Day 28 - Busch Gardens

It's Alan's turn for the blog tonight. Sarah's nonsensical ramblings will be in green.

 

Sadly today was our last full day in Florida. The only thing we had left to do from our original list of places to visit was the one I'd been waiting for since we arrived here - Busch Gardens in Tampa. The sky was blue as we headed west toward the coast at 9am. No more than 5 miles down the highway we came into some very thick fog which lasted probably 10 miles or so. About an hour later and we were in Tampa and parking in a very empty lot.

 

Upon entering the park we learned that Gwazi, one of the big coasters wasn't running today which didn't impress me at all. In fact he had a giant whinge saying that it is closed for long enough during the off season they shouldn't have rides closed at other times.  I thought he was actually going to stamp his feet and have a tantrum. We came across Gwazi shortly after and were both very happy to see that it's a dual track coaster and one of the tracks was operating. Yes I was happy.  Being with an unhappy Alan is not fun.  Yay! I went on it and it's definitely the highest and fastest wooden coaster I've ever been on. The lap bars concerned me a bit though; they were very loose and wobbly, but I managed to stay in my seat so all was good.

 

Up next was a wander through Myombe Reserve, which is home to chimpanzees and gorillas. We saw one chimp but no gorillas, followed by checking out the alligator and turtle pond.

 

The next roller coaster I went on was Montu. It's the highest inverted coaster in south eastern United States, is the only inverted coaster in the world with more than 6 inversions and is rated in the top 10 of all coasters in America. I can see why because it's an awesome ride of drops, tight turns, loops and all kinds of cool stuff. After I got off Sarah said I had to ride it again because she managed to forget to take a photo of me on it. That was fine by me.  I didn't "forget" to take a photo.  I did take photos but wasn't able to get one of the fear on Alan's face.

 

So after getting off Montu for the 2nd time we decided it was far too hot and humid to walk so we headed for the nearest station to catch the train which takes you all around the park. We got to see all kinds of African animals on our trip around the entire park, along with all the rides that we still had to go on. We returned to the station we had started from and got off to find something else to do.

 

We had a walk around the Edge of Africa animal habitat where we were lucky enough to see 5 lions. One of them must have been in a fight as it had a really nasty looking gash on her elbow which appeared to go down to the bone. We let a staff member know but she said the animal dudes were already on their way to check it out. We then went into the Tutankhamens Tomb exhibit for nothing more than to get out of the heat for a short time.

 

Our next ride was on the Skyride gondola which took us on a scenic flight over the park to the other end up the back where the rest of the rides were that we wanted to go on.  It was nice up there with a cool breeze.

 

First thing we went on after the Skyride was the Stanley Falls log flume water ride. Of course Sarah only goes on water rides these days so she finally had something to go on with me. It was pretty good and we got fairly wet when we hit the bottom.

 

After that we went over to have a look at the daddy of them all - Sheikra. This roller coaster is like nothing I've ever been on before. It's one of only a few dive coasters in the world. After taking off on an extremely steep hill climb to a height of 200 feet, you are left dangling over the precipice of a drop for a few seconds before it lets go and you fall down a 90 degree drop. There is also a second smaller drop of close to 90 degrees. Screams were coming from all around me while I was sitting there partly saying woohoo and partly hanging on for dear life. It also has a great ending where it travels over a lake and blows water 20 feet into the air, drenching anyone standing below watching.

 

After surviving that experience it was time for us both to go on another water ride. We found the Tidal Wave boat ride and half way round we realised why nobody else was keen to go on it. It's really quite boring and the only decent part is a pretty ordinary drop at the end after which you get quite wet. Like Sheikra, anyone standing close will get soaked to the bone.

 

We walked to the very back of the park where I came across another roller coaster - Kumba. It looks like a fairly standard fast, high, 7 inversion mega looper. After riding however, I knew it was anything but standard. It produces some amazing G forces with it's speed and turns, so much so that I nearly passed out twice during the ride. Sarah wanted me to ride it again to get a better photo but I wasn't going through that again unless she came on it with me. Needless to say we gave it a miss.

 

We settled for a more sedate ride after that so we went on the Congo River Rapids which was close by. It was the usual white water rapids type affair and we came off wet like always. We were in a boat with an English family, of whom the mother and daughter seemed intent on showing us as much breast as they could. Not sure what the husband/father thought about the matter.

 

I decided that I couldn't leave without riding Sheikra again so Sarah watched while I took the plunge from way up in the blue yonder. After I came off we took photos of each other standing in the splash zone being soaked by the water from Sheikra.

 

There was just one more ride to go on before we left, the little Scorpion roller coaster. It's small, rough and short, but strange in that it has a loop while only being held in by a lap bar instead of an over the shoulder harness.

 

We headed for the exit and on the way I checked out the Curiosity Caverns which was both a reptile house and nocturnal house. I saw all sorts of snakes and lizards as well as sugar gliders, bats, owls and a sloth. Sarah was too scared to come into the dark caves so she waited outside.  Sarah was hot, bothered and a little bored after spending most of the day sitting around waiting for Alan.

 

So that was our day in Tampa done. We drove back up the I-4 with both of us trying to keep the other one awake. We didn't have lunch today so we went out for an early dinner after we got back to our hotel. We thought we'd try something new and came across a mexican/carribean restaurant. It looked a bit dodgy from the outside but we were hungry so we gave it a burl anyway. Upon entering we weren't really sure what we had walked into. To the right was a fancy looking restaurant setting, in the middle was a sports bar, to the left was a dance floor and what looked like a karaoke stage and the waitress was wearing extremely skimpy shorts. The food ended up being really great but we're still not sure it wasn't a strip club as well.

 

Depending on the weather we'll probably go for a swim in the hotel pool tonight for the last time before leaving for Washington DC tomorrow morning.

 

So it is goodbye Orlando.  I'm a bit sad really.  The hotel is lovely.  The bed and pillows are so nice, the hotel although being conveniently located, it is off the main road and very quiet.  Let's hope the next place is as nice.