Good morning Everyone,
Slightly belated report, but I'm happy to announce that Day 12 was a happy day for all concerned.
At 8am we got collected from our Villa by Nyoman, and hubby, Master 14, Master 2 and myself headed off for the Mara River Safari Lodge, and the Bali Safari and Marine Park.
The drive was great, no traffic, and smooth sailing all the way through. We arrived at 9am, and immediately checked into our room. Luckily for us the resort seemed to be mostly empty, and our room was available for us straight away.
Kifaru Room 221 is in a fantastic location. Views out of the lounge and bedroom windows show both the lovely and quiet pool area, and the safari with wild animals wandering not 10 metres away.
My overall impression of the Safari Park is good. I loved the day time Safari trip, so many animals, and so close. Its amazing to be able to see hippo's, tigers, lions and rhino's from only metres away. If you are interested in seeing animals up close, then this is definitely a must-do.
Be warned that there is a LOT of walking around. Our room at the lodge was a good 5 minute walk away from the lobby/restaurant, and there were many further away.
The Safari Park is not suited for wheelchairs, or those unable to walk long distances. Its a very good thing that Mum, Auntie and Uncle did not join us, because its unlikely they would have been able to leave the hotel room once we finally hoisted them up the stairs.
The room itself was okay. A central lounge with a bedroom and separate (lovely) bathroom on either side. The lounge furniture is very basic. A 2 seater wooden bench with cushion, matching single seater and a captains chair, a central coffee table and an LCD television on a side table.
The bedrooms are better, with small wardrobes, large floor to ceiling plate glass windows, and comfortable beds. I found the doona cover on the Queen Size Bed was a little stained with what appeared to be blood stains, which was a bit off putting, and the walls could use a repaint as it was starting to look a bit tired. The bathrooms are lovely, nicely furnished with large curved shower stalls that take up a third of the room. The towels are getting a bit thin, but other than that, no complaints!
The Safari Park itself is very lush, good paths heading to each exhibition, and mist sprayers everywhere to cool things down. The animal displays are all lovely, and after watching the white tigers, enjoying the Safari ride, and watching the Elephants have a bath, we headed to the Water Park.
Ummm... okay, I know a lot of people have raved about the Water Park etc, but honestly, after Waterbom I was expecting much better.
There are small lockers available down a very steep and slippery set of steps in the change rooms, with shallow kids pools on the upper level, and slightly deeper pools on the lower level where the few water slides let out.
I found the water a bit too warm to be truly refreshing, and the slides, kids play equipment, and tables/chairs etc, are looking stained and a bit worn. That being said, at a cost of 50k per person, there is some benefit to the Water Park, and I think the park would be poorer for its lack.
Please note that the Water Park does not supply towels, and you will either need to bring your own, or drip dry.
As a family we decided to head out of the Water Park and back to the hotel pool... well, this was a brilliant decision!! Supplied in your room is a basket of carrots, and we finally discovered what they were for.
Munching away on the foliage next to our room, was a herd of deer, obviously used to human interaction, these deer settled themselves happily beside the hotel pool, and approached anyone with a basket of carrots on offer. Master 2 loved the deer, and at a cost of 15k each, we purchased a further couple of carrot baskets to feed them.
In fact, some of these deer are rather bold, and extremely cheeky.
We had placed a basket of carrots under a towel on a poolside table, while we had a quick dip in the lovely clean pool, and we all watched with amazement as a carrot addicted deer edged her way up to the table, lifted the towel, and stole a carrot.
This action was repeated a few more times before Master 2 decided enough was enough, and if she wanted carrots she could come and get them directly from his little hand!
After a few hours spent in the hotel pool (which had pool noodles supplied!!!), we showered, got dressed and headed to the Tsavo Lion Restaurant for dinner. The food was... well actually, it wasn't great, but that didn't matter. We were metres away from Lions! In fact, at one point the male Lion was drinking water less than 2 foot from where we were sitting. Wow!!!
After a lack lustre, and pricey dinner, we jumped into a 4wd for our booked night safari. We had a basket of carrots each, and were ferried around to a herd of zebra's. The zebras are very used to the carrot feeding. They had their heads inside the car, grabbing carrots with abandon, and were completely comfortable with close human interaction. I was a bit dubious at first, but this ended up being a really fun experience.
Then we moved into the lion area.
The male lion (Papa) and the three lionesses were a bit more active, had wandered from their rock perches, and were lying around the roadside waiting for the humans to feed them. Lazy lions, just lion around *snicker*. The driver tempted them to stand up by holding small tidbits of chicken and beef on the end of a bamboo pole. And once one of the huge animals had deigned to reach for the snack, a new pole was handed to one of the passengers (us) to feed the lions.
We must have been the last group of the day, because we were fortunate enough to spend a good 20 minutes feeding the lions, and taking many up close photo's.
A lovely experience, but I do feel a bit sorry for the lions having to put up with all the flash photography.
This is where things became a bit dull.
7pm, night safari finished, and there was nothing to do. I go stir crazy in these situations, and I'm sure I drove everyone in our room mad. So an early night for us all.
Day 13 to follow later. :)
BaliDaze