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For my last day in south africa i was torn on what to do. it was 29oC in joburg and a day by the pool was tempting......but so was the opportunity to stroke a baby lion....
lion park is just outside joburg (about 45min drive from sandton). The website says it breeds lions to be released to reserves & zoos. But how many lions do reserves & zoos need? If they constantly breed cubs, what happens to them once they grow up??? I hated the thought of supporting an organisation that would sell lions to reserves where they would be hunted - but if someone wants to shoot a lion, won't they do it anyway??
So I decided to find out for myself (LEO friends - don't hate me!) a friend of a friend had given me details of an independent guide who would pick me up & drive me round for a reasonable price (though there are guided tours available)
The driving tour takes your through a series of large field like paddocks with trees for shade. The first paddock was impala......have seen enough of those!! The next 3 paddocks were lions - the first 'normal' lions, the next teo 'white' lions - some of which had starred in the film 'white lion'. The majority of them were sleeping under a tree (there was around 8lions in each paddock). The next was wild dog - they were also sleeping under a tree.....was beginning to think coming in the middle of the day was a bad idea but the final paddock made up for it - the cheetahs were up & about walking around the field - probably looking for some impala's to eat!!
Next it was the walking tour which takes you round a series of smaller enclosures. First stop - cub world!! As unethical as it is I really wanted to stroke a lion cub!!! Cub world is a small enclosure with around 5 lion kittens in - although at 6 months old they weren't much smaller than the cub at selati! Was great to stroke them and have a little play. Unfortunately it being a Saturday there were a few other visitors at the park and so time was limited to just a few minutes - still it was worth it! Just hope they won't grow up to be hunted
There was also a giraffe which was just 6 hours old! It isn't have the energy to stand so was lying down - it's mother was happily walking round the car park though! And there was a giraffe feeding station where you went up some steps to hand feed & stroke a giraffe
Alongside the giraffe & cubworld were some smaller enclosures with young cheetah, hyena, serval & leopard inc a black leopard! (but you couldn't stroke them)
I returned to the hotel around 2.30 looking forward to some pool time before heading to the airport. The receptionist recommended I got the free shuttle bus to their sister hotel which had a nicer pool area set in gardens & was where the hospitality room was (they failed to tell me that when I booked it!). So 40 mins later the bus took me 100 yards down the road (I could have walked that!) where I discovered that the nice gardens meant the pool was a) completely in the shade and b) surrounded by tables for the restaurant! Not quite what I had planned for the afternoon!! Lets hope I get some pool time when i stop in Dubai tomorrow!
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