Lion Reserve

Sunday we spent the day at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve, which is just about 40 minutes from our house. In fact, from some areas of the reserve you can see downtown Jo'Burg in the distance. The park sits on about 4000 acres of rolling grasslands. Inside the reserve is also a cave where they mined limestone from about 1898-1902 at which time miners abruptly left after the British defeated the Dutch settlers. Over the years that followed, the mine entrance was reclaimed by heavy scrub brush and trees and was unknown to local villagers until an unsuspecting cow found the entrance and fell into the cave in 1991.

After touring the cave, we drove through the park to watch the feeding of the lions, cheetahs and wild dogs. At the lion feeding, we were fortunate to find a parking spot right next to the lions as they waited for their feeding. It was interesting to watch the two males stand and look expectantly in the distance for their food to arrive. We were curious to know how the feeding would work. Would lunch be live animals or a carcass? At 1 pm we got our answer when a truck rolled out of the bush with a huge carcass...the two males in hot pursuit. Once they pulled the meat off the truck, two females and another male descended on it for lunch!

The cheetah feeding started out promising, but of the four cheetahs present only one stayed to eat the meat. We surmised that the other ones weren't happy with what was offered!

After the drive, we ended up at the visitor's center where we were able to pet white lion cubs. They were napping and so cute, but it was a bit sad because the lion cubs are bred there and then sold to zoos throughout the world. After learning that, we all felt less enthused about our visit. But overall, it was an enjoyable day...and so close to home!