Ashwini is now foreign-returned. She successfully made a trip to Canada to visit the African Lion Safari near Hamilton, Ontario. It is about 1 hour west of Toronto. The safari trail is about 5 miles long and winds through hundreds of acres of open space with about 1000 wild animals. Don’t know how much Ashwini liked it, but, her parents enjoyed the trip very much. We went for a second round on the safari trail after Ashwini fell asleep for her afternoon nap.

It is a neat concept. Unlike other zoos, the animals roam in the open and people are caged inside their cars or buses. The animals walk-by and come very close to the cars giving people a unique view of them. Don’t know what I had on my car, but, a giraffe and a deer were very interested in licking it. A monkey jumped on the passenger side mirror asking for food. Even though there are signs forbidding people from feeding the animals, many people were doing it and that made the monkeys jump on all the cars in search for crackers, chips etc. They have the staff in pickup trucks keeping the lions, tigers and rhinos away from people’s car, but, they let other animals roam close to the cars. Ashwini was enjoying the view and looking at all the animals till the time when a deer came very close to her window and looked at her from less than a foot. Hope that didn’t scare Ashwini off all the animals. She has been a little apprehensive of the neighbour’s cat who comes by our window every day.

We took more than 200 photos during the day at the safari, here are a few representative shots… Click on the thumbnails to see the bigger version