Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and Kilimanjaro Safaris with Host Pete and Guest Keeper Kate

Episode Date: April 26, 2026

Hello Travelers! This week, go wild with host Pete the Neverland Local as he takes you on a walk-and-talk through Animal Kingdom's Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail with the help of his sister, Keeper Kate! Then, before you leave Harambe, enjoy a ride on the always exciting Kilimanjaro Safaris. We are listener supported - contribute to the Dole Whip Fund via Google or Apple Pay. Thanks! Walkabout the World is now on TikTok! Come follow our visual companion to the audio podcast at Walkabout.the.world.pod on TikTok And of course, visit us on Instagram and at walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things - attraction episodes, Insta accounts of all the hosts, and even how to buy your own Walkabout shirt!

Hello, travelers, welcome back to Walk about the World, your favorite audio walk-and-talk with a friend around the parks and resorts of Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Each week, we record live in the parks to provide you with an auditory experience with every episode. You'll hear the crowds, the music, the attractions, and yes, even the occasional magical meltdown of tired children who never want the fun to end. If you enjoy what we bring each week, we are listener-supported, so feel free to show your appreciation by clicking the DoWip Fun link in the show notes that will allow you to donate. as much or as little as you'd like and buy us a go-wip a mouse-shaped treat or anything else,

but mostly it helps us with our pod hosting fees and lets us keep doing what we love to do as we bring with us around the parks and resorts. Well, here we are in Disney's Animal Kingdom once again, doing a walk and talk through the park. Today, I'll be your host, Pete, aka Neverland Local, and I'm with my sister, a special guest. introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Kate. It's Keeper Kate. Hello, hello.

So the idea for today is we're going to stroll through Discovery Island, went through the oasis, going to head over to Gorilla Falls and see what we can hear and just see what Animal Kingdom

brings us today. So come along. All right, so when we get to the Tree of Life, Kate, which way do you like to go? Do you like to go left or do you like to go right? I prefer to go left. We'll go left. So if we are doing some wayfinding here auditorily, the Tree of Life is straight ahead and we are going to hang a left as if we were heading towards Pandora. So let's head left. Is there a reason why you like to go left?

I mean, you wouldn't say like, hey, I want to see the flamingos over here, or... I do like the flamingos and the otters. Flamingos and the otters are here as well. And the kangaroo. I think there's a kangaroo back here somewhere. So, yeah, we are here at Animal Kingdom. First thing in the morning, it is pretty early. Park just opened less than an hour ago, and people are filing in.

to see what they can see today at Animal Kingdom. So let's trek on. Now, one of the things that we are going to do today, but it will not be recorded, will be to get the new ice cream sandwich. Are you looking forward to this ice cream sandwich? Very much so. I've heard all good things about it,

and I can't wait to try it for at least half of it. Yes. This will be, well, I was here last week and I had it or some of it. I unfortunately had to throw some of it away. There was way too much of it. But the line was short and I was like, well, why not? We're here. So later on, I'll make sure I get a photo of that.

Let's continue on to the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. Here it is, Territreets. If anyone is interested in a cookie dough brownie ice cream sandwich, it is here at Teratrice. Territz has a limited hours. So they're only open, I believe, from 10.30 to 3. So if that is something that you desire, make sure you look at the hours of Territz treats. All right, we are continuing over the bridge into Africa. Always a good photo spot for people.

necessarily towards Everest because the sun will get you. But looking towards Harambe, the port of Harambe, we're going to snap a photo for you here. And yes, you've heard it. We're getting into Harambe here, and one of our favorite things in Harambe is all the entertainers, whether they be the band, whether it be the Port Tinkat-Tingat-Ting.

Thank you so much. Keeper Kate's stop to take a photo with one of the musicians. Seems like everybody is flocking to Kilimanjara Safari. Looks currently like the weight is 20 minutes, which is not necessarily a bad thing at all. I think over... Especially on the morning like today. Why do you say that? It's nice and cool.

So far. and maybe more animals will be out in the morning. But yeah, I think over the time that I've lived here, I feel like Kilimanjah safaris has become probably my favorite attraction in all the parks. And I know that's surprising, but I do enjoy it because it is different every single time that you ride it. Even riding it multiple times in a row, it's different. All right. We are headed to the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail.

Let's snap a photo for you here. So in here we have the guerrilla sanctuary and the hippo pool as well. So we will see what we can see and we'll do our best to describe what we see. Not too sure we're going to have a whole lot of audio on this trail, but you never know. Kate, do you have a favorite animal that would be on the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail? I always love watching the gorillas. I've never had a chance to work Great Apes. I think they're so crazy, smart, and so impressive.

And watching them is something I absolutely love to do when I get a chance. Well, there you go. Hopefully, we will see them all on the trail. Good morning. Good morning. Enjoy your day with us. Thank you. Thank you so much.

And I hope we get to see the Okapi, because those are some animals that I get to work with. Yes, the Okapi. All right, this first enclosure. What animals are these kids? A polybus monkeys, I think, here. And every time I come by, they're always on the top, just hanging out. Maybe it's in the sun. With these guys, if they burp in your face, that means they like you.

There you go. Let's see if I can get a photo. It's kind of hard because they're in an interesting spot. But let's see. I kind of just, for lack of a better term, hanging out up there. I love their tails. So long. All right.

So we'll walk out of that habitat. We got Kilimanjaro Safari entrance on the left-hand side or people boarding on the left. And straight ahead we have Okapi. and they're very close to us. So let's take a look. Kate, I'm sure you heard that. And I'm sure you know that fun fact, but that animal care representative just said

that the Ocopi's ears they can hear up to two and a half miles away. Yes, they can hear you and coming from way, way far away. They know where you are. probably when you're starting to come into this whole section of the park here. They've got huge ears, and next time when you get a chance to see them, watch those ears because they'll move independently of each other.

Because they live in such a dense rainforest in the wild, their vision is not nearly as helpful as their sense of hearing. So their sense of hearing is way more developed than their vision, so those ears come in handy. Oh, my goodness. All right. We have the area with the naked mole rats and... Snakes.

Snakes. Yes, so many snakes. I will refrain from taking photos and putting those in the show notes. Here he is. He's active right here. Oh, thank you. Moving around. All right.

The next section here of the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail is... This is bird aviary. Is this aviary? Yeah. Aviary. So the only advice I've ever been given here is you can look at everything, but if you look up, close your mouth. Right? Keep your mouth closed because you never know there may be a surprise. A hundred percent. Oh, look at a spoonie on the... Spoons!

Can you... I love me a spoon. Let's see if I can take a photo of this spoon bill who's hanging out on the... Come on, spoonie. Turn around. That's great. You're all right. And the picking piece. I don't want to scare them away.

Look at them. Oh my gosh. How do you not love a spoon? All right. Next area we go through will be the hippo pool. Hippo pool. I don't. I don't currently see any hippo.

I see a lot of fish, but I don't see the hippos at this point. Oh, he's over there. I see him above water over there, but I don't know if you can't really see him, so no real point in a photo at this point, but hippo pool is always cool to come check out. A lot of different fish. All the sicklids. Sicklids. I was just going to ask, how do you pronounce that? Sicklids.

They're everywhere. It's just a kind of fish. Yeah, but they eat the hippo poop. And they eat the hippo poop. That's why they're in there. A symbiotic relationship. That's great. All right.

Well, I'm not a cyclist. Exactly. Or a hippo, for that matter, I guess. All right. We're walking through the path, the windy path. It's going to lead us to zebra. Zebras. What did you think?

They're gorillas. Gorillas, eventually. We got zebras and mirkats. Oh, he's right there. He's right there. The lookout. Morning. How are you guys?

Yeah, right here. We'll have to take a photo of him. He's posing. He is. Oh, there's another one. Now he's on his tiptoes. And the zebras are way in the back. Grabby zebras.

Look at him. He can see as far as. as those Okapi can hear. All right, so the one thing I will point out is that as we walk around here, you probably hear a couple different things constantly. One is Keeper Kate participated in the 10K today. She finished it this morning, so her medal may be

bouncing around a little bit, totally fine. And then you hear a lot of congratulations because everybody at the parks, if you're wearing your medal, we'll say congratulations if you participated. So you hear a lot of people saying, congratulations, and that's why. All right, we've entered the gorilla area, and I do not see any up against the window, but that doesn't mean we won't see any.

There are a couple different viewing spots. So just because they're not over here, have no fear. We'll walk around the path to the other side, and then there are open area that's on both sides of the path. Maybe we can catch a glimpse of a gorilla. You have not worked with gorillas. Is that accurate? Yes, I have not worked with any great apes.

Any great apes? I have done some lesser apes, but not gorillas, orangutans, or chimps, or bonobos, or anything like that. But you would like that. I mean, at some point, you would like to work with them. I don't know. I feel like I have a very healthy respect for them, and I think my relationship with them is where I want it to be. There you go. There you go.

Oh, and I have to, I would be remiss if I didn't take a photo of the, the controversial hidden Jafar. You can tell me if you think that that is Jafar. I took a photo for you. And I do see one of them up here on the left-hand side. Looked like, is it accurate to call that a silverback? Silverback is reserved for like the big, big males, but it looks like a big male to me.

I'd say sure, go for it. Oh, look at him. It's breakfast. Healthy breakfast. Banana? And some greens. Sorry about my photo. Oh, there's another one on the move.

Two on the move. Breakfast? Mm-hmm? Breakfast? Yeah, breakfast. Breakfast. We're grabbing all the things. Oh, my gosh.

This is awesome. All right. It's coming. What he's doing is, You put scents out there all over, different scents. So it'd be like in the wild, they'd pick up different scents as they walk through the jungle. And every once in a while, they'd find something they like. His favorite is cinnamon.

Oh. He'd stick his nose right in it. He's like that. On the left, this is our dominant male. He's got a little guy over there behind the rock. He's teaching it to be a dominant male. It was great. He's his head popping through.

These two here are our happy-go-lucky girls. I don't want any responsibility. Just a gorilla. Yes. I like that. The little one is that one over there, his brother. Ah. They were born here.

How old are? 11. Oh, wow. Big ones are 34. It is definitely breakfast. It's like in a Zen post. Meditating this morning. Big boys have 10% of their body weight every day.

Wow. They're just maintaining size. Little guys are eating. So little guys are eating probably 25 pounds of food. Big boys, 45 pounds of food. body like that. All right. Well, thank you very much.

You bet. I appreciate the info. So right there, four of them very close. So I feel like that's another thing. And we talk about it from time to time at the parks, but I feel like you don't really know it unless you come. Is that when you come to Animal Kingdom of first thing in the morning, everybody is running over to Kilimanjara Safari

and flight of passage and things like that. And that's great. But I feel like coming here, you totally get a different view on everything because these gorillas are just kind of coming out. Having breakfast, there's not a whole lot of people on the trail at all. You have a great interaction with the cast members who have all the information, ages and knowledge and food and things like that. And I just feel like that is one thing that sets this park apart from the other parks.

Obviously, this is just something totally different. And I will just say, it is not a zoo. Please don't call it a zoo. But yes, it is great. If you have the opportunity to come to Animal Kingdom first thing in the morning one day, definitely do it. Walk the trails, interact with the cast members. They give you so much great information.

What do we have? I see four currently. Four gorillas. I would take a photo, but I'm staring right into the sun, and I don't know the photo is going to do these gorillas. Rilla's justice. He's taking up all this stuff and taking breakfast to go. It's breakfast on the move.

See, he's got it tucked between his head and his shoulder. It's like stuff that we would do, right? Like you would definitely... You're doing laundry or something and you're picking up stuff as you're walking through the house? I feel like that's exactly what he's doing right now. Remarkable. Remarkable animals. That's beautiful. And this enclosure is great too.

You have so many different views. So like I had mentioned at the beginning, You walk through at the beginning and you don't see them through the glass, but like I said, have no fear. There's so many more places to see them and vantage points. It's a great place, especially if you've got a really good camera, to be able to take different really good photos, close-ups and things like that. All right, here is the other one, right? This is like a turtle is what people say. So we'll go ahead and post this on the show notes as well.

And on the post, you can tell me what you think. Think maybe a turtle. Somebody had said an at-at at some point. I don't know. I don't know. But we will find out. We will find out. So Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail.

A lot of different animals to see. Like I said, one of my favorite things to do, obviously, is walk these trails. Because, again, you're not going to get the same experience twice. Two little, they're colibus monkeys, right? colibus monkeys just hanging out sitting on the ledge how their feet just dangled again it would be like us sitting on a I can't get a great photo

through the netting Angolan black and white colobus monkey so when you come to animal kingdom Kate is there an animal that you like to see like obviously you know you had said Okapi is great you work with them that's on this trail.

But other than that, are there other animals that you like to see when you come here? Or I guess, what do you like to see when you come here? I love to go see

both kinds of rhinos, if I can. I've always loved rhinos and I don't get to work with them anymore. So I always like to pay them a visit. And I do like the tigers as well,

because I have no tigers in my area. That would be a bad idea. So, yeah, it's always fun to see the guys that I used to work with, don't get to now, and kind of touch base with what's going on at the park. Both good animals. And obviously the two different kinds of rhinos you would be able to see on Kilimanjaro Safari, and then the tigers you would see on the, what am I?

Maharasia Jungle Trek walk or trail, I should say, over in the Asia part of the park. park. So yeah, definitely, definitely ones. I would say the same thing for me. I mean, there are certain ones that I like to see out. I definitely like to check out the Ocopi favorite animal of mine. So being on this trail is always, it's always fun to be able to walk around and see them as they walk through. And again, like I said, the interaction that you get with cast members first thing in the morning when there isn't anyone around. I don't know that you can really beat it. Yes, please.

So as we leave the trail here, we're going to walk over towards Kilimanjarl Safari. And I would say if this line is under 30 minutes, I'm all about it if you are all about it. I'm game. I love to see an ungulate. Yes. That is called a callback. And if you don't know what that is, you need to go back to the first. episode of myself and Keeper Kate.

And she can tell you all about it. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. It's 25 minutes. We're going to go through here. And we'll see what we can see. So on Kiliman Droz Safari, when you are on this attraction, let's see. Let's see if we can name most of them. We got Okapi and Bongo. Kudu right at the beginning.

Saddle Bill Storks. You forget about those birds. Yep, they're there. White rhino. Hippo. Hippo. Hicko. Crocodiles.

Flamingos. Yep. Cheetah. Dref. Lions. Lions. Wildebeest. Wildebeest.

Yes. Waterbuck. Waterbuck. Who else on that? Savannah. Colie. Ancoley. Encoley.

If you want to know the Ancoly, story message me directly that won't be for public consumption but if you want to know the story it's a good story let me know um what are the other guys that are on they call them like the marshmallow with the little guys on the savannah that jump straight up in the air oh springback springback elephants elephants maybe we'll see little cora today oh yeah and Tucker i think Tucker just had his first birthday so there you go um and then what else are we missing any i'm sure there's something we're goats goats pigmy goats at the end um ostrich ostrich ostrich ostrich ostrich eggs yeah warthogs and the mandrels mandrels yes oh and painted dogs painted dogs I always try to always always always

forget those animals that are like in that corner there All right, so at this point, what we're going to do is I'm going to go ahead and we're going to wait in this line. And then when you hear us again, we will be on the ride, go through the ride a little bit, and then we'll ride it, talk about what we saw, you know, everything that happened. And then we'll just, we'll keep going and see where it takes us. So we'll see in a little bit. Moni's going to go first, and May he's going to sit by her. Hello, welcome. If you have any small children,

which is just on the core left inside. I'll show you a pretty good viewing experience. There's no sale on these vehicles. Once you get started, just going to go small turns, that's the right. My friend on the right, I want you to watch your hands, arm between and legs.

These doors are about to slide on close. Yay! Yes We're going to be here Asante Sana, thank you, Warden. Now as you stay here in Harambe, Twenday, which just means... Let's go.

Jombo friends, my name is Chris and we're your safari driver throughout the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. Now before we get started, your safety and the safety of the animals. That's my top priority while we're out of here. So I have some safety reminders. I'm going to ask that everyone, please.

We do need to remain seated at all times during the tour. There's no switching seats from this point onwards. I want to make sure keeping our hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the vehicle as well. If anyone has a child sitting on their lap right now, that's okay. They can stay seated there. They just need to remain seated on the lap. So we cannot stand children in the air, nor can we move them from seat to seat to to step to lap, lap to lap, or road to row. These roads, they get really, really bumpy. That's for your safety, so to make sure we're following these rules for the entirety of the tour. Now if you look above you, you'll see your animal's spotting eye. That spotting on

idea of some of the animals we're going to see today. We may not see everybody up there, but we think we have pretty good luck. But we'll keep some of my friends, and just a little bit, we will be entering the homes of the animals, which means we're going to be their guests. So we'll be very kind and respect to the animals when we're out here. With that mind, if you want a tip of food, you make sure foods they seal them put away at all times for the safety of the animals. If we're taking pictures, pictures are greatly encouraged, but we want to make sure that we're keeping cameras inside the vehicle at all times. We have things that might to serve animals, such as flash photography or loud noises turn off, and we do not permit self

or extenders. You have anything like that, make sure it stays in its face form. We have the all clear enter the reserves. We're going to go ahead and get started. The first area we're going to enter is called the Little Ituri Forest. So the animals that we're about to see, they have these natural color patterns to them as they're going to look very well into their environment and protects them from various predators. Already we're going to see some antelow activity on both sides as the bongos are moving through the area. That's copper-colored

antelope, both male and female, will have these short, heavy, curved horns on their heads. They're going to use their curved torrents to brush away the underbrush of their forest environments. That will help them swim. What? Do you want to go boy or not? There he goes. Yes, they have these short, heavy curve torrents. That would be used to brush away the underbrush their force of them. Are you sure? He's not sure. He's just making sure. The way of no difference between a male and a female, by the way, you look at the colors that they have. So a female color shares a bright copper color throughout. Males have a darker color that goes from their face down to their legs. Behind those two bongos are one of the okopies rather. The okapi, it is the only known

relative to a giraffe that he found inside of Africa. So they have a couple similarities. One, they have this long prehensile tongue. It means their tongue looks like a hand, so they use you to grab up all their food. But their tongues are so long that we all the way to their eyeball. They use our tongues to clean their eyes as well. They also have these elongated necks are really similar to a giraffirps. They even share the same amount of vertebrae in their neck as their giraffe counterpart. So So copies and giraffes, they have this really similar skeletal structure. On the left-hand side, it kind of looks like a construction site. That means we're looking for black rhinoceros, and I can already see one,

in the very back of the home there. Now the black rhino, it is a solitary creature by nature, so having this home to itself like this, that is what they prefer. They have no natural predator in the wild, but they do have one because I'm going to drop my voice down, I just realize one is sleeping, and they have very, sensitive hearing they hear from about two miles away. But the black brownouts I was saying, they are solitary creatures by nature, so having those

themselves what they prefer. They have no natural predator in the wild. They do have one we consider to be unnatural. Sadly, this is considered to be mankind. I want to talk more about that, but really quickly I'm going to talk about a cousin to the bongo, which is the tan-colored greater kudu. Those are female. They have no horns from their heads. For that species, only males have horns, roughly six feet in length. Going back to the black rhinoceros. So what I was saying, yes, that is an animal that's been hunting near extinction. People hunt them for their horns. A lot of people think they serve medicinal purposes, but really, their horns are made of keratin, and that is no different than our fingernails.

We do support efforts to protect and preserve those rhinos. We're always trying to find different ways to keep them safe. We're looking to keep people hunting them for their horns. And as we leave, on the left, there's two saddle-billed storks. Now, these two are mates who made for life. Something really interesting about a saddle-belt stork is they have no vocal cords. So we're then to communicate with one another What they'll do instead Just rattle their bills together We're gonna move into the Safi River

Now this is where we're gonna look for aquatic animals We're at rivers on both the left and right So I'll have a couple different chances there To look in the river, see who I can find We might find multiple animals in the river together If I do see multiple animals in the river together I'm just gonna kind of focus in on one at a time So for instance, I do think I see quite a bit of animal activity

here on this right hand side But I can already tell who I'm gonna be focusing on I'm gonna go a little bit slow because my warden is bringing some breakfast for the end what I'm about to talk about. So my focus is going to go to the pink-backed pelicans. Hands inside the vehicle for me, friends. Pink-back pelicans get their name because during their mating seasons, their backs, they're going to cool these bright pink colors.

We can think of this as them blushing. When they have their eggs, the male and the female, they switch off for their incubation. They can make their eggs for about 30 days or so. That's what they would expect to happen. Next, we're going to find some sleeping hippopotamus on the left. The hippopotamus will spend most of its days submerging itself in water. They do this to keep from overheating. So hippopotamus is going to spend minutes at a time, completely submerged before they'll

ever need to pop up and take their breaths. Hippos, they're going to be asleep right now because they're nocturnal animals, so they sleep during the daytime. And it's very common for them to sleep in the water. When they sleep in the water, they continue to submerge himself underneath the water and raise themselves as they do. So they do all that instinctually. But the hippopotamist cannot do, it swim.

They don't have the ability. So more or less, they float with style. They use their body weight to sink themselves down to the bottom of a river. Then they're going to kick off along the bottom where they're going to walk along the bottom. That's a profound point. Once these hippos reach it all there, they're going to be about 5,500 pounds. And these herds of hippopotamus, they are known as a bloat of hippopotamus. I'm looking into the next river to see if anyone's out here right now.

It may not be anyone out in this room. Oh, actually one Nile Crocodile on that left-hand side. The Nile crocodile, it is an eight-to-es-preditor. They go to sit down, still and stay. They go to be 16 feet in their length and the way up to 500 pounds. Something you may not know about a Nile crocodile is they prove to be rather loving parents, mother crocodiles in particular. So when these crocodiles have their eggs, they gently scoop them up, they roll these along their tongues, this opens incubation, as well as the hatching process.

Now once the eggs have hatched, the parents will be taking active roles in the young hatchling of lives. mom in particular. So even after those hatchlings have broken out of those eggs, she's going to continue to carry her young ones in her mouth and along her back. She wants to keep them safe, she wants to keep them protected at all times. I'd already heard this call come over the radio. We are going to be going a little bit slow for some animals crossing through the trail that we're traveling on, which happens, hey, it's their homes, we're just dropping through them.

So when animal walks are on the roadway, we're not going to try to push them out of the road, we're not going to force them in another direction. We always want to make sure that we're keeping these animals safe, making sure that they're comfortable in the area. While we wait, I'm going to throw my attention over to this ancient tree on the right hand side. So this is called a Beobobab tree. Beobabs, they look like trees that sit upside down, but really they just remain leafless most of the year. It's how they conserve water during the dry seasons in Africa. Now, in these dry seasons, the animals in the next area here, they go up to these trees.

So what they do is they rip off its bark. This tree trunk holds a lot of water inside of it, so it makes the bark very spongy. So when they chew on them bark, they get the water from the tree, keeps the animals alive, keeps them hydrated for the nine to ten months. They may live with no rain. All right, so that ride on Kiliman Dross Safari was great. We'll make sure we post some photos in the notes. But we had a good time. We had a great driver pointed out all the different animals, and all the animals were out.

I feel like I can't think of any animals I didn't. So the only ones I think we didn't really see were the painted dogs, but everyone else we saw for the most part. Kate, how was that safari read? It was wonderful. Yeah, everyone. So we're going to wrap it up here, but I do appreciate Kate joining me today. Kate, how was the walkabout today? Thanks for having me back.

I always like helping out when I can to talk about some animals. All right, guys. Thanks for being with us today. If you haven't already, give us a follow over on Instagram and TikTok to see photos and videos from our walkabouts. You know, make sure you say hi and interact with our host. Give us some feedback. just share your love of the parks with us. We value our listeners and love hearing from you.

You can even throw out requests and suggestions for future episodes. We hope you enjoyed your time with us today, and we'd like to end our time together with the hope and the promise that there's a great big, beautiful tomorrow out there, and we will see you in one of those tomorrows on a future episode of Walk About the World. Take care, everybody. Bye