The last piece of our adventure took finished at the end of the Canadian Wilds. Now we travel into Destination Africa. At this point in the day, it had been wet out earlier and was beginning to get rather rainy. What a great time to head inside to see some creatures in the warmth of not being rained on continuously.
Meerkats, just like Timon in Lion King!
The journey into Africa was pretty cool I must say. Being a person with not much interest in travelling around the world all that much, going to the Zoo is a pretty cool place to see animals you would never be able to see otherwise.
I had a turtle once, but this is an actual tortoise pretty sure we don't naturally have tortoises around here.
I mean sure, you could look up pictures online or even videos on YouTube, but let me tell you, it's just not the same as seeing the creatures in person actually living and breathing in front of you. They let this tortoise out of his enclosure to walk around among the public for a while to get a little bit of exercise. Carley was super excited about seeing him so close up and following him around for a little while.
Carley was captivated by what we saw next.
It was at this point we saw one of Carley's other favourite things ever. For anybody who knows Carley, you probably know she really likes turtles. One of the first things I gave her when we started dating was a box which I had made into a turtle because she told me how much she likes them. But there's another creature she also likes a lot which isn't mentioned as often.
Yes, Giraffes are actually real creatures, and yes they are actually super tall.
Surprise! Carley really like Giraffes! I'm pretty sure she could have continued to stay there and stare at them for a few hours, but unfortunately there were still many more animals to see before the end of the day.
I bet you never would have guessed these hippopotamuses were right under the water next to the giraffes.
Can you believe how big those things are? Not only did I find it amazing how big hippos are, but apparently they're quite good at hiding in plain sight as well. From above the water, you couldn't even tell that they were there! The only reason I found them was because I walked down the steps up to the glass in attempt to see if there were any fish or anything in the water. To my surprise, there were two giant hippopotamuses hanging out having a good snooze.
Ooh, look at the big kitty!
Next on the animal tour was The Lion King. Alright, we didn't watch the movie, but instead we saw real live lions wandering around. I wouldn't want to run into one of these without a wall between us. I'm wary of house cats, but this seems a little bit too big to be living in someone's house. I have heard that Lions are not actually all that fast and don't tend to chase down their prey quite as much or as far as other predators in Africa... but as a human being, I still don't think I would want to see one of these coming in my direction no matter how far away it is.
If you've never watched Zaboomafoo, then you're totally missing out.
After the lions we got to see a bunch of pretty cool Lemurs. They had like five different types all in one enclosure which pretty much felt like you were walking into some sort of tree-house type thing. While we were there we learned that Lemurs are actually really smart and we were warned not to stay too long on the platform which was the only entrance into the enclosure. The workers told us the platform was electrified at night, but during the day it is not, and the only thing keeping the lemurs in the area during the day was that they didn't realize the platform was not electrified during the day, hence why we weren't supposed to stand around on the platform too long. In retrospect... I should have taken pictures of the entrance into the area as well, it was very cool and unique. I guess to see it, you'll have to go visit the Calgary Zoo on your own.
The last mix of creatures in the Destination Africa area.
I didn't manage to get any pictures of Ostriches or Zebras... because there weren't any to be found while we were there. We did go through one last building which included gorillas, alligators, and even an aviary of birds! I do love birds, but I didn't bother taking any pictures of them because birds just don't sit still for very long. At this point we decided to stop for food in the area where it was pretty much a fast food cafeteria.
Honestly some of the best fast food I've ever had.
I never thought I would be making the claim that fast food at a zoo would be some of the best food ever, but it seriously was pretty good stuff. Nice big drinks and well-made food. Also a very seemless and easy way to go through and order food, then pay at the end of the line after receiving the food you've ordered. It was a very nice experience and I would happily go back and eat there again. The only downside to the large drinks is that because they, along with many other places in Calgary, have started using paper straws... which get a little bit soggy after a while of sitting in liquid. But hey, if that's my only complaint about the place, then I'd say it's pretty great.
That covers the African part of The Calgary Zoo. Come back next time as we continue into one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen and then into Eurasia.
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