

We finished the day by popping down to Epcot to say goodbye. We had a last go on Test Track and the last Disney ride of this holiday was at Soarin. That was sad as I really love Soarin and that’s probably the last time we’ll see it like that. They’re going to change the film to something like Soarin over the world instead of California. I’m sure the new one will be great but I’ll still miss the original.

On the way back to our villa, we stopped into one of the communal rooms and had a few games of pool. Stephen won the best of three, but I did win the first game.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Disney World. I’m quite sad about that.

Epcot, Animal Kingdom & Tusker House

We were out early this morning as it was Extra Magic Hours at Epcot. We didn’t stay long, just enough to do Soarin, Test Track and Mission Space. We also had a bit of breakfast in Sunshine Seasons. That done, we walked back up to the Beach Club for a couple of hours before heading out to Animal Kingdom.

Yes, I know it seems like we’re there almost every day, but we really do love it. I don’t think I’d ever get tired of doing the Safari or strolling around the various trails. Especially in this glorious sunshine. It was in the high eighties today so it was a bit tricky posing for one of the photos. The photographer told us to look chilly…

Those are ‘surprised and chilly’ faces, in case you can’t tell.

We had FastPasses for Expedition Everest, Dinosaur and of course, the Safari. We also spent some time walking round the Pangani Forest trail. Our Safari was around 2.30pm so not the best time as it’s still very hot then and the animals aren’t as active. We did get a good view of the elephants though, and got some decent shots of the Sable antelopes.

We didn’t think anything could top yesterday’s gorilla sightings but we were wrong. As we walked around to the glassed in area behind the hill, we saw the seventeen year-old female walking down the slope towards us.

She was carrying her two and a half month old baby. It was a real Wow moment. Obviously the cameras were working overtime but I’ll only post a few here so you don’t get bored.

He was adorable. I could have watched him for hours, but we had a dinner reservation so had to leave him after a while. Isn’t he just so cute though?

We had dinner at Tusker House which is a buffet with African inspired foods. There was some melt-in-your-mouth pork and some delicious salmon. I had a yummy samosa, some curried rice and some plantain. It was all excellent. I love the food there.

I didn’t take photos of the savoury foods but I did take a quick snap of the desserts that we had.

That’s Chocolate volcano, Strawberry mousse, Lemon bar and Passion fruit tart. Yum. I also had a small helping of Cherry cobbler with warm vanilla sauce.

This was a character meal so we had visits from Daisy, Donald, Goofy and Mickey. With photos, of course.

After we’d eaten our fill, we made our way back to our villa, intending to pop over to Epcot later to see the fireworks. Stephen went for a quick lie down and as I can now hear the fireworks going off, and he still hasn’t moved, I’m guessing we’re not going 🙂

Plenty of time left to see them another night though.

We’re ready for a non-Disney day now so we may go for a drive somewhere nice tomorrow. I don’t know where yet. Waiting for Sleepy head to stir so we can discuss it.

Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios

We did early entry to Animal Kingdom again today. We didn’t have to go out quite so early this time though as we went in the car. It was a bit nippy when we went out, at 7.30am, so we tried out the heated seats in our swanky hire car. Very nice!

As usual, we headed straight for the Safari and got on twice before park opening. The big cats were awake again and we had two brilliant rides.

The cheetah was near the front, peering at us from behind a rock.

The lioness was lying down and surveying her kingdom.

The warthog was close to the road.

And so was one of the giraffes.

And the herd of addax.

Isn’t he gorgeous!

After doing the two Safaris, we went for some breakfast from Kusafiri coffee shop. I was very tempted by the cheese danish and the cinnamon buns but was slightly more healthy and had the savoury option, a breakfast roll. Stephen had the same. They were piping hot and really good. They were full of egg, sausage, spinach and goat’s cheese.

We spent some time walking round the two animal trails. Both lots of gorillas were out. Stephen took some photos of the bachelor troupe, while I concentrated on the family. Stephen had some difficulty as he was shooting into the sun, but he did get some nice photos. This is one of the best.

Isn’t he a handsome beast? From my photos, I’ve picked the cute shot of the baby gorilla with the funny face.

I got a fairly good shot of one of the gibbons that live on the island with the deserted temple.

There was a tiger stalking around her enclosure but it was difficult to get photos because of the bright sun contrasting with the shadows. I did get a few though.

She’s so beautiful. We were told that she’s seventeen years old and is an Asian tiger.

We did a few things that were on our wish list for this holiday. We went into It’s tough to be a bug as Stephen likes it. I’m not as keen – there are bugs.

We saw the Festival of the Lion king. I’d forgotten just how good that is. Finally we saw my favourite show in any of the Disney parks – Finding Nemo, the musical. I love, love, love that show. It’s so brilliantly done.

We headed back to the Beach Club for a siesta after that, grabbing some lunch from our shop on the way. Stephen had a hot roast beef sandwich.

I was still feeling in a healthy-ish food mood so had the quinoa and roasted veg wrap. It came with a bit of salad and was excellent.

Late afternoon we strolled over to Hollywood Studios and did Toy Story midway mania. I got the best score of the hour and beat Stephen, of course. We also had a final ride on Tower of Terror. We did think we might see Fantasmic, but we couldn’t resist one last go on The great movie ride, and didn’t quite get out of that in time. When we went into The great movie ride there was no-one else in there other than the cast members. For a few minutes we thought we were going to have the whole ride to ourselves, but then a couple of dozen more people came in. We did get the front row, right next to the driver though, so that was brilliant. Our gangster was quite menacing.

We walked back from the Studios. It was a lovely walk in the dark, along the waterway. We’re just chilling in our villa now, watching tv and surfing.

We’ve another early start tomorrow with extra magic hours in Epcot.

Animal Kingdom and Sweet Tomatoes

I’m a bit late posting this as I wasn’t feeling too good last night. I’ve had a cold brewing for a few days, which I’ve been ignoring, but yesterday it got worse. When we got in, after being out for over twelve hours, I went straight to bed. I’m feeling a bit better this morning but we’re having a quiet day in as I don’t feel like going out. We may go to the Magic Kingdom for extra magic hours later, depending how we both feel.

In other news, the crown has come off my back tooth. Great huh? It’s been loose and flapping about for a couple of days and I was hoping it would stay put until we got home. Today it was worse and it was making it difficult to eat so I eased it all the way off. I have been worried that it’d come off in the night and get swallowed so it’s a relief that it’s off now. It doesn’t hurt, but there is some dental cement left in the tooth which may be protecting it. Hopefully that’ll stay there. I really don’t want to go to the dentist here if I can help it. I’ve just checked our insurance and there’s only £200 dental cover. I foolishly didn’t check, assuming that the huge amount of medical cover would do for all things medical. Apparently not. That’ll teach me to read all the small print next time.

But never mind all that. I’m sure you’d rather read about our adventures yesterday. We started early, again, and got to Animal Kingdom just after 8am, for early entry. We made straight for the safari and rode it twice before park opening.

We saw lots of animals, including the bongos, which were crossing the road in front of us and were very close to the side of the truck. The best thing was the big cats though. Not only did we see the cheetahs, but one of them was actually walking. Usually you see two cheetah shaped blobs lying down in the distance, but today we had a really good view.

Not too bad a photo considering it’s fully zoomed and taken from a bouncing truck. The male lion was on his feet too, again not something you see too often.

As we came round the hill that the lions live on, he started to roar. It was quite impressive.

We saw all the elephants out, but they were mostly on the side where they’re slightly obscured with foliage. I did take a photo of one of my favourite views in the elephant area though, and there are some elephants in there.

You just have to look closely.

We used our first FastPass on Expedition Everest.

I think Stephen was scared of the Yeti. Our next FP was on the Safari, again, and the last one was on Dinosaur.

We were being silly for the camera. As you do.

The photographers seem to be in different places to the usual spots this year. We found one by Everest so had a few pics taken. I liked that she took some against the signs, and then moved us to take some with the flags.

 

We also had a walk round the Pangani Forest trail, some of which was closed off. We also walked round the Maharaja Jungle trek, but the tigers were all napping where they were out of sight.

We left Animal Kingdom around 12.30 and got a Disney bus to the Dolphin hotel, where we picked up our car. I’d ordered an economy (very small). Usually they don’t have them so you get a free upgrade to whatever they do have. We never expect that though and would be fine with a small car as that’s what we’re used to at home. We’ve got a beauty this time though. It’s a bright red Chevrolet Cruze with all the bells and whistles. Leather interior, a touch screen for the music system, (which we’re still trying to figure out) and it’s very smooth and comfortable. Stephen is a very happy chappy.

We drove straight to Sweet Tomatoes for our lunch. We do love it there with the fabulous salad selection and the delicious hot foods, not to mention the desserts. I’d had an email from them advertising their latest seasonal dessert – Pumpkin cobbler with walnuts. I managed to save enough room for two small helpings of it. Yum! We both had a nice plate of salads, picking out all our favourite items. We both had some soup. Stephen had split pea and barley, while I had clam chowder. We both had a slice of the foccacia pizza and Stephen finished with a zucchini muffin.

We had a lunch planned at one of the Downtown Disney restaurants for next week but we decided that we’d need to return to Sweet Tomatoes, and would have a much nicer lunch there for under $20 than we’d have at the other one for probably $60+, so I’ve cancelled our reservation and we’ll go back to Sweet Tomatoes for another nice lunch. (and more pumpkin cobbler)

After lunch we drove to Universal as I wanted to activate our annual passes. I got a decent AP discount on our room there and had read that you need to have the pass activated before checking in. It didn’t take long to exchange the voucher for passes and we then went into Islands of Adventure. It was packed in there so we didn’t bother going on any rides, although we did walk through Hogsmeade for a look. After we’d walked all the way round, taking in the atmosphere and reminiscing about past visits, we headed back to the Beach Club, mainly as I was feeling quite grotty.

I’m not sure if we’ll go out later. We may do as I don’t feel too bad now, but Stephen has just gone for a nap as he seems determined that he has a dose of man flu coming. He was trying very hard to cough convincingly earlier. Men!

Tomorrow we have another lazy morning planned as today should have been a late night, so we’ll play it by ear and see how we both feel.

Day seventeen – Animal Kingdom & Yak and Yeti

We had another delicious lunch today and as it was fairly quiet at Animal Kingdom, and we did early entry, we went on the Safari five times. Yes, I did say five. Lots of photos – you have been warned.

We were up and out as early as we have been all holiday. We wanted to be there for 8am to make the most of early entry, or Extra Magic Hours as they call it these days. Stephen took some photos from the balcony while I was getting ready. See? Early.

We had a fifteen minute wait for a bus so we think we must have just missed one, but we got there just at 8am and went straight in after the obligatory bag check. We headed straight for the Safari and grabbed Fastpasses before going on via standby. I’ll just note that although we used FP during the day we didn’t really need them as we never saw a queue longer than ten minutes for either the Safari or Dinosaur.

We took a lot of photos during the five Safaris that we went on through the day. Don’t worry, I have no intention of making you sit through a blow by blow account of each separate Safari. I’ll just give you a sort of synopsis.

The cheetahs were being particularly co-operative today. We’ve seen them before on this trip but not managed any reasonable photos before. Today not only did we get photos of them, a couple of times we saw them walking about near the front.

We saw the lions on most of the trips but I couldn’t get any better photos than I did the other day. I have developed a new technique for Safari photography though. Instead of trying to line up a shot, I just hold up the camera, aim it in the general direction and click as soon as the truck isn’t actually bouncing. I can crop and compose in Elements afterwards. Stephen was still trying to zoom in and compose and I’ve just deleted several photos of the sleeve of the man in the seat in front of us. A combination of techniques is the best bet, I think and as many trips as possible as then you can take a couple of photos and then sit back and enjoy. I really love the Safari now that the poacher storyline has gone.

We did already have several photos of the giraffe, especially the baby Masai giraffe, but I couldn’t resist a few more. He’s getting braver now and coming closer to the trucks and we had several really good views of him. In the photo above you can see his beautiful markings clearly.

We’ve seen some different animals on the Safari this year. I’ve already uploaded photos of the Addax, but today for the first time we saw Bontebok. I caught a glimpse of them through a gap and was really hoping we got a bit closer as they are so rare. As we came around the corner we got this view.

Aren’t they beautiful! They’re now extinct in the wild and are only found on reservations and places like this. Animal Kingdom has just managed to get the chap on the left to go with the two ladies so they’re hoping for the patter of tiny hooves soon. They’ve had massive success with breeding programs this year as we’ve seen from all the baby animals so their conservation work is doing really well. Did I mention that we saw a baby elephant nursing yesterday? That was quite something to see.

On another of our safaris we saw the Bontebok again. I was so thrilled to see them. We’ve seen one on our savanna and I fell in love with him so I was really happy to see more of them. I love their little faces.

We saw the waterbuck today. They’ve been a bit shy up until now, and we also saw the Sable antelope with several of their youngsters. The zebras were roaming about quite happily and look who was with them.

Ok, I promise I’ll step away from the Bontebok now 😉

What else did we see? Elephants of course. We saw lots of elephants as we went round. And around. We had a nice view of the bull elephant on one trip. He had a good drink of water and then blew it out just as we passed him. I rather like this shot with the birds on the branch in the foreground.

We also saw a lot more of the mandrill monkeys than we usually do. The whole family was out and was active. It’s a bit tricky to get decent photos of them as they do tend to blend into the background, and they move fast but this one isn’t too bad.

We walked round the various trails and pathways of the park in between Safaris as well as going on Dinosaur one last time. I do love that ride. We always strike an amusing pose as we know where the camera is. We always seem to ride with first-timers for some reason and the photos are hilarious. We’re pretending to look terrified, and they really do look terrified. Brilliant.

The tigers were just being called in for dinner when we popped over there and we managed to get a couple of photos of this one. It was making a loud chuffing noise as it walked.

We went to see the meerkats and found this one on lookout.

I love meerkats. They’re so cute.

We were lucky enough to not only see the Okapi walking about but also to see the yellow-backed duiker.

 

I’m not sure we’ve ever seen one properly before. Maybe just a dark blur in a corner as they’re a very shy animal. This one was very obliging and stood still for several photos.

One of the gorillas was having a snack so we took his photo.

As we haven’t been over for ages, we took the Wildlife express to Rafiki’s planet watch and had a smashing time chatting to keepers and looking at the exhibits and videos. We saw a display on the beehive fences that they use to protect the villages from elephants and therefore the elephants from the villagers. We learnt about that on our Wild Africa Trek so it was great to see photos and video to go with that info.

By now it was time for our lunch but we weren’t quite hungry. I popped in to the restaurant and asked if it could be pushed back, not really expecting it could. I was pleasantly surprised to be told that it was fine and I could come back at any time, and just to tell them what time our initial reservation was. We left it an hour until we got hungry and then went back and as promised were taken straight to a table. Excellent service, but I wouldn’t expect it on a busy day.

We’d gone to the Yak and Yeti restaurant. We often eat at the counter that has noodles in those takeaway boxes and like the food there but I’d been reading about how good the food was inside so we thought we’d try it. We don’t do many sit down meals but did fancy this one.

We weren’t hungry enough for a starter. We rarely are. I was determined to leave room for dessert though as I’d read about one in particular and I wanted to see how it compared to yesterday’s delight.

For the entrée I had Crispy honey chicken and Stephen had Beef and broccoli. The chicken was in a tempura batter and was served with crunchy veg. The honey glaze was yummy as was the whole dish. I swapped a piece of my chicken for some of Stephen’s beef and that was really tender but my chicken was nicer.

Stephen had the egg fried rice with his, which was good, but I liked my jasmine rice. It had a nice delicate flavour.

I just about had enough room for dessert after clearing my plate, which was good as I really wanted a slice of mango pie. It gets rave reviews and I do love mango. I’m happy to report that it was excellent. The mango flavour was just strong enough and the base was nice and light. The coulis was delicious and the presentation was very pretty.

There was a portion of diced strawberry and mango with it that just finished it off perfectly. It was almost as good as the cheesecake from Sanaa.

Stephen had the chocolate cake. I could probably have chosen a different angle to shoot it from but I was lucky to get that photo before he dived in. I did ask him for a description of it but all I could get from him was “Very chocolatey”.

We ambled back out of the park after that and made our way home. I did have plans to do a bit of pre-packing but by the time I’d sorted through the photos and deleted all the blurred and sub-standard ones, I was flagging. All the fresh air, excitement and good food had once again tired me out. Stephen too, as we both ended up nodding off.

One day left and then we have to go home. Boo.

Day thirteen – Animal Kingdom

Just for a change today, I thought I’d post a load of animal photos. We’ve been on safari again and it was just the right weather it seems.

It’s been quite warm again with the temperature getting up into the eighties at one point but it’s been raining steadily for most of the day. Not torrential rain, just heavy enough so you know you’re getting wet. Most people in Animal Kingdom were wearing the Disney ponchos but we were ok just getting wet. It’s not as if we’re not used to it.

We were up and ready at 7am today, which is probably the earliest we’ve managed, but then we were expecting maintenance to fix our bedroom door. They weren’t due until 9am but I wasn’t taking any chances. It was nice to curl up on my huge comfy chair with my Kindle, where I had a good view of the savanna. I saw it gradually brighten up and various animals appeared over a couple of hours.

Once the door fixing was underway, and apparently we didn’t need to be here – we’d been misinformed, we headed off to Animal Kingdom. The safari was only a ten minute standby so we got a couple of Fastpass and joined the standby queue for our first ride. There was loads to see as the animals seemed to really like it out in the rain.

We’ve often seen a lion on the safari and sometimes we’ve seen two. Usually you just see a head or a foot. You consider yourself lucky to see a whole lion. Two whole lions is cause for celebration. Today we saw these two and had a really good view of them.

Isn’t he splendid?

And that’s not all. For the first time ever, we saw three lions at one time. I didn’t manage to get them all in the same photo. Anyone who’s been on the safari knows how tricky it is to take photos from a moving safari truck, but I did get this shot.

All the lions were facing the same way and if you followed their line of sight there was a small  herd of Grant’s zebra. Our driver quipped that the lions were considering them as a potential snack. If they could be bothered to do more than lift their heads, of course.

After we’d done a couple of safaris, we went for a walk round Asia to see if the tigers were out. This time they were and we managed to get photos.

We were more than a little damp by now and also peckish so we headed back to the lodge for lunch, which we fetched from Mara. We ate in our room so we could watch the F1 qualifying. We both had cheeseburgers. We just fancied a burger as neither of us has had one for months. We couldn’t decide what to have with it so we had couscous with one and fries with the other and did swappers. We picked up Pecan tarts but were too full from the burgers earlier so we’re just having them now for supper.

We did think we might go out this evening but Stephen went for a nap which lasted longer than anticipated and now we’ve lost the urge to move. We’re quite happy just chilling in our nice comfy villa. I watched the first Harry Potter film earlier while sorting through the photos on the laptop. The actors are so little! And cute! It was nice to revisit an oldie.

In between messing on the laptop and watching tv, I kept popping out onto the balcony. I saw some East African crowned cranes dancing by the water hole and various animals drifted over for a drink. I haven’t got those photos on the computer yet though so I’ll spare you those 😉

Tomorrow we’re going to have a good walk around the resort in the morning and explore all the overlooks before watching the Grand Prix. You have no idea how tempted we were to book flights to Austin to go and watch it but it would have shattered the budget so we refrained. Maybe another year.

Day six – Animal Kingdom

We had FP+ for Animal Kingdom today but didn’t need to be there until 11-ish so once again had a late start. I did some laundry and had a read before we headed for the Disney bus.

The entrance to Animal Kingdom looked a little different this morning as there was a huge Christmas tree that wasn’t there a couple of days ago. I love the decorations they use here. They’re so different to the ones used in the other parks.

Our first FP+ was for the Nemo show. We got great seats for that and really enjoyed it. I love that show. It’s so beautiful.

We were ready for lunch after the show and I’d spotted somewhere we hadn’t tried before so we headed back to Asia. There was a pathside stand selling some lovely sounding options. I had Samosas with a mango dip and Stephen had the falafel sandwich with apple slices. Both were delicious. For a mid-priced snack food they were very, very good and quite filling.

I’ve noticed a few places selling snacks and food options that I don’t recognise from last time we were here, and all have healthier options, or something that caters to different dietary requirements. There’s a lot of choice for anyone wanting something different to the usual tourist fare.

Our next stop was the Safari. We’ll ride this as often as we can as it’s different every time you go on. And yes, ok, we did do the behind the scenes version a couple of days ago, but it didn’t stop us from wanting to do the normal one. It was great fun to see where we’d been on our trek such as the bridge over the hungry crocs.

And the Boma where we had our delicious lunch.

We saw quite a lot of animals on this Safari. It wasn’t as hot today so they were fairly active. I think it was just in the 80s but there was some cloud cover too. We saw the monkeys out this time. They’re often quite shy but they were playing on the rock in full view for us.

We also had a great view of the cheetahs. They were near the back but weren’t tucked away so we could see them quite nicely. They seem to be one of the hardest animals to see on the safari so this is one of the best photos that I’ve managed to get.

The white rhino were right by the track so we had a great view of them today. This chap was only about two metres away.

As you’re finishing the safari there’s a new animal to see. They’re called Addax and are critically endangered.

We went to see the tigers after the safari but they were all out of sight. I think that’s the first time we’ve been over there and not seen any of them.

By now it was getting really crowded in the park and although we hadn’t been out for long, we decided we’d had enough. We’ve got plenty more time planned in Animal Kingdom and we just weren’t in the mood for a busy park.

We spent the evening relaxing and have just popped over to the Boardwalk bakery for some dinner. We brought back some pulled pork sandwiches and cakes. The sandwiches were lovely and the cakes are currently sitting in the fridge. I had the fruit tart and Stephen had the Key lime tart. We’re probably going to halve them and share. Yum.