Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is an African Safari in Texas

Before we moved out here to Guam, my husband, my son and I took a road trip from California to Texas. My husband's parents live there so we went to visit them for about two weeks before we headed on our three year tour of Guam. While we were there, we did a variety of different things such as eat at the famous Driskoll Hotel, check out the Alamo, go to Sea World and ATTEMTP to see the big bat colony in Austin. My favorite thing that we did was right before we left, and it was visit a place called the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.

Located in the Texas Hill Country, The Wildlife Ranch allows you to explore a variety of animals from different continents such as Africa right in the comfort of your own car. In Texas no less. This is how it works. You drive into the entrance and pay your admission fee.

The speed limit is five miles per hour. This is so that everyone gets a chance to see the animals. If you want to stop and look at the animals for more than two minutes at a time, it's recommended that as a courteously to other drivers you pull off to the side and let them pass. The first few animals you will see are goats and rams. There are tons of rams. Then you will start to see Gazelles and Water Buffalo. I was a little startled to see a giant Water Buffalo walking in front of our truck. Then there was a little mix of all of them. Water Buffalo, Gazelles, Impalas and deer. I believe I saw some caribou as well.

The coolest animals are close to the end of the Safari. That is where you start to see Animals like the Zebra. We pulled off to the side once we came to the Zebras. A baby one came right up to our window and I fed it from my hand which was a no no. The mother came right over and stuck her head in my window and grunted at me. We figured it was time we moved on, so we headed up towards the end of the road and ran into a few small emus. My husband tossed out some food to them. We were thinking to ourselves how small they were, when all of a sudden this gigantic ostrich came walking up to my husbands window. He tossed some food on the ground to it and commented on how large it's feet were. All of a sudden the animal peeked it's head into the car and scared the be Jesus out of my husband who rolled up his window really fast and drove up a few feet. We all had a good laugh over it, and the ostrich followed us and was trying to look in our window. I caught some of it on tape and we still laugh about it.

After we were finished with the Safari (we only went around it once but I think you can go around it more than once if you want to). We walked around the petting zoo and looked at the baby goats and the Macaws and the Giraffes. They have Rhinos on the Safari but they are bordered off by a big fence because they tend to be very dangerous. Then there is a cute little gift shop where you can buy a t-shirt that says "I survived The Wildlife Ranch Safari". All in all I think it's worth the money paid and I think kids will love it.

The hours are 9 am to 5 pm daily, and then during the summer months it's open from 9 am to 6:30 pm daily .Adults (ages 12 and over) $15.50 Children (ages 3-11) $7.50 Senior Citizens (65+) $14.50 Animal Feed $1.00. Once you have paid your fee and have your animal feed, you can start driving through the Safari. You may have your windows down, and toss the feed at the animals. There is a rule where they do not want you to actually hand feed the animals, but most people ignore that rule it seems. You are also to under no circumstances get out of your vehicle. Jeeps with no doors are not permitted. Pets are also not permitted. I think that is for obvious reasons. I'd hate to see anyone's pet get gobbled up or pecked by another animal, or have it jump out the window and be hit by another car.