Since Adam has been working 10-12 hour days, he decided that on Friday he would go into work a bit later so we could spend a little extra time as a family. One of the places Adam has really been wanting to go is to the Bannerghatta National park where they have a safari you can go on, and a zoo. We thought this would be a really fun activity for the kids. We had Naveen our driver pick us up at 9:30 am so that we could arrive by 10:00 or just as the park opened. This ended up being a great idea because there was hardly anyone at the park when we arrived and so we were able to get in on the first tours of the day without waiting. We opted to do a Safari as well and because our driver Naveen is awesome, he tipped the driver beforehand (without telling us) so the driver would let us sit up front giving us the best seats on the bus! Wow! Isn’t he amazing. We truly feel so grateful to have him. He wouldn’t even let us pay back the tip he gave the guy either. He sure does spoil us and is oh so generous! We love him. Below are some pictures from our adventure!
A view of the small town we drove through on our way to the park. This is a very typical scene in India. A temple up on the hill, buildings in the distance and garbage in random places.
We paid for Naveen to come with us on the Safari as well and at first they sat us at the back of the bus. But after Naveen tipped the driver – he moved us all to the front!
Best seats in the house! Love this cute boy of mine!
This was our view out the front window. Our entire bus was covered in a cage since our safari took us through areas very close to wild bears, tigers, elephants, and lions.
We saw lots and lots of deer!
Elephants!
Black Bears (seriously right next to the bus)
Lions
And Tigers! This white one was beautiful although it looked like she’d been in a few fights!
Both of these tigers were literally almost NEXT to our bus – and they were pacing back and forth. They look like they are the same tiger, but they were taken in two separate areas of the park.
After the bus safari we headed into the zoo portion of the park, but along the way we ran into a praying-mantis. The boys were very freaked out by it so I put it on my hand and showed them there was nothing to be afraid of. This little guy was super friendly though and went from my arm, to my shoulders, to my neck, up my face by my mouth (I think he wanted to give me a kiss) and then he went to the top of my head. If you look closely you can see him resting in my hair. 🙂
We loved this solid white peacock! Never seen one this color before. So pretty!
We got to see LOTS and LOTS of snakes. Mostly cobras which are very common here.
I’m kind of in love with all the colors in this plant. So pretty!
And apparently carving initials in cacti is the new thing! 🙂
An Iguana!
The only good shot I got of a leopard.
Family picture!
I thought these crocodiles were so interesting. Look at their long slender snouts. So different than our wide mouthed crocs that we are used to seeing.
Even these crocs looked different from the ones we see at the zoo’s in America. So interesting.
As usual, we had many MANY people stop to ask if they could take pictures with either Adalynn or our family. As you can tell from Adalynn’s face, she was never too excited about all the attention she received.
We had actually hoped to take a paddle boat ride down on this little pond, but apparently the water is REALLY low right now, so its not open yet. Rainy season hits in July, so we might come back when the water is up a bit.
Adam ended up needing to leave the park about 1 pm, so that he could make it back to work by 2:00 – but the kids and I weren’t ready to go yet so we opted to stay back and explore the rest of the zoo and then have Naveen come back and pick us up. It gave us an extra two hours to see everything at a more leisurely pace. We spent a lot of time at the playground!
We saw random statues of who knows what – that looked pretty cool.
We played on interesting jungle gyms and attracted lots of crowds from passerbyers wanting to take pictures of an American family with 4 kids!
And we created fun memories together as a family!
Love these two cuties and how close they are! They adore each other.
When Naveen came back we met him at the entrance to the park and then I got all the kids a snack of popcorn. We sure do love Naveen and feel like he is a part of our family! What a blessing he’s been to us since we arrived.
Afterwards, Naveen took us out the park another way we hadn’t come where we got to see some birds and other animals.
The kids found a stage to strike poses, and show off their dance moves!
I loved this baby hippo with his mamma. So cute!
A beautiful temple we saw as we left the park
And thats it! We sure had a great time at the park and the kids said the safari was one of their favorite activities in India yet. They loved seeing all the wild animals (not in cages) and loved getting to see them so close up. It really was an amazing experience and not something we could easily do in America. We truly feel so blessed to be in India! We love it here!
