When I got up this morning, the sunburn was sort of iffy at
best. It looks slightly better and it
doesn’t hurt quite as much, but I discovered how wrong I was when I jumped into
a hot shower this morning and jumped is a very relative turn. I very carefully and slowly stepped into the
shower. If I was still asleep when I did
so, I surely wasn’t when the hot water hit my legs, ouch!
I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do today,
although I did pack up all the camera gear and headed over for breakfast as if
I had a mission. I had an omelet while I
was reading my book and just basically a leisurely meal, with nowhere to be.
The burn is still tender, and my legs and feet are still
sore. Walking was a bit of a challenge
just going from my room to the restaurant.
Breakfast over I went and sat on the bench outside the office, where
Uber picks me up. Even to this point, I
had no idea where I was going. I pulled
up the screen on my phone and impulsively typed in the safari park, so the
decision is made.
What a fortunate choice for an Uber driver I got. He is a professional photographer and videographer
and drivers Uber on his down days.
Helping to pay off his student loans.
Anyway, we happily discussed photography and gear for the entire 40-minute
ride. It would be kind of cool if you
could order the same driver, but if there is a way, I don’t know how. I gave him my card and he’s going to check
out my Instagram postings.
Once inside the gates, I was determined that I was going to
walk the park this time, again. Despite
what I know about the size of the park from the previous visit. I had some specific targets in mind
today. Elephants are the priority, but I
also want to see the Butterfly Jungle, and tigers. I wouldn’t be opposed if time permits to get
more gorilla shots.
I got about 20 minutes into the walk and realized that I was
in trouble again and that there would be no way to be able to finish the
walk. So, I trekked 20 minutes back to
the gates and broke down and rented another scooter. It costs as much to rent the scooter as it
does for admission, but at this point, I don’t care.
I brought along a long sleeve T-shirt to help protect my
arms if need be and I am well slathered up with SPF 30 sunscreen. However, if a fit of semi-brilliance, I pulled
the shirt out of the camera bag and rigged up a shade to protect my legs, since
they are the most badly burned. It
worked very well I though, but more on that later.
First stop was the Butterfly Jungle. It was a 40-minute wait to get inside but
having a place to sit made it that much easier.
Once inside, it was like entering an oven. It’s like a greenhouse in there, but I guess
these butterflies like that. There are
thousands of them inside. They are harder
to photograph than birds, because their flight is unpredictable. There was one young girl that they seemed to
particularly like and at one point she had 20 of them landed on her. I made a point of having my photo taken by
the staff photographer. It’s a bit of a rip-off
what they charge, but hey, it is a holiday and a way to get some shots of me on
location.
From there I made the long “drive” to the elephant
enclosure. I never would have made it
walking today. The big bonus to this is
that the elephants seem to like the heat and were active today. There were two very cute baby elephants. One about 8 months old, who weighs 700 pounds
and a considerably smaller one who is only a few weeks old. I guess you could say, I’m hooked on the
elephants as I could not stop taking photos and ended up with over 400 shots
just of them.
The next part of the mission was the tigers. I had to drive past the lion enclosure. One female was sitting up but had her eyes
closed. The other was completely flaked
out and the male nowhere to be seen. I
also went past the gorilla enclosure, but they were all hidden away and
sleeping. Good thing they were active
last week.
Finally, I got to the tiger enclosure but that was a
disappointment. Not only were they
sleeping, but they were well hidden in the jungle of their enclosure and there
wasn’t a photo op to be had. I got some
good photos of the bighorn sheep though.
My arms and legs were burning pretty good, despite my shade
and sunscreen, or at least it felt and looked that way. However, once I got back to the hotel, I
could tell there had been no further damage done. My Uber driver this time was a fellow named
Duck, from South Korea. He has lived
here 19 years but was very quiet, so the 40-minute drive back seemed to take
forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment