Le Monde Sauvage Safari Parc on a (too) busy sunny holiday

We discovered the Monde Sauvage Safari Parc during a storm but we felt like visiting it on a sunny day.  So we drove along on our way to the Ardennes at the start of what promised a long sunny weekend.

Unfortunately we were not the only ones with that idea.  At the exit of the main road we saw the cars were waiting in line to get into the park. I cursed but figured there were about 20-30 cars in front of me and turned off.   Unfortunately my memory was mistaken and the entrance of the park wasn't after a few 100 m but after more than 1 km.  More than 1 km of cars lining up, slower than walking distance.  The disadvantage of this small local zoo is the fact that you first need to pass the pay booths before you can reach the parking and the safari part of the zoo.  So despite having a subscription, we had to be in line with the other cars that one by one had to pay to get in.  If I had known, I probably wouldn't have lined up but in the end it took us 1 hour to get in.  Our reasoning that it was "only a 15 min detour" from our regular commute to the Ardennes didn't quite make sense anymore.  Uggggh. Fortunately Kabouter behaved very well and continued to babble, sing and eat cookies happily in the back of the car.   Beertje however really needed to eat, so after a while Jan and I had to exchange seats in the car and I have fed Beertje in the passenger seat (hurray for the ease of breastfeeding whereever whenever). It's not as if we were moving.

So let that be a reminder to ourselves and anyone who reads this: don't go on a top sunny holiday when visits are at its peak.   (we read in the news paper of the 12 km traffic jam to go to Pairi Daiza, Belgium's nicest zoo, which in the end closed because it was too full. Yikes! so everybody wanted to be in a zoo yesterday).

Once inside, we wisely skipped the safari tour where the cars lined up bumper at bumper once again but we headed to the rather full parking (but still place at that time) and we went in for a wonderful walk in the pedestrian part of the zoo. It was lovely out and not crowded on the trails at all. Phew.


The gorilla's were even taking tumbles from joy in the sun :)




An ourangutang seemed to be doing some laundry in the water with some huge cloth. Funny to watch.







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