Eifel Vacation Day 2 - Wild und Erlebnis Park in Daun

 On this fine, rainy, Tuesday morning we stayed home for a while to play some games and rest and spend some quality time together. As soon as some shy little sunbeams started reaching through the clouds my dad thought we should hurry out and take advantage of the shining moments. So off we went to Wild und Erlebnis Park in Daun. It was really cool. You drive through the whole thing and stop and get out to see the animals. Almost all of them are running around free and you can pet them and feed some of them. There were a lot of llamas, goats and donkeys all over and they were especially interested in us if we had food. This first picture is of Ben trying to park the car but the llama apparently didn't want 'Ben the non-animal lover' to park and get out. (love you too honey :D)

 Zak was trying to pet the llamas but as soon as he put his hand up they would move their heads. It was pretty funny!

 The animals are really used to people and not scared at all. One donkey must have woken up on the wrong side of the park because he was a bit grumpy. He walked right by Ty and kind of brushed up against him to get past. Ty didn't see the big feller coming and immediately freaked out when suddenly there was a big grumpy donkey standing next to him.

 This donkey decided that our side mirror was a bit dirty, or maybe yummy, and licked it.

 Next we came to the deer. They were behind a fence but you could stand in a little pavilion thing and still be right next to them. They were a bit more shy.

 Ty checking out the deer with his trusty binoculars around his neck,

 This is not even a third of all the deer. There were so many. It was incredible.

 Some of them still had that felt stuff on their antlers that was falling off. It looked really gross but I was really intrigued by it....but still it was gross. yuck!

 When we kept driving, this llama was in the middle of the road, so I rolled down my window to get him to move? I don't know, but I rolled down my window and suddenly he was right next to the window trying to poke his head in!! Yikes! I hurried and rolled up the window all the while thinking about if his head would get stuck in the rolled up window and how he would then react.

 A lot of the llamas had this 'cute' smile where their bottom teeth were showing. We got a big kick out of that.....small brains, small pleasures, I guess. :D

 Laney looking at the deer with Ty's spotting scope.

 We were SO excited when we drove up and suddenly there were all these little wild boar babies. (piglets I guess...refer to a previous post about me being allowed to call all animals for babies) They were so cute and they made the cutest piggy noises and whining. And we had never been so close to wild boar before.

 When we stopped here we almost couldn't contain our excitement when these giant boar came running down the hill. They were huge and RIGHT next to us.

 Zak petting a cute little bambi deer.

 They had these feeding things where you could pour food down and it would end up in their feeding troughs. The deer were at the bottom just looking up at you waiting for you to pour it down. As soon as they heard the corn they would get ready for it to come out. It was pretty funny how trained they were.

 Ty feeding the deer. Ty had to go to the bathroom but he was also picking up the corn that was on the ground and throwing it down to the deer. Before he left for the bathroom, Zak, Laney and I were all instructed to pick up the corn and only throw it to the deer that looked up at us because those were the ones that were really hungry and needed some food. I love that boy!

 After we had fed the hungry ones, we went back to the cars. Ben and Ty were still in the bathroom, so Zak, Laney, and I decided to throw some food to the deer that were by the cars. Right after Zak and I threw some, we read the giant sign that said not to feed the deer except in the designated area, because they could get pretty crazy and you could get hurt. Two deer immediately started following Zak and me - of course the ones that had huge antlers. We started walking away slowly but they just kept following us. I walked towards the car and reached for the handle only to realize Ben had locked it. I was getting pretty nervous, but when I got on the other side of the car the deer stopped following me. phew!! I was imagining what it would feel like to be attacked by a deer with giant antlers and the pictures in my head weren't pretty! When we drove off we actually saw this family who started feeding the deer and they were right in their faces trying to get the food. The little girl looked like she was getting a bit scared.

 Ty really wanted to pet one of the deer but he must have had deer repellent in his pocket, 'cause every time he got close to one it would move. Zak tried to help him, but no luck. I think Ty was still a little scared from his near death experience with the donkey and the deer could probably smell his fear.

 At the very end (or beginning) of the animal park you could see some little baby quails hatching. There was one that had holes in it and you could see the little quail moving inside the egg. Laney and Ty were determined to see the little quail hatching, but alas, it took longer than expected and our patience ran out before the quail.

 Lots of little quail babies huddling together.

 Watching and waiting for the quail baby to make its break through.

 They also had a bird show that we watched. We walked away very knowledgeable about owls, hawks and vultures. Nyah liked it for about 2 minutes and the rest of the time tried to escape her father's iron grip.

 The owl.

 The hawk.

And the vulture. I actually quite liked this little guy. He would hobble after his trainer and he just looked very cute. We also went into the monkey area but I didn't bring my camera since it said you couldn't bring bags and backpacks. It was amazing though how close we were to the monkeys. Very cool park,
All in all it was a great day!

...Don't miss the next installment of "The Campbells and Grams in Eifel".