Day 20 - I won't beat around the Busch!

The alarm went off this morning and I woke thinking "what a lovely night's sleep".  I asked Oli how his sleep was and to my amazement he said that someone had tried to get into the door of our room at 3.30am.  It startled poor Oli who jumped out of bed to realise it was just a drunken mistake and I was happily in the land of nod.

We quickly got ready to head to the theme park Busch Gardens, situated across the road from our hotel.  Although we can see the park, the entrance is a 30 minute walk away, I can smell the fear and hear the screaming coming from the highest roller coaster in Florida but can't get there quick enough!  The fee to get in plus a separate fee for the safari tour comes to practically as much a week in Spain, but hey, we probably won't ever come here again.

Once inside the park we were surprised at how lush the place was, outside was a concrete jungle in the form of a car park but inside there was a real jungle feel with trees, bushes, ponds and animals aplently...I guess this is what's expected given the name of the park but a nice surprise none the less:-)

We started the morning by going on roller coaster called Montu as this is one of the worlds longest inverted coasters and we had to give that a try, if we could get through that one then the rest would be a breeze! It was such a thrill to have your legs dangling that this was the only ride that we went back on again later in the day.

We had our safari booked at 2pm so we thought we'd grab a quick bite, burgers no doubt would dominate the cafes and restaurants here.  Just as we were gearing ourselves up to "oh blimey only burgers on the menu again" we had to eat our words, the restaurant we chose happened to have a pleasant array of choice on the menu, even various salads, we opted for one each as you don't know when we'll see this much green on the freeway stop offs on tomorrows drive!

After lunch it was time to board the jeep for the safari, it's open top with only standing room, the bumpy drive is all part of the adventure.

Now I've never been on a real safari in Africa or anything but I was really impressed with the parks layout and variety of animals, seeing the rhinos up close was amazing although I'm sure our time was cut short as the driver made a speedy getaway as a rhino had been facing us head on and to me looked like it was about to charge!  

There was a lone zebra sitting with a bunch of wildebeest, I thought wildebeest hunted zebra...well that's what I thought I saw in Disney's Lion King anyway!!

The highlight for us both by far was when we got to feed the beautiful Giraffes, they were so friendly, think one was over friendly to me as it nuzzled my ear!  The only downside to the safari was it was over far to soon, I could have easily done it all again....next holiday Africa!

It was a super long day, we didn't leave the park until nearly closing time at 9pm, but super fun.  We went on many a roller coaster, we were like two big kids giggling and queueing for the front carriages.  I didn't think it was that busy in the park today, maybe because it was a Monday, we never queued for more than 15 minutes and the rides were well worth it.

We got thrown, and tumbled, accelerated, rocketed and jolted all in the name of fun.  We went on coasters that let your legs dangle in mid air, one that is the tallest in Florida, a double wooden roller coaster that dueled with itself and one that mimics a cheetah and shoots you with loads of g-force. I'm sitting down now typing this but my hands are shaking slightly and I feel like I'm bobbing up and down on a boat....maybe I'm getting too old for this - nah I'd do it all again:-)

Oli meeting his idol!

With a stuffed giraffe under my arm (named him Gerry the bush baby) and holding on to Oli with the other we happily stumbled home with our sun kissed cheeks (Oli a bright red nose) and our wind swept hair - we are ready to collapse into an 8 hour slumber, knackered but happy:-)

Tomorrow we are going to drive to the Everglades about 3 hours south from here, not sure how long we'll stay there for but it'll be fun finding out!

J&O

Insect bites 2, Sesame Street characters spotted 6, stuffed toys 1!