Friday 25 January 2013

Safari ZOO


Safari ZOO, Dvur Kralove 


Today I’d like to share my impression from the trip to Safari ZOO, which is located in north part of the Czech Republic, in region called: Kralovohradecky. Depending on the way you go it’s about 170-200 kilometres from Brno.  I can’t tell you how long will the journey take, because we went for a two day trip and drove from Pardubice, which took about an hour. But reserve yourself about 3 hours for that. For Poles Safari may also be one of the possibility to spend a weekend outside the house, because it’s quite close to polish borders. We went there in the middle of a summer, but I noticed that ZOO is still opened until March, so go ahead and enjoy winter season watching wild animals. Go to official website to check working hours. It’s always good to be prepared. That would be a pity going to Safari after lunch while there’re only few hours left. Field is so vast that you won’t even notice whole day has just passed. It’s much better to be an early raiser and istand n front of the gate at 9.00 am. I promise, you’ll not regret this decision. 

There’re actually two parts. The first one is Safari, where you can go with your own car or move to a safari bus (schedule is available at website). Once you pay, you’ll get a map with instructions and information what kinds of animals can you see. Drive carefully and observe animals, look for goats, chamois, antelopes and gnus. Animals from Antilocapridae family or musk deer as well as odd toed ungulate-wild horses, different type of zebras etc. You can also admire leopards and lions, you better stay in the car with closed windows …. Just kidding, they are in the cage and you actually have to step off to see them. There’re also some birds like herons, peacocks, and others weird kinds. The very last stop is designated for giraffes and rhinos. This part might take you about an hour or longer, it’s up to you. You can hide in bushes, waiting for the best photo shot to happen or wait in the car for animals to approach you. Most of animals seem to be tranquil and undisturbed.  They already got used to cars and people, at least some of them. I wouldn’t risk reaching cow-like animal with huge horns, because you and your car can be swept away.

 Zoo also organizes evening sightseeing with a guides in jeeps or safari buses, but it’s only available in summer. Other attractions such as off road safari, wedding in ZOO or behind the scene tours must be booked in advance. They’re much more expensive than regular ticket, but you have a private tour with lots of information about feeding, natural environment and other useful tips.


 The safari ticket will enable you to go to the second part, which is ZOO. There’re plenty of restaurants in case you get hungry. Regain your strength, because what’s before you is a bit challenging. The structure of the ZOO is like a labyrinth, wandering from one place to another without having the certainty that you’ve already been there. Or maybe only I had this problem, I didn’t even know if I saw everything I planned to see. Animals are interesting, eerie and remarkable. I especially liked monkeys’ playground. Huge gorilla together with chimpanzees. I could stay there and stare all day, observing monkey’s behavior, admiring how helpful and caring they might be. In another quite interesting “room” were placed birds. Freely flying warblers, colorful parrots or canaries were surrounded by wild jungle, even the temperature was higher than in other places. Big and heavy tiger made an impression on me, he got really mad with people knocking on the glass. He started roaring and behaving nervously, I got scared and run to a more peaceful place-ocean’s world. I knew nemo will be there, but I was completely taken-aback when I saw a crocodile. I’ve never ever seen this dangerous animal before, only on tv. In the flesh, he didn’t seem so scary, he was steady and lazy. My favorite turtles were difficult to photograph, but at least I had a photo with piranhas.
Finally, after 4 hours walking we got tired and decided to end this trip, but you enjoy yours.






PHOTOS AVAILABLE HERE
 

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