Zipping through Easter

John Armstrong photography

Guess what I did Easter Sunday? Scratched not one but TWO things off my (non-existent) Bucket List:  taking a photographic safari and Ziplining.  When I went to sleep Saturday night I had no idea what I’d be doing the following day. It’s the way I live.

So I typed, What to Do in the Prescott, AZ area, passed on museums and restaurants and stopped dead when I saw the ad for Predator Ziplines at the Out of Africa Wildlife Park.  Many of the inhabitants of this privately owned park are rescues from deplorable conditions, and the park itself looks more like their natural habitat than any zoo I’ve visited. Warm fuzzies.

Nine of us were in the group, and none of us looked particularly graceful as we screamed and spun and in my case (because of my poor depth perception) kept our feet out of the trees. We zipped from tower to tower 5 times, climbed more stairs than I’d have liked and crossed a bridge straight out of Indiana Jones, with one of the guides having fun during the crossing.



“You don’t want a tip, do you?” I uselessly shouted through the air.  I loved every second (except for the stairs).  Turns out I lucked out by enjoying the only zipline course where you zip over predators instead of just thrashing through treetops. Who knew?

It was fun to be amongst adventuresome souls; even the one nervous fellow was fearless after that first zip. Several of us had tried skydiving but were still thrilled with the experience. Next up for me: bungee-diving off a bridge; so no doubt I'll run into that by accident someday, too.

After the zip I joined their tour around the Serengeti, seeing up close (some of) the animals we zipped over. We each received a celery stalk in exchange for our tickets from the driver-guide. which I thought was a clever way to keep us all hydrated. I missed the part about feeding Kivo, and finished mine before the bus was loaded.  I've said this many times and this just confirms it:  I am a stupid woman, and it's a good thing I did not breed.

I whole-heatedly recommend the Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde, Arizona.  The scenery is breathtaking and the animals are a hoot.