Boy are there going to be Giraffes in this post. LOTs of giraffes and I can’t wait to share them. It’s Official, I LOVE GIRAFFEs!
In Italy there’s a zoo park where you can interact with the animals. That’s right, you get to drive through the park in your own vehicle and you can bring food and feed all of the animals along the route. Except for the Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Ohhh my! Strict no windows down policy enforced in those areas.
I’m already getting ahead of myself. Let’s back things up just a minute.
The Zoo Park is located in Bari which if you put your finger on Naples Italy and dragged it in a straight line across the boot, you’d be almost right near it. Bari is just past Matera and Alberobello.
It’s about a 3 hour drive and mostly all highway so you can cut that down a bit if you are a speed demon. This would be a day trip for my friends and I.
There are 2 sides to the zoo park. On the right side is the driving safari, which mostly everyone just refers to as Bari Safari. On the other side is the actual zoo part. When you buy a ticket both parks are included.
MOST IMPORTANT RULE FOR THE VISIT: Bring lots of snacks for the animals! They will come right up to your car if you have offerings to give. Some really good snacks to have on hand are carrots, bring tons of carrots!, peanuts, dried apricots, anything the animals would enjoy eating without getting a stomach ache. You can bring your own snacks inside your car so make sure to have plenty.
Driving up to the entrance of Bari Safari, I was so excited and nervous. There was a big gate and as we slowly passed through it I thought we were at Jurassic Park or something. AHHHHH!! I am terrified of dinasours.
Immediately we were approached by this guy, the bold ram of the bunch. He started poking around for treats. As soon as they found out we had them, they swarmed us! Morg and Jess kept rolling up the windows because deer and rams in your face is a very new idea.
Next we spotted a llama. Unfortunately it wasn’t a talking llama 🙁 Everyone knows those guys spit so we decided not to entice him with our treats.
For a moment there I thought I had been fooled and he was about to say something after all.
Donkey Alert.
LIONS
Cammy is more adventurous then most of us and even agreed to drive through the lion pit so we could get up close and personal with these guys.
Not just one or two lions, entire prides of lions!
It did seem a bit sad to have all of these lions in such a small area although it was pretty spacious, it seemed overpopulated.
When you enter you drive into the first gate and then wait for it to close behind you. Once it does, the second gate opens and you drive in. Meanwhile there’s a guy with a rifle in between the two gates just in case somebody decides to flee the coupe.
TIGERS
I watched a Tiger show in Thailand once, and it was crazy how one man stands in a ring with 8 tigers in the pit performing tricks. Talk about a high performance job! These tigers were just relaxin out in the heat.
Peeping from behind that rock.
This guys enjoying that shade under that tree, having a lazy afternoon.
The majestic tiger of the bunch, he’s stunning.
BEARS
Bears on the ground, bears in the trees, bears everywhere. Bears!
He thinks we can’t see him up in that tree, but we can, Bears!
I bet the trunk of that tree is all tore up because of some necessary back scratching going on. I love how this guy is propped up at the bottom of the tree, Bears!
“Excuse me, have you seen a girl named Goldylocks round these parts, it has something to do with porridge.”
Bears!
Mini Ponies. Awww.
ELEPHANTS
Just hanging out, swinging that trunk about. In this area there is a divide between the cars and the elephants, just in case one of them thinks the hood of your car would make a good seat.
Foraging around for some treats.
Sending peanuts their way, so they’d have some snacks to look forward too!
GIRAFFES GIRAFFES GIRAFFES!
Oh my word, these guys were the best! They are the goofiest, most awkward creatures, and by far the most entertaining. When we pulled up it was feeding time and one stray giraffe just happened over.
One grab of the carrot with his long tongue, one loud crunch of the carrot with his teeth, and all of his friends were alerted and came running.
I told him I’d give him 2 carrots if he would just take a peak at the camera but for some reason he seemed satisfied with just the one.
Those tongues! Giraffe tongues are extra long, slimy, and always ready for a grip. I can’t lie that I gagged a few times when the tongue touched me. Ewwww. I still love giraffes.
Best as I could capture that tongue shot. Look how long it is. He’s just licking his lips.
“Are you looking at me? Well since you are, you wouldn’t happen to have a carrot per chance?”
A couple of giraffes ganged up on us, all in the name of carrots.
In this moment it doesn’t pay to be the tallest one of the bunch. This shorter guy had way more accessibility to the car window.
3 peas in a pod.
Not even giraffes have much tolerance for selfies these days. He was just trying to take a very quick and secretive bite of that carrot!
“You seem a bit tongue tied. Maybe we should talk later?”
Giraffes in yo face. AH!
Baby giraffes got to eat too. But what if he can’t reach the basket. Don’t worry, momma is there to help.
Long necks are perfect for a quick bite of that straw.
ZEBRAS
From afar, this guy saw all the special treatment that our giraffe friends were getting and when we turned the bend, he came a running.
Flanking all sides, turns out zebras love carrots too!
“Hey there mister, can I help you?”
Not as easy as you think to try to drive down the road with a zebra mouth sticking in the window of your car. He kept running alongside us as we went. That’s determination for a carrot if I ever saw it.
Zebra backdrop.
“Yes, you can have a carrot for your efforts, but first, let’s get a quick pic.”
Pretty soon that heat was making everybody feel a bit drowsy, so it was off to the watering hole with the lot of them.
“Don’t mind me, I’ll just be foraging in your back seat for carrots, you go on and drive ahead, there’s no trouble back here.”
OSTRICHES
Ostrich
One look and that was enough. Back in the day, in the town of Mount Pleasant, my dad was friends with a guy who owned an ostrich farm. I saw how vicious these guys could be when I was growing up. Which meant a quick hello and a windows up on my end.
He did not like this treatment and decided to take it out on Cammy! Biting her mirror.
He got a stern talking to before we drove off.
CAMELS
First glimpse of the camel over there. As he caught our eye and we waved him over, another guy was silently creeping up to put his face in my face.
When I turned my head and saw him, I screamed. Couldn’t help it.
Another friend on the other side. These guys were very big fans of the dried apricots. We almost gave up half the bag just to the 2 of them.
Just receiving the camel stamp of approval.
Then he stuck his head in the car. The typical thing to do at Bari Safari.
As we said goodbye to the rest of the animals and exited the park, this guy decided to join. He walked right out behind us and over to the shrubs for some untouched snacks. In the picture above, he’s out in the employee parking lot.
Just a few minutes passed before someone came to lead him back inside the park boundaries.
BARI ZOO
After parking the car for 2 euro in the lot right at the exit, we walked inside to see a few of the other exhibits and animals. Taking this train you can head over to the polar bear, rhino, and hippo exhibits. The polar bears and rhino seemed very unhappy and I didn’t post the photos because it didn’t seem right.
Jess decided to test her luck at a safari jeep.
Stopping by the Aberobello man with the Aberobello roof hat for a quick pic.
Even one of the monkey houses over by the lake has an alberobello roof.
BABOONS
The main attraction over at the zoo is the baboon train. Its a train you get to get onto that has double mesh wiring, you get locked inside of, and drive straight into a baboon pit where you can feed the baboons peanuts.
All aboard.
The 3 of us squeezed onto the train, ready to see the baboons.
Excited to have a meet and greet with some baboons, while also exchanging peanuts.
One of our new friends hanging off the side of the cage. Waiting for us to put some peanuts into the slots.
GORILLA
Just after the baboons we stopped over to say hii to Mr. Gorilla. I threw him a few peanuts and he instantly motioned for more, but I got yelled at before I could throw him any more.
These 2 ending their time at Bari Safari with a quick ride from a giraffe.
This article appeared first on The Cassey Excursion.
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