San Diego, Dik Dik and other animals

Hyacinth Macaw


Having a beer with Jo


It has been great to meet up with Joanna, as I had not seen her for over 6 years.

She is currently living in Oceanside, about 35 kilometres from San Diego.

One of the main attractions around here is the Wild Animal Park which has become quite famous for it's conservation work, having achieved a lot of success with the highly endangered condor.

The park is set on a dry valley inland and therefore a lot hotter than Oceanside. Driving there and everywhere else you are shocked by the amount of cars that seem to be constantly on the road. But there is very little you can do here without a car, to even go to the supermarket you need to drive. The high street seems to have died and is now just a few places to eat, a dry cleaners and a cinema.

Dik Dik, quite an amusing name

The park itself is quite large and you could easily spend the whole day walking from one part to the other, learning about these animals. Also about some of the damage we have done to the planet. The park has two of the eight Northern Rhinos left in the world, sadly their female is barren. Probably in the next few years this animal will become extinct.