Fort Verde, Africa: Make That Fort Verde Arizona

Having our daughters, Kasey & Jenna, here this week has been a real gift. We have had a great time seeing the best of Arizona and enjoying their company. Terrific fun in a hot Arizona sun.

Well, normally it's pretty hot here although for the last two days the temperatures have dropped about 20 degrees below normal. Still very nice and of course, still sunny.

Today we headed for the Out Of Africa park to see a wide variety of Africa's best wildlife: tigers, lions, pumas, panthers, giraffes, camels, grizzly bears, black bears, some kind of horned animal ending in 'bock', guinea fowls, zebras, tortoise, etc.

This area of Arizona high desert is a surprisingly good surrogate for Africa, right down to trees and shrubs that are related to Africa's acacia trees.

They have a number of events throughout the day including a Tiger Splash, a Serengeti Safari and a Predator Feeding. We organized our day to we could attend as many of these shows as possible.

The Tiger Splash was a hoot. A group of three handlers acted as 'bait', attempting to get the tigers to chase them into the pool. All went well, with the tigers giving chase as expected, following the men right to the pool.

The men jumped into the pool with the tigers in hot pursuit only to have the tigers stop at the edge of the pool. Being a little cool the tigers wanted nothing to do with the water. It took a good ten minutes of trying before the tigers jumped into the pool in the process of hunting/chasing the 'bait.

It was a lot of fun watching these grown men look kind of silly. It was also eye opening seeing just how fast and powerful these 400+ pound bundles of muscles really are. Turns out the handlers and tigers play, with the tigers withholding all of their power (and claws) because of the handler/tiger relationships.

On the other hand, the tigers attacked the toys the handlers teased them with with vigor. It gave you a glimpse of the power at their disposal. Once or twice we heard a growl that sent a shiver all the way down your spine. I can't imagine how our ancestors dealt with those sounds when they both shared the same home turf.

Easy to imagine in abstract terms; too frightening to think about in real life for any length of time. I mean, that tiger's roar literally vibrated through my body. Hard to describe the emotions it released. Nights must have seemed to last forever...

The Predator Feeding was pretty cool, watching the handlers heave huge pieces of meat into the lion's pens. They did a good job of separating the lions somewhat, keeping the lion-on-lion fighting to a minimum.

Some of the animal exhibits/parks we've been to left you feeling pretty sad for the animals, usually kept in relatively small cages/pens. Not here. They had pretty large areas for the animals to roam plus the animals appeared to be well cared for. Well fed and clearly loved. It was great seeing some of the handler/animal relationships.

At the end of the day we took a ride through the 'Serengeti Safari' where we had a chance to feed the giraffes and camels plus see a wide variety of animals that we were warned against feeding.

Especially the zebras, which are notorious biters. Try to pet/feed a zebra and you'll end up with less fingers than you started with... not fun.

All in all a great day. Made even better by being able to share it with Kasey & Jenna. Too cool.

Tomorrow we head back south to the Phoenix area because the girls fly out of Sky Harbor Tuesday evening. We'll miss them.

Before they go we hope to go indoor skydiving, which is offered by a company in Phoenix. Stay tuned.

See Ya!