The Lion Park

We had our first safari experience this past weekend as we ventured over to the Lion Park, only 5 miles away from our house. It was an amazing adventure. First, we drove throughout the fields and found zebras, springbok, blesbok, gemsbok, jackals, and wildebeest. Then we drove past the hyena and cheetah pens on our way to the lion prides.

There were four separate sections of lion pens that we assumed we would just drive by and see the lions from beyond a fence. But when the guards started to open the fence door and motion up through, we soon learned that we were going to have a close encounter with the lions. Quickly, we rolled our windows back up as two very large white lions strolled on by. In the second pen, about five or six lions were congregated at the door of the fence, waiting for our arrival. As we drove in, they completely surrounded our car, brushing along the side as they walked in circles around us. It was amazing.

After driving through the park, we then headed over to the walking section where we saw more jackals along with ostrich and made our way over to the giraffe feeding area. Taelyn was instantly intrigued by the animals. So we bought a bag of food and let her attempt to feed them. She grabbed the food and stuck her hand out, expecting the experience to be similar to feeding a dog. But then the giraffe’s tongue came down, suctioned to her hand, and then slid off, leaving plenty of saliva behind. She thought this was hilarious and yelped out with excitement. After a few tries, she started to anticipate the tongue coming down and sticking to her, so she would through the food toward the giraffe at the last second to try to escape him. She absolutely loved it!

To end the trip, we headed over to the lion cub pen, where we took Taelyn in to pet the lion cubs. At this point, she was a bit tired out from all the excitement over at the giraffe area and wasn’t as interested in the cubs. But Justin and I came in to pet them as well, and we thought they were pretty neat.

Overall, we had a wonderful time on our first safari and are eager to go on larger and longer trips in the near future.