Apologies for not posting this yesterday as promised, I had a slight emergency situation with DD and her tooth (as mentioned here)! She's on the mend now so here is my post!
On the second day of our stay at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, Elephant Lodge, we awoke to a slightly misty start to the day but, undeterred, headed off after breakfast to explore the park.
We started at the top with the tigers, DS2's favourite animal, and delighted at one who paced right next to the fence. The other looked on, uninterested but still a magnificent sight!
Making our way downhill through the park, there was plenty to see - we were lucky to see the lemurs being fed, the rhino couple having some sort of flirting game, monkeys misbehaving, and a lovely gorilla family. Normally when we go to a zoo, the animals are so far away or hiding indoors which can be very disappointing, but we saw plenty.
The walk was fairly difficult, especially for my mum, but there were quite a few benches around the park and when we reached the bottom we asked for assistance from a keeper with a radio who was able to call for a minibus to pick us up, which took us all back to Elephant Lodge.
After lunch in our tent, we excitedly made our way to the gate for our eagerly awaited giraffe-feeding tour!
We had a slight advantage to other guests as my cousin's husband worked at the park and knew the rangers, and the one who drove us was a good friend of his. Driving to the entrance of the African Safari route, he paused to cut some willow tree branches for the giraffes (quite a lot actually!) and then set off to find the giraffes.
Spotting them quite far uphill from the road, he radioed base camp to enquire if he was allowed to go off-road, and, given the all clear, started a slow climb up a very steep hill!
Gently coming to a halt a couple of hundred yards from the giraffes, he waved a few branches to get their attention and they began to approach in that lovely slow, graceful gait so unique to them. The children thrust branches eagerly towards them and delighted when they began gently stripping the branch of its leaves. I was completely stunned and in awe just to be that close to them, taking in their beautiful faces and markings on their coats.
Up close you could see their long lashes and gorgeous colours and the texture of their coat. I watched the kids excitedly offer more branches to these gentle giants who were guzzling them at the rate of knots, and they were completely unafraid despite the size of them. At one point we had five surrounding the land rover but the only one showing any fear was M, my cousin's daughter and she is only 2 and not that keen on any of the animals at the park!
DS2 realised that it was better to try and keep hold of the branch and let the giraffe strip the leaves off with their strong tongue - that way you didn't lose the branch and they would come closer to you. He was astounded when one fearlessly put his head into the back of the land rover to help himself to the willow, and DS2 managed to stroke the giraffe's nose! Looking over to DD I saw her stroking the flank of another standing right next to the vehicle, with a huge grin on her face. I loved to see the kids enjoying it so much, the smiles on their faces and squeals of delight as the giraffes munched their way through our offerings was priceless.
Sadly, the stash of willow became depleted and the feeding was at an end, so we set off back to the road, followed for a short while by one giraffe wishing for more, and then even he drifted off back to the others. Breathing a sigh of contentment, we headed back to our tent, with a phone full of photos of our amazing adventure!
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