A
visit to Africa U.S.A. was a thrilling experience.
Imagine a theme park with free parking and free
admission to the gardens. The only attraction
with a charge was the Jungle Train Tour which was
all of $2.00. These images can only give a
glimpse of the beauty and thrill of Africa U.S.A.
Your virtual tour begins at the Gardens. Click
here to see aerial photos of Africa U.S.A.
Your
day at Africa U.S.A. would begin with the
brightly colored entrance sign. Africa U.S.A. was
famous for the billboards all along U.S. 1 on the
East coast of Florida.
Here
is your Jungle Train ticket. The ticket was
actually a postcard which could then be sent to
friends or family. A great marketing tool for
Africa U.S.A. This is an early ticket when the
Jungle Train was 95 cents.
Your
Jungle Train Tour our begins with boarding the
Jeep Safari Train. This part of Africa U.S.A. was
really unique in that the train was completely
open so that the visitors could interact with the
animals. There were no carnivorous animals on the
tour, so visitors were safe.
Here
is the entrance to Tanganyika Territory, the
entrance gates to the recreated African savanna.
The gate is guarded by "Machakas" the
Masai Warrior.
Along
the paved roads many animals were visible such as
giraffe, ostrich, nyala, eland, and zebra in
greater numbers than one would see if on safari
in Africa.
Eland,
a type of antelope, were a common site along the
Jeep Safari Tour.
Rare
Grevy's zebra, an endangered species, grazed in
the recreated Africa savanna. Special permission
was gained from East African game authorities to
import these type of zebra which are larger than
the common zebra.
These
African donkeys, also called "Abyssinian
Asses" were the type of donkey that Jesus
used to ride into Jerusalem.
Here
your train pauses to look at the rare Grevy's
zebra and ostrich. Many ostrich eggs were sold to
exclusive restaurants such as the Stork Club in
New York.
No
animal was more elegant than the giraffe. These
tall, friendly creatures are seen here with some
eland. Many giraffe were born at Africa U.S.A.,
with a normal birth weight of 150 pounds!
If
you were especially lucky on your tour, you would
catch a glimpse of "Tiger" the world's
only half-horse half-zebra. Although he had the
coloring and size of a regular horse, his stripes
were hard to miss.
Your
tour continues with a stop at Jungle Town, a
recreated African Village where the "natives"
performed mock spear fights and other acrobatic
acts. Also featured was native dancing and music.
Cool
off now and take a 15-minute electric boat ride
through the jungle on Lake Nanyuki. On the way
you pass Monkey Island with its chimpanzee and
monkey inhabitants.
A
spectacular sight from the boat ride was the
Watusi Geyser. The geyser was run with huge
underground pumps that pumped water from an
aquifer.
Another
view from the lake was Zambezi Falls, another
creation that looked very real. A naturally
occurring hill, rare in South Florida, was
converted into this 30-foot high waterfall.
A
thrilling moment on your boat ride was the
feeding of live alligators from the boat!
