the Wilds

On our way to the east coast to prepare for the wedding, Dave and I made a stop in Ohio, at the Wilds! It's a 10,000 acre conservation/wildlife area, reclaimed from an old strip mining site in rural eastern Ohio. They specialize in facilitating captive breeding of species that are extinct in the wild. Exciting and important stuff. Dave and I love the zoo, so this was a perfect place to celebrate Dave's, how shall we say, "milestone" birthday!

Upon our arrival, we took a 2.5-hour safari bus tour. Our guide, Lee, was either really bored of giving this tour, or maybe high.

Our favorite animal that we saw was the Szechuan Takin:

What a ridiculous-looking animal! Lee said that he looks like a creature out of a Dr. Seuss book. I think that he looks more like Acheloos, the river god defeated by Heracles in a contest over Deianeira. He is often depicted as a large-horned bull with the face of a man:

Heracles broke off one of his horns in the fight, which became the horn of plenty symbol. Okay, end of mythological excursus. We spent the night in a yurt! It was our first experience with "glamping" – glamorous camping, of course! I've stayed in a yurt before, but it wasn't very glamorous. In fact, it was at a national park in Uganda, and there was neither electricity nor running water on the site. So this was a big upgrade:

The view was really stunning. I don't know how much money it took to go from strip mine to this, but I think it was worth it:

Those of us who were spending the night at the park ate dinner in the same dining room. The couple next to us were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary! And next to them was another couple, celebrating their 54th anniversary. Dave asked them for advice, which I dutifully share here:

• "If it's not really bad, don't say anything."
• "Yeah, keep your mouth shut!"
• "It's easier to leave than to stay and work it out. But it's worth it."

The next morning, we took the Wildside Tour. It ended up being a private tour of the site by pickup truck with an animal management expert. Since we didn't have to stick to the main roads, we were able to get much closer to the animals. We fed Mickey the Giraffe:

And pet Gobi the Bactrian Camel:

And drew near to cheetahs and Przewalski's horses and rhinos:

It wasn't cheap, but compared to, I don't know, dropping 12 grand on a real safari in Tanzania, I'd say it was pretty affordable! We'd love to go back sometime and see what new things are going on there. Maybe an anniversary trip?? ;)