Animal Holidays

Linguo

Do people activally seek out animally stuff to do on their holidays?

My most animal filled holiday was probably South Africa, we went on Safari(gave me new respect for animals power), went to a monkey rehab place, bird world place(amazing), went to see hundreds of penguins at the beach (unbelievable) and went to the aquarium. Plus looked out for any lizards monkeys etc that were hanging around also!:D

Seeing Baboons in the middle of the road with their cheeky faces filled us with joy!If only they were in Ireland...

Alun

Did a 5 day dog sledding trip in nothern Sweden a couple of years ago. Beautiful friendly dogs, even if they do decide that pissing on your leg is a way of making friends

Linguo

Those dogs are amazing...were you allowed pet them or no?

Alun

Linguo wrote: »

Those dogs are amazing...were you allowed pet them or no?

Absolutely. This was a very "hands on" holiday .. we each had our own sled and dog-team which we were responsible for. We had to feed the dogs twice a day, shovel their poop (lot's of it!), harness them up every morning, and take their harnesses off and tie them up to their line at night and provide them with bedding, if available. The dogs came first, and the humans a very definite second place in the grand scheme of things.

Despite them being working dogs, they were as soft and playful as any other dog, which I found a bit surprising I must say.

Bluefrog

That's interesting. I was watching that documentary Charlie Bird did a while back on going to the North Pole and he wasn't allowed to interact with the dogs at all - not even look them in the eye (which may have been a kindness to the dogs..).

Maybe the guide was afraid Charlie would interview the dogs and uncover some sordid tale - a man can get pretty lonely up there in the snowy wastes - ai, I think this thread is going to collide with the 'Taking a bath with a dog' thread...

To keep on-topic, I did go watch flamingos in Morocco which turned out really great cause we got there by camel and one of the camel handlers insisted on annoying some scorpions along the way though I don't think that was an official part of the tour. I had a camel called Crystal who had a tendency to lean to the right about 30 degrees which kept me pretty alert on the uneven portions of the trek.

Also went down to the river in Austin Texas at twilight (Congress Bridge) to watch the bats leaving the roost to feed - incredible sight - thousands of them.

Texas was also great for amphibians, reptiles and insects too - I especially liked the tiny tree frogs that chirped outside the window at night - saw them a few times with their suckers attached to the panes, creamy bellies and lime green backs - beautiful creatures.

Linguo

That sounds cool, I saw that same Charlie Bird show so that's why I thought you couldn't play with them!

Wolfsberg

When ever I go on holidays I always seek out pet shops or bird markets and such. I was in the public aquarium in Bangkok which was pretty amazing. When I was down the south on Koh Tao and Koh Samui I spent most of every day in the water, it was amazing, like swimming in my nano reef tank, only bigger!

I went on safari to South Africa too around ten years ago, I'd love to go back.

Alun

Linguo wrote: »

That sounds cool, I saw that same Charlie Bird show so that's why I thought you couldn't play with them!

Yeah, I watched that and it came as a surprise to me as well. I asked the guy who ran the tour about it, and he said that he, ably assisted by his wife and young daughter (see below!), makes sure all the dogs are properly socialized with humans right from when they are tiny puppies, so maybe that's the difference. As he said, it woudn't be very good publicity for him if people came back of his tours reporting they'd been savaged by one of his dogs.

Linguo

I want that puppy!!

Wolfberg did safari scare you? I was scared on it! Didn't think I would be but I was!Elephants doing mock charges at the jeep and lions chasing it had my heart in my mouth!BF didn't find it scary or some of others with us but my mam did too!

Wolfsberg

Linguo wrote: »

I want that puppy!!

Wolfberg did safari scare you? I was scared on it! Didn't think I would be but I was!Elephants doing mock charges at the jeep and lions chasing it had my heart in my mouth!BF didn't find it scary or some of others with us but my mam did too!

It was a school trip so we were on a big bus that stuck to the tracks in the National Park so it was a bit rubbish in that respect. Although we did get to see everything except lions.
Being on the bus meant no fears really. We got to do a bit of guided walking but only really saw kudu, giraffe and zebra, nothing dangerous.

Sigma Force

Wish our school trips had been that far afield we were lucky to get to the other side of Ireland.

We haven't been anywhere bar Europe so have only been to animal parks in Germany, Rome and the UK. We always aim to go to somewhere that has an animal park or something animal related. Other wise it's just boring well to me anyway.
I'm sorry we didn't get a ferry over to Jersey to Jersey zoo when in the uk.

Dying to go to Longleat.

giddybootz

In the South of France last year we went to Zoo Parc in Cap Ferret and you are allowed into the lemur enclosure and to help feed them their fruit!!

It was amazing...best day ever!!! I had lemurs rifling through my bag, on my shoulders, on my back, climbing my legs and grooming my hair!! I nearly cried when it was closing time!! And i nearly cry everytime i look back at the photos coz i miss it so much!!

Off to San Deigo zoo this year..the deal is if i get to go do animal stuffs my OH gets a shot in a Mustang!!!

Wolfsberg

My school was just an ordinary community school but for some reason the tours were off the wall. The year before mine went to China!

We'd love to go to Longleat too!!! They say you can sometimes feed champers and caviar to Kate Humble and Ben Fogle in pets' corner!

giddybootz

Wolfsberg wrote: »

We'd love to go to Longleat too!!! They say you can sometimes feed champers and caviar to Kate Humble and Ben Fogle in pets' corner!

Bah ha ha!!! I'm in a miserable mod and that just made me laugh out loud...thanks

Wolfsberg

Why that's what I'm here for. To be honest though I absolutely adore that show and I like the 2 presenters.