Wild Africa Trek

My wife surprised me with this tour as an anniversary gift this year. ; While it is not cheap, I would not hesitate to do this again for the outstanding animal viewing and photography opportunities. The one part I was worried about was that I would need to attach my camera to the vest you are fitted with. ; That was not the case. ; As long as one has a neck or wrist strap for the camera, that is fine.

After getting outfitted with a safety vest and putting anything in my pockets into a locker, the group headed out into the park. You start down the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and people give you some funny looks until you get to the Meerkats. ; There you head into the forest on a path which heads over to the hippo pool area of the Kilimanjaro Safari. ; There we meet up with a Hippo researcher who gave us some information about hippos and DAK's research.

Then we queued up to cross the first of two rope bridges which go over the Kilimanjaro Safari jeep road. ; These rope bridges look worse than they are. ; Disney Imagineers felt such a bridge should have many of the planks knocked out. ; There's netting directly underneath so there is no danger of falling off. ; You are also attached to a steel cable for extra safety.



You are not rushed as you cross and take many photos as you do. ; The bridges sway and bounce and I made sure my camera was shooting at high shutter speeds. ; Easy to do on this very sunny Florida day. ; On this first bridge, you get nice view of the hippos.



And unique angles of the Kilimanjaro Safari jeeps driving along the road.




Disney takes photos of the guests during the tour. ; Here I am crossing over the hippos. You can see the netting below and how my vest is connected to the safety cable.

Here I am as I complete the traverse of the first bridge which is now my avatar.



The first bridge ends on a platform which is connected to the second rope bridge. ; This one is bit more exciting. Below I am photographing from the second rope bridge. ; Notice the uneven planks I am standing on are fairly spread apart.



Oh, this is what I was photographing...


Nile crocodiles. ; They are all males at DAK to keep from creating any friction among them.

We also go to hang out over an overlook to observe and photograph the crocs. ; As with all the stopping points along the tour, we were not rushed and could take as much time as we wanted to photograph, ask questions and enjoy seeing the animals not sitting in a bouncy jeep shoulder to shoulder with other guests. ;

The next part of the tour had us getting out of our vests and into one of the Wild Africa Trek trucks you may have seen stopped along the safari. ; While the truck is just as (if not more so) bouncy, it does do something the jeeps do not...they stop at various locations along the safari road. ;


We stopped and watched the two young African elephants play near the waterhole.


This Reticulated Giraffe took a few minutes to get into this position for me. ; Something I would not have been able to do on the safari ride.

The truck took us to an observation deck for a snack of African foods created especially for the Trek by the chefs at Boma. ; They are very tasty and they supply the Jungle Juice which is served at Boma, too. There are also bathrooms here.



From here I got this photo of a Thomson's gazelle which was grazing about twenty feet from the deck.



This giraffe was mostly playing hide and seek with us before finally crossing over this maintenance road to find more food.



We spent about 45 minutes at the deck before loading back on the truck and finishing the safari trip sans the story. ; After passing the rhino area we noticed the cheetahs were out in the Sun and the driver found a place to tuck in. ; We watched and photographed them for about 15 minutes.





Though we did not stop, we did slowly pass this warthog.



We exited the truck at one of the safari unloading decks and walked back to the Wild Africa Trek area which is in behind Tusker House. ; There we posed for a group shot before getting our stuff out of the lockers. The two ladies kneeling were our guides for the Trek.



Included in the price is a stainless steel water bottle and the photo CD which showed up about two weeks later.

 

nice review and photos, well this certainly made me decide to do this, i'm going to surprise my wife with this when we are there in april, since it's both her birthday and our anniversary that week

 

Terrific review and shots Scott! ; Thanks for taking the time to share this!

 

Looks very cool! How long is the tour?

 

That looks great. ; Looks like it is worth a special trip just to experience the adventure.

Thanks for sharing the photos Scott.

 

Gary, you will both love it. ; As you can see by the group photo, this tour is for all ages.

John, you are welcome. ; I would put this on your wish list.

Erich, the tour lasted 4 hours from checkin to final drop off.

Chris, you are welcome. ; Definitely worth it in my book.

 

This too is on my list as motivation to my weight loss goal (currently over the maximum limit for the tour). ; So once that is met, on my soonest trip after, I am so there...

 

Posted the first of two blog posts over on AllEars.net today. ; Many of the same photos with a bit more commentary: Photographing on the Wild Africa Trek, Part 1

 

Great stuff Scott, can't wait to do this myself. ; How many tours do they run each day?

 

I believe they run six each day. ; They go rain or shine though those bridges might get very slippery in a downpour.

 

Posted my second part of my review on AllEars today: Photographing on the Wild Africa Trek, Part II

Same pics, more commentary. ; Enjoy!

 

Nice report & pics. I am so wanting to do this now. Funny that I don't remember ever hearing of this before. When did this start or has it been around for some time?


Coo1eo
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They started this one last January. ; At first they said NO cameras but they soon backed off from that stance. ; I understand the rule to have and use a camera strap though. ;

 

Thanks for the info Scott, It's been 2 years this month since I've last been & I'm itching to get back there real bad. I can agree with the strap rule as well after seeing some of your photos.


Coo1eo
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