Early last saturday, the air buzzed with the anticipation of capturing the big game, on our Beaver safari adventure.
The Beavers were excited as they arrived at the hq, their eyes sparkling with barely suppressed excitement, coincidently, an exact contrast to the parents, whose eyes were barely open as they dropped off the little angels, "9:15 on a weekend, are you joking?".
After a little organising and some last minute rushing home to get forgotten beaver kit, (you can always count on a cub leader to forget something ;D) it was time for the off, we all headed out to our ride for the day, obviously a large rugged off road vehicle, with high platforms for excellent photos and big knobbly tires to cope with the rugged terrain of an african safari. apparently no, i was soon dissapointed, as the coach driver informed me that his coach would be perfectly adequate for a ride around west midlands safari park. humph!
The kids all settled down and with a wave to the parents of our younger beavers (they will soon learn), we were off. After a short journey, which seemed to take forever (probably due to the scout/cub choir on the back seat, our own little cherubs. Trust me, the Frozen soundtrack has a lot to answer for), we had arrived.
Our coach driver didnt mess about and we were straight into the compounds, We saw all sorts of amazing animals. Rhino's, wild dogs, giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers, bison, gazelles to name but a few. .
we were treated to some ....er....amazing? tour guiding from varioius leaders and our young leader, oh yes, we saw ostriches aswell, you all probably know when we saw the ostriches, it was when you would of heard an ear bursting far off scream. That would be our Young leader, it turns out she is scared of birds. Boy!, can she scream, LOUDLY! down a microphone!, through 52 seperate loudspeakers, one above each seat. My ears are still ringing, however at least the bleeding has finally stopped
After our safari adventure, we all sat down to our packed lunchs, then set off for the real adrenaline rush. we headed into the ride area of the park, we took a quick trip through the Bat Cave, No batman wasnt there, Nor robin, nor was the bat mobile, (shame) it turns out our young leader isnt just scared of birds, but bats rate fairly high on her fear scale too, apparently its because they can turn into vampires. she is a teenager, so that explains many things. In all fairness she made her way through the cave with complete stoicsm and dignity, with only a few minor squeaks and no squeals at all.
After the bats we went onto the Hippo platform and spotted a group of them wallowing in the mud. That was enough for animals, because our beavers wanted to hit the rides asap. we got on as many rides as we could, with notable times on the Ghost train, nearly all of the beavers went on it, whilst we had some strangely enthusiastic leaders who voluntereed to watch the bags.
We went on the old fashioned carousel, with one young man thinking it was more like a rodeo, and standing in the saddle, a quick word from the ride opperator and an embarrassed apology from our leader and all was well.
Most of the beavers went on the caterpillar roller coaster, with one naughty leader leading the hands in the air on the rapid descents, we also went on the hurtling hippos ride, alot like the octopus at fun fairs, we did the safari lorries ( a bit like a tame run away train) and all the beavers went on the water squirting fire engine ride.
We finished off on a strange combination of a fast merry go round with water cannons. you had to shoot targets on the ride which set off huge plumes of water into the air. much to the shock of two of our leaders who had stood off this ride as they didnt want to get wet, then stood in the big wet area next to the exit. i think they may have been drier if they had gone on the ride. it wasnt funny though and i didnt even giggle a little bit. This was the final ride as the coach was due to leave soon, so we all headed back to the coach for our journey home.
Most notable on our trip was one young man, who took a turn for the worse as he seemed to come down with a fever whilst out. he was so brave and refused to let it spoil his day, he kept going all day untill it was nearly bed time, at which point unfortunatley the leaders had to call home, it was a shame for him and he deserves a special mention for his bravery, well done young man, you know who you are.