Our third stop of the weekend was the Bandia Wildlife Reserve. The original plan was for us to just stop there for lunch and then move on, but there were a few people in the group that wanted to do the whole shebang. I really didn't expect much out of this "safari" because most of the cliché African safari animals don't come from West Africa... but it really exceeded my expectations. The Bandia Wildlife Reserve is actually more like a zoo than anything, except you take a truck and drive around while the animals roam free.
Since I knew already that these animals don't come from this region, I didn't have the whole reaction of "Wowww, real African animals in their natural habitats, in the wild, how amaazzinngg!" Haha, but it was cool to see some of these animals up really close and to actually grasp how HUGE they are! It was fun and definitely worth the price of admission since I thought we were probably just going to see a bunch of birds (which is what Senegal is really known for).
Side note: I was kind of uncomfortably hot during the safari and I thought I was just tired and hungry and being a baby... but I went back and checked the weather for last weekend... turns out, when we arrived it was 86 degrees out and by the time we left it was up to 93!!! So yeah, it was a bit warmer there.
So umm fasten your seat belts, there's a ton of pictures haha...
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| Our sweet safari ride |
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| Marwa and I with the rest of the crew in the background and our tour guide to the right of me |
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| Brave little car exiting the park |
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| The entrance... here we go... |
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| So this was the first stop we made. The tour guide starts explaining the Senegalese birds, and I'm thinking great, this is going to be exciting... but it definitely got better haha |
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| Some birds |
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| A Blue Heron crossing the road |
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| Watering hole with some more birds at the end |
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| Acacia trees |
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| The fruit of the Baobab tree |
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| Big Baobab tree, the national tree of Senegal |
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| The Elephant Baobab. Our guide told us that this is the only elephant that we will be seeing today... I was slightly bummed, but that's okay. |
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| This is the biggest baobab in the park. They really are cool looking trees and they hold a lot of history and spiritual significance. |
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| Our guide says that people used to be placed under the baobab when they died rather than being buried. Although I highly doubt these are real remains haha... |
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| The group checking it all out |
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| There were various types of antelope and other similar horned creatures throughout the park. |
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| I didn't pay enough attention to be able to tell you what these all are... but these dudes were big. |
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| This one was a model apparently, posed perfectly for the camera. |
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| Buffalo of some sort chillin in the shade |
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| The guide said that they are very aggressive and dangerous |
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| Monkkeeyyyssss! |
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| They were pretty hard to see, but don't worry, we saw plenty at lunch and I'm saving that for the next post. |
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| Approaching an ostrich |
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| The light ones are female |
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| So awesome. They were SO much bigger than I imagined! |
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| We were stopped waiting for another animal to get out of the way and this dude comes walking up... |
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| He's black so he's a male |
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| He checks the truck for some lunch or something, pecks around a bit |
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| Doesn't find anything good to eat so he continues on his way |
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| Looks like we narrowly escaped an attack by the ferocious male ostrich haha... |
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| These two rhinos, according to our guide, are the only pair in West Africa. They're also the only animals who have not mated since living here.... maybe this is not a good habitat for them... just saying... |
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| Debbie tentatively taking a picture, these two were uncomfortably close |
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| Aggressive male with his horn cut off |
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| Female with a sharp horn |
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| These were the coolest looking zebras I've ever seen |
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| Honestly, I'm still not convinced that they're not painted horses |
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| Alright, the giraffes were my favorite. I took so many pictures of them and they were all over the place. |
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| Love this photo. |
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| Teen and mommy |
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| Love. |
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| The darker ones are male... they are absolutely huge! |
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| Chillin under the tree |
