As I was driving into AZ from CA, I took this picture of the sunset. Something about the moon high about the purplish mountain, and then the changing colors of the sky. It struck me as gorgeous. This picture, and the others I attempted, don't even come close to the true majesty of the sky that night. This is what I missed about being on the east, the sunsets and the being able to see for miles and miles. It is incredible the vast difference in climate and vegetation from one side of the country to the other, a testament to the painting and architectural powers of our Creator God.
Anyways, on to the rest of my trip home. Mom and I spent a day with Melissa, Amanda, and Abby at Out Of Africa in Camp Verde. It's about an hour north of Scottsdale. If you are in Phoenix/Scottsdale and are looking for something to do for a day, take the trip out it was amazing. And it is a day trip, not because it's far away but because of all the amazing things you can see and do out there.
You go on a safari ride, and the animals literally come onto the front steps of the bus...There are a few animals that you as a guest can actually feed, the zebra not being one of them because of their massive teeth.....I wouldn't want to loose a finger to that guy!!
The giraffe is one of the animals that you can feed. Their tongues are HUGE!! For the safari ride you load onto an old school bus with no windows and no door. You then go out into the "Serengeti" where there are all sorts of animals from the African plains. Out of Africa started as a big cat rescue and has since expanded over the years. As far as I know the same owners that started it are still owners and a large part of the day to day runnings.
The camel is the other animal on safari that you can actually feed. Our bus driver, Bob, really liked Humphrey, the camel. All the workers are so in love with the animals and it really is all about their interest, humans come second. The animal trainer relationship is incredible here as well. You would assume that with a camel that wouldn't be too difficult, but how about with tigers....
Out of Africa does a show called "Tiger Splash" where three trainers bring in two tigers, or a lioness and a tiger, or various other animals and play around with them. You can't see it in this picture but there is a pool in there that they jump in and swim around. The trainers have all these crazy toys filled with balloons that they run around to get the tigers to chase and then jump in the pool. The day we were there for the first few minutes it was just the trainers in the pool, the tigers would always stop at the edge and watch the trainer get soaking wet, almost as if to say "HA, I made you do that!"
This one particular tiger was something of an acrobat and would often jump up against the fence to get at the toys!
The day we were there was feeding day for all the predators cats. We followed the meat truck around and watched them through racks of ribs, legs of horses, whole turkeys, and various other meats into the pens for the animals to eat. This white tiger, was patiently waiting for his meal trying to look innocent and sweet. He was talking and purring while his neighbors were being fed.
Boom-Boom, the Rhino
Boom-Boom the rhino has an amazing story. He came to Out of Africa in an unusual way. He was bought by a hunter who was going to put him into an enclosure as game. He was bought to be hunted and killed. Someone from Out of Africa heard about this and they offered to pay the hunter double what he had payed for Boom-Boom, in order to save his life. The hunter accepted and Boom-Boom now strolls around the desert in his new home.
All the animals at Out of Africa have similar stories. They are mostly rescued from people who buy them to hunt them, or people who purchase them as pets and then can no longer take care of them. The entire admission you pay goes back to help the animals, Out of Africa gets no outside money. I know this sounds like a sales pitch.....it was an amazing experience though!!
A few more pics of the day
