Trekking at Animal Kingdom

When we were at WDW, I went on an extra-curricular excursion that I had signed up for several months in advance.  Animal Kingdom now offers (for an additional fee, of course) a 3-hour guided hike/jeep safari through some of the back areas of the wild animal park.  The groups are limited to 12, and the guides are very knowledgeable and you can ask questions until you can't think of any more.  We hiked along the river, past the hippo pool and then over the Nile crocs, and ended up in our own safari jeep.  We would scoot in and out of the tour groups, pull over on the side of the road to observe the animals, take little side roads that the tour didn't take, and stopped at a boma (a safari camp) for a lunch break.  After that, more jeep touring and animal watching.  I took the tour for the hike and for the opportunity to take photos, and I was not disappointed.  Great experience.  I would do it again in a heartbeat!

We had to cross two rope suspension bridges during the hike--they went over the hippo pool and the croc pool.  I am NOT a fan of heights, but we were outfitted with vests that had a safety line on the back, which attached to the overhead cables.  Plus, the sides of the bridges were quite high, and there was netting on the sides and below.  You could NOT fall--it just looked and felt that way.  The strategically missing slats, and the "broken" slats made it tricky for someone like me who has short legs--some of those gaps were quite a stretch.  It was scary going directly over the crocs, especially with the bridge bouncing because someone was coming behind me, but it was still a lot of fun.

 What a ham, smiling for the camera.  Did you know that a group of hippos is a bloat....as in a bloat of hippos?  How appropriate!!!

 At the croc pool we hooked our safety lines up to a metal track, and were able to lean out over the edge of the cliff to look down on the crocs.  Yes, I did.

 Two species of giraffe--the 2 smaller ones are reticulated giraffes, and the larger one is a Masai giraffe.  They were all really curious and got quite close to our jeep.

 From his expression, I don't think he particularly liked breakfast.....

 Lunch at the boma came in a 2-layer tin.  Each layer contained food.  We had melon balls and brie, yogurt with cranberries, smoked salmon with dilled cream cheese, proscuitto, air-dried beef, pita rounds, jicama and cucumber salad, and a delicious apricot nut bar.  Add to that a mango-passion fruit drink and it was a delicious meal.  Even the orchid was edible (slight grassy aftertaste...)  It was really fun to sit in the shade at the boma, eat this delicious meal and watch the animals out on the "veldt".