Meeting the Animals and a few rides thrown in.

Today was our trip to Busch Gardens, we didn't set off too early as the park here doesn't fill up quite as quickly as the parks in Orlando, so a lazy and relaxed start to the day.  We made good time as the drive down there was fine, no real problems en route and with a different voice on the Sat Nav, this one doesn't bark at us!  Arrived about 11.15 and boy was it hot out there once we stepped out of the car and the air conditioning and into the fresh air!!!!! Temperature was supposedly 91F but the "felt like" temperature was 98F. Needed to take plenty of fluids on board.
I do like this park, think it is very easy on the eye.  Love the way some of the animals are shown in plants and so well trained.  Some of the first animals we saw though were too busy sunbathing to be at all badly behaved.

We then went for a walk around the Parrot House, some lovely birds in there and very friendly if you had over your dollars to feed them.  I thought I would just take some photos today rather than feed the birds as they looked as if there were well fed anyway!

  

Some very colourful birds there today as well, very pretty.  Well we thought we really should go and do some rides. Now this may have been a bad move as we decided to venture onto the river rapids.

The picture of a grumpy old man!

The end result.

It was certainly refreshing!  Sarah and I managed to get absolutely soaked towards the end of the ride and wandered around in wet shorts and t shirts for the rest of the day, in fact my shorts were still damp by the time we got home later in the day!

Sarah and Daniel did some of the more speedy rides and really enjoyed them.  Martin didn't go on anything else today, in fact don't think he really managed much of a smile for the whole day!  However we just do our best to ignore him and not let him spoil our laughs, he can't help it, it is just the way he is - a grumpy male!  

We had a wander around the park, had a journey on the train and eventually stumbled across Sky train and took an aerial tour of the park which was very relaxing for a while.

  

Sarah and Daniel decided that the last ride they wanted to do today was Cheetah Hunt but it had been down when we walked past previously.  Hopefully it would be working now as we trekked across the park in desert conditions!  We decided to stop at an oasis of food to partake of refreshments.  Service was in keeping with the speed of our journey - slow.

Precision Burger Making

  

At last we were on the final step of our journey walking at a sedate pace ready for the final ride of the day.  Along the route though we came across the cheetahs, very elegant in their pose.  We remember when we visited two years ago, one of the cheetahs was very young and had a dog as a play companion.  I think the cheetah has grown now and this partnership may no longer work.  How graceful they looked though.

My favourite photo

Love the markings and concentration on the face

  Well the day was near to an end, or at least as much as we could take of the heat.  They rode cheetah hunt

 and came back with smiles on their faces.  We hiked back to the tram centre ready for the drive back home.  Thank goodness for trams!

Bye bye Busch, thanks for a wonderful day.