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Woolly says – I think I’m going to have to put my paw down with a firm tusk! 6am!!! Why do we have to wake up so early?
We hadn’t meant to be up at this time but as the sun was rising and the warmth was taking over the tent we bundled a grumpy Mammoth into Oliver and headed off.
Woolly says – I didn’t know where we were going to and all Ian and Jo would tell me was that I would enjoy it, I would have enjoyed more sleep! As we flashed by fields and lakes we continued to oh and ah over the beautiful scenery. Portugal is such a pretty place. It didn’t seem to take long before we were following a bumpy track and I say the sign – Badoca Safari Park – now this was worth getting up for! Communication let us down at the ticket office, but the nice young lady took our 12 Euro each (approximately £10.00 GBP) and called someone to come and explain. The lady who arrived spoke perfect American and told us where to go and when. First stop was the Bird of Prey
show, all in Portuguese but we got the gist of it. With three birds being put through their paces, we noticed that the first two seemed to be a little naughty and weren’t doing what they should do. The last bird was wonderful and kept soaring past Jo’s head making her duck, it was very funny to watch.
It wasn’t so funny for me but you had to admire the soundless flight and the elegance displayed, not knowing much about these birds I thought that the second bird was a sparrow hawk, if anyone can identify them from the pictures please let us know.
Woolly says – it was getting nicely warm now and after a quick coffee we made our way to the Safari jeep. I was so excited, I’ve never been on Safari before. We bumped our way down through the trees and there ahead I could see Bison, deer and the cutest of calves. The jeep stopped and the guide explained at length what the animals were and how they lived, it was probably great but not understanding a word we just kept taking pictures and pointing to other animals. Suddenly
there was an Ostrich running across the plain and then two camels came into view. With the shutters snapping on everyone’s cameras we continued further into the park. The camels came and stopped by us and if I had longer paws I could have stroked them, with Gazelle’s grazing infront of us the guide provided another very long explanation before we bumped off over the dusty track again. I could see a large cage coming up – the only one we saw – housing three beautiful Bengal Tigers, they seemed more interested in dosing in the heat of the day than eating us! With Emu’s passing us we continued up the track and found Giraffes!
At this point Woolly nearly fell out with excitement and we had to remind him to be quiet so as not to frighten the animals. With their long necks poking into the tree tops, the baby of the group tried a staring competition with Woolly, the Giraffe won!
Woolly says – he was so cute but before I knew it we were off again. With dust starting to cover my fur we rounded a corner and found a family
of Wild Boar, dad didn’t seemed pleased to see us and tried to head butt the jeep. Then through the trees I could see black and white stripes, a herd of Zebra’s were munching away under the trees, it was magical to be that close and to sit and watch them. With a few more Gazelles, Emu’s and another Zebra or two we were back at the start, I would have happily gone round all over again.
It was an excellent experience and although there was not a large variety of animals it gave a real feel as to how a real Safari would have been, the guide was very nice but did go on a little too long, even if it had been in English.
Woolly says – we set off on paw to see what else there was, passing Flamingo’s, Lemurs dosing in their trees we investigated the aviaries and the brightly coloured birds flying around our heads. A quick drink to refresh and we headed towards the Meerkats who were sunning themselves before watching the HUGE tortoises moving slowly round their enclosure. Goats came next, two kinds, I really liked the
ones with massive spiral horns. We turned to retrace our steps when a lady asked if we were lost, no we’re fine we replied, had we seen the apes she asked. Apes, where were they? She pointed us in the right direction and we took a very long stroll to Ape Island where we could watch the Chimps and Baboons swinging round and playing in the trees, one Baboon slid down a branch on his bottom, I just hope he didn’t get any splinters.
Feeling quite sweaty and very dusty we retraced our steps and found the petting area…..
Woolly says – A Llama tried to attack Jo, it was so funny to watch her zig zagging through the trees with a Llama in pursuit. With Donkey’s, sheep, ponies and pigs to pat and stroke I could have stayed forever.
The less said about Llama’s the better! Dragging a very reluctant Woolly behind us we made our way back to Oliver, it had been a brilliant outing. With only 145KM to go we opened the windows and cruised off to get as near to the coast as we could. We had
chosen a couple of sites to check out so we could stay put for a few nights, the first in Lagos was miles from the beach so we went for the second sight, the description said a short distance to the sea! It proved to be over 2KM, but feeling tired we booked into Camping Alvor at Partimao on the Algarve for 16.50 Euros (approximately £13.50 GBP), Motorhomes were only 50 cents more and there were loads of them parked up, mainly with GB plates! A pleasant site with good if old facilities, the pool looked inviting but had already closed for the evening, with free internet we did our checking of messages and blogging before finding the restaurant. A good meal had by all with Sea Bass in a tomato sauce for me and Woolly with homemade chips and a Spaghetti Bolognaise for Ian and Woolly we were well stuffed and not at all bad for 26 Euro’s with drinks (approximately £20.50 GBP), tired and replete we walked back to our pitch and a cosy night in.
Again apologises for the number of photo’s, it was incredibly difficult to narrow down the 135 pictures we had
taken during the day, after deleting 13 shots of Zebra’s, 10 of Giraffes and many others, Woolly insisted that the rest stay, and who’s to argue with a Mammoth!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The Woolly Way
Looks like Woolly continues to take you to some fun places.