| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | |

Mom was getting cabing fever from being trapped in the house, so she dragged me out to Knowsley Safari Park.

Now this was too priceless for me to ignore. It was the only Green Dragon Pub I'd seen in the country, and as a rabid Tolkien fan, I screamed and whipped out my camera to take a shot.



Here we are at Knowsley Safari Park, amongst the lions. I couldn't believe how close they were to the cars! But they simply sat there and watched everyone drive past, evidently used to human attention.


Look, it's an emu! Only slightly uglier than an ostrich, heehee! This one was standing near the entrance looking for handouts.




This is an Axis deer, from India. This one was just standing there posing for the masses, so like a sheep I joined in and took a picture.




Oryx are my favourite herbivore of Africa. I just love their horns and their white coats. I'm sorry I didn't see them all standing together, so this was the best shot I got.



Now this was fun! We drove into the baboon enclosure in a rental car (a fact that had mom freaking out until she got out of there). In this picture you can see four huge baboons sitting on this stupid woman's car. (Stupid because she rolled down the window and fed them.) I also think this was the car that had its rear license plate ripped off by some curious monkeys. Not a single baboon got onto our car, however, something my mom is most definitely grateful for.

This would be an Eland. And this would be a demonstration on just how close the animals would come to your car looking for food. Yeek!




This huge, massive camel was walking down the center of two lanes of cars, looking at any windows to see if they were open. Later, mom told me to lower my window and see if we were right. Sure enough, I nearly got slobbered by a camel. I am never, ever going to do that again. EVER.


Here's a pretty peacock!






Meerkats! Oh I love meerkats! Honestly, if you could ever tame a meerkat, you bet your arse I'd buy one. They're so cute! (The yellow things on the ground are dead baby chicks. Mmm, yummy?)



I was amazed at how close you could get to these elephants. Chester Zoo has nothing on this safari park. All the tourists go there because it's a conventional zoo and you get candy and food and cheesy gift shop merchandise thrown at you. Here you do too, but you don't have to get out of your car and suffer to see animals very, very close up.

I call this one "Self Portrait of Someone Really Grateful to be Feeling Better and Eagerly Waiting to Go Home". Kind of explains itself, doesn't it?






Finally, a picture of Southport beach stretching for miles into the distance. Mom took this picture, and I think it's one of her best. It was a very good end to our trip after all.

We went home and packed, then slept, and finally made it to our flight home. For the first half I flew business class, which was really special. I was ultimately at my happiest, however, when I saw mountains. So glad I made an ass out of myself by loudly stating "Mountains, Gandalf!" It didn't matter, because I was home at last. The end!

| | | |