An African Safari in Northern California
Last weekend, Steve and I went to Safari West for my birthday. Yes, my birthday was 5 months ago. But, for a variety of reasons (foster care raccoons; wanting to be sure it was warm September, not cold April; conference and vacation schedules of co-workers), we had planned it for this weekend. The whole Safari West experience is not cheap. My birthday present was a combined effort of my parents, Steve, and my own contributions. But it is so worth it!
We went up on Sunday afternoon after our shift at WildCare, getting up there around 4:30. The accommodations are “luxury safari tents”. They are basically like cabins, but the walls are made of canvas; each “room” is its own separate building. Even though the tents have some distance between them, because the walls are made of canvas, it is possible to hear people talking in other tents, so you do need to be a bit careful to keep your voice down. But the place is so relaxing and quiet, with just the sounds of the animals for the most part. Our tent was off at the end of the road, quite a bit away from the main area. It was perfect, just across from the lake.
There were some tents just across the road from the first animal enclosure which would have had great views of the giraffes, but there were some Sarus Cranes in there that made this huge trumpeting noise. Apparently the trumpeting of this species of bird was used as the velociraptor calls in Jurassic Park. Steve and I quickly agreed that we were glad to have a bit of distance from these calls.
After getting settled in our tent, we headed down to the main area to peruse the gift shop and take a look at the animals in the immediate area. The cheetahs were in a great position for pictures and I’m very glad we saw them Sunday because they were a bit harder to see on Monday.
Dinner was very good, with grilled meats, baked mac and cheese, salad, etc and fresh blackberry cobbler with ice cream. After dinner, everyone headed out to the lake to watch the catfish feeding. Safari West put 500 catfish in the lake 8 years ago. They have no idea how many are in there now, but these fish are enormous. Finally, we headed back to the dining area and roasted marshmallows while one of the employees played guitar. It was wonderfully relaxing. Actually, it was kind of like being at camp.
Back at the tent, we discovered that it was freezing. Because it had been in the high 90s and our tent had been stifling that afternoon, we had decided not to pay heed to the detailed instructions of how to be sure our tent was warm and cozy when we got back from dinner. It had been so hot that the last thing we wanted to do was close up the window flaps and turn on the space heater. But it cooled off rapidly when the sun went down. I think it was probably in the 50s overnight, and we left the window flaps halfway down so we could hear the animal sounds. The bed was warm and comfortable, so it was only the occasional trip to the loo that was cold.
However, in the morning, I had a long debate with myself over whether or not a shower was really necessary. Ultimately, I decided it was all part of the experience, so I headed into the open-air ventilated bathroom and turned the water as hot as it would go.
After breakfast, we headed out for our tour. It is amazing how much land Safari West has; their web site says the preserve is 400 acres. The first 2 and a half hours were spent driving around the property looking at the animals. We started in the main enclosure which holds the giraffes. There were several baby giraffes, including one that had just been born a week earlier.
After this first area, we headed off through a gate into the rangeland. The animals have acres and acres of land to roam. Ultimately, for the animals out on the range, I think it is almost like being in the wild, except that they do not need to worry about food, water, shelter, or predators.
The 3-hour safari tours are conducted mostly on these old Korean War-era trucks. There is a seating area up on top of the truck, over the head of the driver. We definitely wanted to sit up there, but we had to wait our turn. I’m actually glad that we didn’t sit up top for the first part of the tour. We went up top second, just as we started to head off-road into the range. It was quite an exciting ride at times and you know how I like a good thrill ride.
As we headed up and over a few hills, I was speculating with Steve what animals might be out there as we passed fields and fields of poop piles. Over one last hill and we got our answer.
These Scimitar Horned Oryx were enormous and they had so much space to roam.
I guess you seldom see all of the species of animals that live at Safari West on the tour because they have so much space and they just aren’t always by the road. But we saw plenty.
Let’s face it. The animals out on the range were all prey species. The only predators at Safari West are the cheetahs and a serval and they are in enclosures in the main area. So, basically, as we rode around the property we saw lots of variations on the deer/gazelle type of species. But our guide pointed out something interesting that I had never really realized before. When watching nature programs, I have wondered from time to time how different species stayed together during a stampede when a pride of lions attacked. Our guide noted that each of these different prey species has a different pattern on its butt. He called them “follow marks”. So, one species had black stripes on each cheek,
another species had a white circle around its butt (like it had sat on a freshly painted toilet seat),
another had those white circles filled in so each cheek was a white semi-circle,
and so on and so on. So each species basically recognizes the butt markings of their family members. During a stampede, as long as they follow the right markings, they’ll be together at the end. Neat.
In addition to these animals and many more, we also saw zebra, cape buffalo, and wildebeests.
We were also "trapped" by a couple of very curious ostriches. Ostriches can be very dangerous and the guide couldn't get out of the truck to open the gate we had to pass through with the ostriches so close, so we had to wait for another guide to come over and open the gate for us. In the meantime, we got some up close and personal moments with the birds. The female even spent a few minutes pecking at Steve's foot. As I said at the time, them's good eats between the toes!
After the driving part of the tour, we took another 45 minutes or so for the walking tour around the cheetah enclosures, the serval, and the lemurs.
There was an adorable baby on the lemur island. He moved so quickly that there were times I thought there were two of them. I’d be taking a picture and he’d leap out of the frame in one direction and within the blink of an eye, he was suddenly coming back in from the other direction.
Before leaving, Steve and I had a great lunch from the on-site deli and then took one last walk around the tent area and the lake. I had an absolutely fantastic time. Staying overnight at Safari West was a great experience and the atmosphere of the place actually reminded us of our most favorite place ever: Silky Oaks (from our honeymoon in Australia). I think perhaps next year we might consider taking a little mini-vacation close to home and stay there for 3 nights or so, making it our base from which to explore the area. If we do, we’ll definitely pay attention to the instructions for keeping the tent warm overnight, though.
