San Diego Blog

My final blog, before the next leg of my trip in Europe, reports on a lovely 2 days in San Diego. I was spoilt rotten by my mother's cousin, Pat, who very kindly picked me up from the airport, let me stay at her house in Dana Point (about halfway between San Diego and LA), fed me, wined me and loaned me her gorgeous x-type jag to drive around in! What a treat.

It's been a lifelong dream to visit the San Diego Zoo so my mission for the two days was to visit the zoo, as well as the safari park. This left no time for anything else but I can always come back one day. I went to the safari park first and absolutely loved it. There are a number of safaris that you can go on, apart from just strolling around the park. The safaris take you behind the scenes and you get to experience things that are not available otherwise. Of course, it costs quite a bit extra but it was worth it. I chose to do the Caravan Safari which involved climbing into the back of a truck and being driven into the giraffe and rhino enclosures. We were allowed to feed the animals which was very, very cool.

The safari lasted for two hours so I then had plenty of time to wander the park and see the other sights, including the cheetah run. This was where a 'tame' cheetah was unleashed so that he could chase a stuffed toy along a strip of grass for 100m in order for us to see just how fast it could run. It reached something like 60 mph in 3 seconds!

On the second day, I went to the zoo. Although I enjoyed it, I have to say that the safari park was so much better. Perhaps it's after seeing so many animals in their natural surroundings over the past four months, I couldn't really come to terms with seeing them in cages. The zoo was beautiful and they have tried hard to recreate something natural but many of the pens were small and there were too many cases of animals walking back and forward, back and forward. A sure sign that they were bored.

On my final day, Pat took me for breakfast at Crystal Cove, a gorgeous spot right on the beach, just north of Daytona. What a lovely way to end my time here. She then drove me up to LA, in time for my flight to Frankfurt. And that brings me to the end of almost five months of traveling. What an incredible time that I've had so far, so many new experiences and lots of new friends. Bring on the next adventure!