February 21, 2011

“Something Awful”; Safari Park

Sugar called to me early this morning, “Wanna see something awful?” “What is it?” “Just come look.”
I got up and went into the bathroom and she pointed, saying “Look.” I looked at what she was pointing at. “No, closer, put your face closer.” I did. And this is what I saw, divided into thirds.
The top third was a broad white plain crossed by what looked like horizontal dried up stream beds crisscrossing the plain, with brown spots here and there, all topped with a forest of a thinnish growth that resembled sea grass, colored white and gray and some brown.
The middle third was topped by two dark horizontal bushes, each equal in size and density and separated by a short space. Beneath those bushes and recessed were two blue pools, with a black round rock in the middle of each, the pools surrounded with alabaster white decks with little red lines, and a red triangular shaped growth on the inside, at the base of a ridge which climbed in a vertical downward direction to a round summit. On the other side of the summit, opposite the ridge, were two large dark caves with a thin strip of plain separating them. To the sides of the ridge, beneath the pools, were semicircular dark circles and then more plains, with more dried up stream beds emanating down from the recessed pools, especially to the left and the right, and some more brown spots.
The bottom third was almost entirely covered with prickles, grayish sharplooking prickles everywhere, surrounding a thin, raspberry colored broad line in the middle. Again, there were one or two or more mysterious brown spots.
What the hell was I looking at? Answer below.

After breakfast at IHOP, we headed east out of Escondido for the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, only six miles away. We got our $40 tickets and joined a large line to enter the Park, then walked quite a way to get in another line for the Africa Tram. En route, we walked through an aviary filled with African birds. The tram chugged out of the station into a 250 acre portion of the 900 acre park, and we were treated to rhinos, cheetahs, numerous 4-legged creatures whose names I can’t remember, giraffes, zebras, and most special, baby animals that were only days old. It’s a beautiful day at the park, blue skies with few clouds, and temps running up to what felt like the 70’s.
After disembarking, we walked to the lions area where we saw a large male lion laying on the roof of an abandoned car, with two lionesses sprawled out on the grass in the sun a few yards away. It reminded me of the lions Bay and I saw napping in the afternoon heat at Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.
We walked up the hill to the elephants area, and counted four babies, the last born in December, and 6 or 7 adults. The babies played with each other and the adults were more intent on chowing down their straw meal.
Next up were the gorillas, further up the hill and in an enclosed area with a cave, several trees, and a ditch. One was eating his lunch, while a younger one wandered around in the ditch.
Sugar loved the experience, but we both were chastised by Bay who told us that the animals were maltreated in such parks. They certainly weren’t free as they were in Samburu, Masai Mara, and Kruger where the parks are thousands, not hundreds, of acres, and they span separate countries. No, it wasn’t the same experience at all, but it did make me miss Africa.
After a short respite at the condo, we returned to Escondido to see The King’s Speech, a stirring little known (and unknown by me) story about the friendship of a king-to-be and an Australian commoner, and the leadership that the king eventually would have to provide to save his threatened nation. This is the story of King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth. It’s funny that Peter and Ursula are seeing the same movie today in Switzerland, and Griff and Sandy thought about seeing it today at Reel Pizza.
We ate out tonight and are turning in now, with a big day ahead tomorrow. For we leave on Air New Zealand at 10 PM.
Good night to all.
Love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB

PS What I was looking at was my own FACE in a mirror that magnifies everything enormously. And it was really awful. Who ever thought such a thing would be useful?