Wild Africa Trek

Scott and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on November 2, 2010. We decided to give ourselves the gift of a one of a kind Walt Disn@y World Tour, The Wild Africa Trek. This tour was super special because we booked it for its opening day, January 16, 2011, at Disn@y's Anim@l Kingdom! A few years ago, before Shasha and Po, Scott and I enjoyed doing the Keys t@ the Kingdom tour, so we knew that this tour would fulfill our every expectation... and may I just say it did way more than that!
We began our tour by suiting up in our safety harnesses, and trying out the rope bridge that was more sturdy and less dangerous than the 2 that we would face on our trek through Africa.
Of course, I knew Scott would have no problem since as a firefighter he repels sown the sides of buildings and such...but me? Ahhh, it was a piece of cake! After crossing the practice bridge I knew I was ready to conquer Africa... and drink some hot cocoa with one of my true Disney inspirations, Joe Rodhe!
And yes, I heard it 500 times already. "Who is that?" Joe Rodhe is only THE man, THE Disn@y Imagineer who is responsible for bringing the Animal Kingd@m Park to reality. It is Joe Rodhe who brought Walt Disney's dream of having live animals in one of his parks to life!
May I just say that being on this tour with Joe Rodhe is an experience that I will never in my life forget!
So, back to the story here. Out into Harambe Village we trekked over the rough terrain and into the Pangani Forest. Our knowledgable guides told us about the Colobus Monkies and the gorillas before we left the mainpath and disapeared behind a gate and into the forest beyond where the average tourist can go!
After a short hike we it was necessary to use our safety equipment for the first time so that we could hover over the hippos seeing them closer than I have ever seen them before.
The hippos were an awesome sight and waving to the people on the Safari ride was pretty cool too!
We were all willing to spend the remainder of our 3 hour tour watching the hippos but the trek had to go on... and despite the fact the "new" bridge was destroyed recently (all part of the story)we just had to go across the old dangerous rope bridge so that we could dangle over the crocs before coming face to face with them. The rope bridges had more than a few boards missing
...but rest assured there was a net just below us to ensure our safety. Our now close friend, Mr. Rodhe, gave us one great piece of advice before crossing these bridges... "take your time and enjoy the spectacular views!" And that we did! It was so wonderful to stand on the wooden rungs of the rope bridge and stare out over the treetops as the safari vehicles crossed hundreds of feet below me.
And I mentioned the crocs already too, right? I mean you want a sight? a bit of a rush of adrenaline? We crossed that bridge right over the big ol' hungry crocodiles! OK, you are right. This is Disney. Those crocs weren't THAT hungry!
After enjoying the spectacular views from the bridges we reconnected our safety harnesses once again so that we could get a closer... yet safe... look at those crocs!
After crossing our last bit of forest area we finally broke through to enjoy a glimpse of the safari.
What a wonderful feeling to see that baobob tree pop out right in front of you while Tommy's play in what seems like an arms reach and giraffes wander in the distance.We were able to remove our safety equipment at this points as we boarded our group's personal safari vehicle.
This was... well, GREAT! Unlike the ride's vehicles we were able to pull off to the side at various points in our trip to observe a closer look at the animals. Surely, the animals were all out in full view to impress us (not Joe Rodhe! After riding in the back of our personal Kilimanjaro Safari vehicle getting up close looks at the animas on the wildlife preserve we arrived at our lunch destination! A beautiful covered african style pavillion in the middle of the safari with views of the giraffes, elephants, flamingos and gazelle.

A wonderful african inspired lunch was presented to us and we enjoyed a relaxing and leisurely lunch with one of the most spectacular views that you can imagine! Oh... and talk about dining with an imagineer???(for those of you who may not know... dining with an imagineer is another Disney experience that can be booked at the Hollywood Studios Park)
As for the lunch we dined on smoked meets, cheeses, date and nut bread, marinated fruits, yogurt with granola,and Jungle Juice.
It was yummy but who could concentrate on eating when animals were skirting the dining pavillion?

After a group photo we reboarded our privately chartered tour vehicle (hahaha, good touch, huh) and completed our safari past the cheetas, the lions, the white rhinos, and the warthogs!
After we exited the vehicle we strolled back through the tiny African Harambe village where we voted on which animal we wanted a portion of our tour dollars to go to. Scott and I voted for Big Cats.
This tour was amazing! I have said it before and I will say it again!
It was absolutely amazing! However, it will be very difficult for me to do this tour again:( Afterall, unless Imagineer Joe Rodhe is on the 10 am tour with me again... this experience will NEVER be matched! By the way... if you don't know who Joe Rodhe is... Google him! He is a man who makes Walt Disney proud! Oh... and by the way... Happy Anniversary to my best friend and husband, Scott! I am so lucky to have found not only my soul mate but my Disney soul mate as well!