Lions, Safari, and Braai

Sunday Morning started with a trip to a lodge near Pilanesberg for our Lion Interaction.  Before getting up close and personal with the lions we warmed up to them by taking a tour of the grounds, which was also home to a bunch of Bengal tigers, cheetahs, and caracals.  The tigers were marking their territory, pouncing, and climbing up on the fence to see us.  Most of the lions were lounging in the sun, enjoying a nice nap. 

Siren, the tiger

Love how cats are the same no matter the size

A Mufasa!

After, we had a chance to get in the area with the lions who were about 2 years old.  Apparently, they reach maturity at three and become aggressive, at which point the trainers there no longer interact directly with them in their space.  So toddler lions it was.

While the prospect of getting to play up close and personal with young lions, without any gate or fence etc. was a wee bit scary, it was also really exciting.  They are really beautiful creatures and surprisingly mellow when it is time for their afternoon nap.  They had us each sit down in a row if we wanted to have a lion in our lap.  We had to be sure to not have anything loose on us- shoelaces out, drawstrings of hoodies, scarves, hair, necklaces etc. as they may take it as an opportunity to play and pull.  Though they weren’t fully grown they were pretty heavy.  Mine was a bit playful at first, trying to get my hands (though not in a scary way, he just wanted to play), but mellowed as I began to pet him.  Just like a big house cat.  Some of the others got a bit enthusiastic chewing on people’s shoes or wrestling a bit in their laps.  Thankfully, mine was one cool cat.  (On an aside, his paws were giant!)

Some 2 year old lions just lounging

<3 

Scratching behind the ears...gets 'em every time. 

Lions lick each other's ears as a sign of dominance.   Every lion in the place had wet ears, a sign that there's always someone higher than the last one.

After playing with the lions in our laps, they let us roam freely in that area and play with and pet the lions that were just relaxing with their buds.  As if that wasn't cute enough, we moved on to the baby lions next!  At three weeks they are removed from their pride for their own safety, as often they can be killed by their very own parents.  Talk about king of the jungle.  They were adorable.  Pictures don't do em justice.  This little baby was only 2 weeks old!

My two week old baby lion!

While visiting the elephants was an amazing experience, this one was probably my favorite moment of the trip so far.  It was hard to reconcile the fact that these animals kill in the wild and that it was okay for us to have them on our laps and just pet them like a normal house cat.  (They even liked it when you rubbed their stomachs!)

After we played with the lions, (still so weird to write that) we went for a quick close lunch at a local market area.  This was complete culture shock.  We were all pretty pumped to be doing local shopping for unique souvenirs that were not your standard shot glass etc.  This place was huge too!  Tons of vendors under one roof.  We quickly realized that we would not get to see all or even most of them.

Why, you ask?  Because upon setting foot into this warehouse area, we were greeted by 3-5 salesmen and women, grabbing our hands to shake and thereby leading us to their stall.  They made small talk to keep us engaged and in their space and insisted on showing us what they had, even filling a bowl with items we even so much as looked like we wanted.  There was no escaping.  If you didn’t buy and tried to move out, they would give you a small token for free thereby making you feel like you had to patronize them if you were going to buy something.  If you did buy something, they either quickly encouraged you to buy more or brought your items to a friend’s stall to be wrapped and allowing the process to begin again.  I think I made it about 10 feet in total the entire time I was in there.

After breaking free, with my wallet a bit lighter, a couple of us ventured for food at one of the restaurants that seemed like it would be quick.  I should know by now that this is not the case.  Our professor told us that there is the concept of “African time” here, where if someone says they will come see you during the day it could literally be any time that from when the sun rises in the morning to when the sun sets in the evening.  Often, people may be 2 hours later than expected and it’s totally normal.  So needless to say, after an hour of waiting for our food to come, we gobbled it down before quickly running back to our bus!

From there we made it to our camp at the Mokgatle Lodge to settle in for the evening.  There were a number of cabins for us to stay in- we basically had the place to ourselves!  As they told us there were 6 beds in the first cabin, and I passed the first room of 2 beds and the second room of 3, I had a Real World moment realizing the last room was the master!  And…I got it.  Pretty epic.  I had my own big bed and my own bathroom.  (Found out later all the water in our cabin was cold, though.  Oh well!  You win some you lose some, right?) We set up a huge fire and had our first official “braai” or South African barbecue.  There was even some good veggie fair.

We sat around the fire drinking wine, telling stories, recounting our blind dates, (our professor set us up with another person on the trip and we had to do something with them before Sunday) and having some laughs.  Earlier, at the market, she had us buy a 50-100 Rand gift ($5-$10) for a gift for someone in the group.  Around the fire that night, we laid our gifts out (wrapped), drew numbers, and got to choose a gift from the pile at random- but were warned that someone could steal it.  I ended up with a lion’s tooth necklace.  I happen to know a soon to be 5 year old that will love it very much.  I bought a cute set of stone coasters that someone could use in their home.  I liked ‘em so much I almost kept them!  We topped the night off with some s’mores. 

Our lodge

Fires for the braai

By the fire

By the end of the night we were all pooped- was a big day with lions and our first braai.  We were excited to find out we could sleep in on Monday morning and that we didn’t have to head out until 12:30.

Had a leisurely breakfast that am- again around the fire- it was awesome.  Took off for Sun City- the Vegas meets Disney World of South Africa.  We only had a little time there before our bus was going to take us to our safari at Pilanesberg National Park.  In the tiny bit of time we had, a classmate, Ryan, and I hit the casinos.  Unfortunately, there was no spot for me at the black jack table.  Played roulette as a consolation.  Clearly, I didn’t win or that would have been the title of this post, haha.  But did manage to make my $20 last for a while and lost no more than that.

Ryan and I outside the Casino at Sun City

On to the safari!  We boarded the bus and made our way to the game park.  We rode in a jeep-like vehicle with open sides.  Our ride started at 3 which made for amazing light and a gorgeous sunset.   En route we saw: elephants, zebras, buffalo, kudus, hippos, black rhinos, and giraffes.  Was really cool to see them up close and in a natural habitat.  Words won't do that justice, so here's some pics.

South African Sunset

Buffalo

Zebs! 

Hippos above- and below. 

Finished the night with an amazing dinner at the reserve's lodge and back to our campsite for some Cards Against Humanity and some time around the fire.  We had to be up super early for our first secondary school visit.  More about that in the next post!