The time has come for The Crime Traveller to reward my faithful readership with a sneak peak at the ultimate hidden travel gem. Imagine an African safari. Guaranteed sightings of Africa’s “Big Five” game animals (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino). Comfortable tented camps with nearby flush toilets and running water. Fully staffed tour with experienced guides. No airfare. Cost for one night’s accommodations: $100 per person.
Or $90 — if you’re a member of the Toronto Zoo.
Africa has long sat at the top of my extensive travel to-do list, but as someone whose income is based at least partially on Legal Aid’s budget, I have yet to scrounge together the mega dollars required to properly traverse the Sahara. Last year, to satiate my safari cravings, my six-year old daughter and I enrolled in the Toronto Zoo’s Serengeti Bush Camp. I encourage fellow travellers to give this innovative program a try; the 2010 Bush Camp season kicks off in May.
Our suburban safari began when we pulled up to the Toronto Zoo’s administration building at 4:00 p.m. My daughter and I stowed our luggage and sleeping bags at the rear of the Zoomobile (the trolley that winds throughout the zoo grounds), along with the eight other families who’d be camping with us. Our adventure began with a quick tour of the zoo’s back lot — an area rarely viewed by the average member of the public. We passed the massive building where thousands of custom meals are prepared daily for the hundreds of different species of animals that roam the zoo’s 710 acres before zipping past the infirmary where animals receive specialized care when not on exhibit.
Our Zoomobile continued on back route paths, coming to a stop by a clearing dotted with large tents, each pitched atop a sturdy wooden deck. My daughter was thrilled to learn that we had been assigned to Tembo tent (Swahili for “elephant”), and she practically galloped into the tent to explore the interior. Though lacking any luxuries, the tent was clean, dry and spacious, with two comfortable cots. We followed directions to stash our toiletries in the provided baskets to discourage any non-resident zoo wildlife from paying us a midnight visit. The group then met up with our guides.
The first order of business was a tour of the zoo’s African Savannah region. Though the zoo was still open to the public at this time, we got the full VIP treatment, meeting with the elephant keepers and going behind the exhibit into the elephants’ night house as the giant pachyderms roamed the outdoor exhibit. This was followed by a visit with the giraffe keepers and capped off when the children got a chance to toss apple chunks to the hyenas. As the crowds began to thin out when the zoo closed for the day, our group was treated to dinner overlooking a field of zebras.
We all returned to camp where the kids changed into their PJs before assembling in the Kesho Park Ranger Station, where my daughter wrapped a leopard fur around her neck while holding a rhinoceros horn to her forehead. After examining a tray full of elephant teeth, darkness settled in and our guides provided instructions for the evening scavenger hunt. We had full run of the zoo’s vast African region and enjoyed the unique opportunity of observing very different animal behaviours at night.
Being at the zoo after hours was an entirely novel experience. While I won’t go so far as to say it rivals a night out on the plains of Nairobi, it certainly felt miles removed from the often antiseptic and pedestrian experience of taking in the zoo during the daytime. Without the noise of the crowds, the low rumble of the lions could be heard long before their pen came into sight. The hippos, normally content to sit sleepily in a shady corner throughout the day, were playfully splashing each other in a deep pool of muddy water. Our flashlights sparkled off the squinting eyes of a cheetah.
I returned to camp to toast some marshmallows over the fire for my daughter. Hearing baboons bellow while I rested on my cot in suburban Toronto, I felt pleasantly disconcerted as I drifted off to sleep for the night.
Early the next morning, with the theme song from Disney’s The Lion King blaring, the families all stumbled out of their tents and we assembled by the zebra field again for a quick bowl of cereal. Somehow, I couldn’t get the phrase “I just had a hippopotamus for lunch!” out of my head. We then made the long walk down to the zoo’s Canadian Domain where I enjoyed watching the keepers feed their charges. Walking back up the hill, I ended up carrying my daughter on my shoulders. By now, the zoo had re-opened to the general public and we enjoyed another typical day with the animals.
As we stared at the zoo’s newest member — a baby gorilla, born just the evening before, being shielded protectively in its mother’s arms — my six year old flopped lazily from the bars at the front of the enclosure. “The zoo’s different at night,” she muttered. Indeed it is.
When not jetting around the world as his alter ego, The Crime Traveller, Edward Prutschi is a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer. Follow Ed’s criminal law commentary (@prutschi) and The Crime Traveller’s adventures (@crimetraveller) on Twitter, read his Crime Traveller blog, or email ed@thecrimetraveller.com.