Visit glorious Safari West – wildlife sanctuary that survived the wildfires

NEWS has a habit of moving on. The January 2018 mudslides that ravaged Montecito in Southern California took the headline attention away from the aftermath of last October ’s wildfires in the northern part of the state, which torched 199,000 acres and took 39 lives.

After dining under the stars we slept soundly in out tent against a backdrop of wild sounds. Luxurious enough, but still with real camping’s dewy chill in the morning.

Since then nature, aided by serious resources, has been healing itself. It will take a while for the wooded mountains north of Santa Rosa to properly recover from the Tubbs Fire, the most destructive firestorm in California’s history, but as the tendrils of new growth everywhere in burnt out meadows demonstrate, life goes on.

In the case of Safari West, the lives of giraffes, zebras, rhinoceros, cheetahs and a hundred other exotic species saved from the blaze as it threatened to engulf their idyllic 400 acre sanctuary, known as the ‘Sonoma Serengeti’.

Across the Atlantic via newsflashes we followed every step of the struggle to contain the fierce conflagration. The flames were kept at bay and no animals harmed, but the off-site homes of owner Peter Lang and some of his warden team were destroyed. When the 77-year-old finally came through he had only his truck, his passport, his Levi’s and a shirt, he told a San Francisco Gate reporter in a blow by blow account.

Our interest was personal. Less than a month before we had stayed in one of its treetop glamping tents after a glorious day’s adventure in this private wildlife preservation/conservation centre. 

It was a highlight of our San Francisco-Seattle road trip and is well worth a detour from the Sonoma Wine Country. Day visits resumed surprisingly swiftly after the wildfires, in time for Thanksgiving, and now the accommodation package is back. The 30 tents were imported from Botswana, each with a private viewing deck, en-suite bathroom and polished hardwood floors. After dining under the stars at the Savannah Cafe (braii style grills and good local Pinot Noir) we slept soundly in out tent against a backdrop of wild sounds. Luxurious enough, but still with real camping’s dewy chill in the morning.

We never met Lang, who founded Safari West on a former cattle ranch back in the Seventies before opening on the current site in 1993, but the meticulous attention he had poured into the project was obvious with hugely knowledge and loyalty among the staff.

Most visitors take a Classic Safari Tour, which lasts up to three hours and includes both walking and open air drive sections for groups of up to 10 people. The reserve’s expanse shares similar environmental features with an African savanna (split into pens) and here various species can roam free.

Smaller animals are kept in enclosures reached by walkway, while the open-air aviary is home to a glorious array of technicolor birds, including cranes and flamingoes. Cutest is the sociable demoiselle crane who offers to act as a guide to visitors.

The giraffe breeding programme is a key element and stopping up close to the graceful youngsters – two were born in 2017 before the wildfures – was a top stop-off our on our Private Sunset Jeep Safari. The lemur were mega engaging too, but we were warier about the evil-eyed ostriches!

Our tour finished on a hilltop surrounded by antelope as a mellow sun went down over the Mayacamas Mountains. Our personal guide Alex poured us a selection of craft beer, local except for the appropriate Kenyan Tusker lager (we had opted for the Brews and Buffalo rather than the Winos and Rhinos tour). It felt like paradise. 

As small talk we asked Alex if they had evacuation plans in the event of fire. How do you rescue  a giraffe, say or a rhino? He confirmed various options to transfer the wildlife to zoos in San Francisco to the south and Portland, Oregon, to the north, after which we didn’t give it another thought. Earthly paradises can be more fragile than you think.

There’s so much to enjoy in Wine Country and Northern California. Check out my 10 Luminous Spots.