Walking lions and chasing rhinos, Zimbabwe

Reaching the park around lunchtime, we were greeted by an enthusiastic welcome song & dance performed by a few members of staff. The park itself was therapeutically peaceful & vast, with a giant lake in the middle. Over one hundred species of birds resided around the water’s edge, a bunch of monkeys played around the trees, a few resident elephants splashed about in the lake, however the main attraction here were the lions. Antelope Park’s lion breeding programme aims to increase the population’s dwindling numbers across Africa by hand raising & teaching cubs how to hunt by taking them on daily walks with park patrons, then later releasing them as a pride in certain designated areas so they can continue to breed & prosper. There are thousands of volunteers a year & over hundreds of thousands of visitors. 

After deciding between several different options for activities in the park, we settled on a sunrise walk with the lions & interaction with the four rescued elephants. The elephant interaction was a little too brief, but the up close & personal time with Ntombi, the mischievous young female, was unreal. ee

The next morning’s lion walk in the crisp cold air was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. Waking up around 6, we headed out to meet our two gorgeous chaperones. Africa, the young lion, & Alika, the young lioness. Both cubs were 11 months old, & naturally eager to play & hunt. We walked alongside them, stroked them, held their tails, & stopped to pose for photos at the perfect opportunities. At one point while Sean was standing with his legs apart stroking Alika, Africa took the chance to dart through his legs, a briefly heart stopping moment. 

The walking is stage 2 of their plan; where they are walked and can run off after wild animals teaching themselves to hunt whilst tourists are the main point of funding the whole thing. It’s controversial like a lot of the other problems in Africa; from lion poaching, hunting game parks, rhino and elephant poaching for their tusks and horns.. But it seems that everyone has their own opinion and not one of them is a fully equipped plan nor has any of them seen the perfect results. 
The morning spent with the two Cubs was honestly just incredible however it was important to remain very aware as at the end of the day these are wild animals and are very capable of being just that. An hour and a half passed way too quickly so we walked back up to put the big cats back in their enclosure and all headed back for breakfast by the truck. The day was spent lazing about soaking up the warm winters sun by the lake and sipping a pretty tasty coffee at the cafe. Evening crept up and before we knew it we were sitting around the fire, drinking wine and roasting marshmallows before calling it a night. 
Back on our trusty yellow truck the next morning, we were off again, this time to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second capital. The road there was smooth, however the amount of police checks in this country its crazy! The police are payed a pretty small wage so they have hit the roads to make more money by  picking apart the smallest flaws in cars as fineable offences, & also looking for bribes where possible. After a few hours of driving, we pulled into ‘Burke’s Paradise,’ a cosy little family cottage with a substantial amount of land for campers & self sustainable blocks. We were greeted by the family dogs, the 7 month old puppy Lilly, an adorable black labrador, & Simba, an older terrier cross jack russell. After meeting the pups, & the owner Adam, we settled in, pitching tent by the swimming pool on the lawn. 
We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around, catching up online with our first proper WiFi since Zanzibar. As the sun descended closer to the horizon, we decided it was beer o’clock & headed to the local pub, ‘The Clubhouse,’ for a cold one. The bar was fairly new, looking suspiciously a lot like a university bar. A couple of delicious but expensive South African craft beers later, we headed home, (not without getting completely lost first!) After a big home-cooked meal of chicken diane I made for everyone, we were soon in bed, excited for the following adventurous day trekking around Matapos National Park with a guide named Ian & his band of rhinos. 
Rising early the next morning, we threw down breakfast & were soon on the back of Ian’s dark green open air Land Rover. After an hour of driving we reached Rhodes Matapos National Park, named after Cecil John Rhodes, an English entrepreneur who still has a massive influence on Zimbabwe & Africa in general, with a very varying opinion on him. Ian was a big advocate of him and tried to convince us all of his respect. 
Entering the park we were soon to find a guard, who lives, eats and sleeps in the park to protect the Rhinos from poaches, with his gun over his shoulder he led us to where a mother and her son were grazing. It was incredible to find them in the wild and see how tame they were in having us approach them. We were able to crawl us as close as a few meters from the incredible and rare rhinos, whilst they’re not as rare as the black, they are still rare and protected as the price for their horn increases. (Mainly in the Asian culture it is believed to be an afrodesic and have other sexual powers so they are paying up to one million American dollars for a decent sized one to be imported). After following them through the rough bush for about an hour we headed back to the van to grab a drink and head off to climb sacred rocks and learn about the ancient tribe of the bushmans.

We then climbed to the very top of the massive rock for an amazing 360 degree view of the landscape which stretched for miles, lit by the blazing sun and shadowed by the other sacred rocks. The decline wasn’t near as tough and we found our van at the bottom scattered with a bunch of locals and their pop up market trying to make an honest dollar. Of course a few giraffe serving spoons later we headed back into rhino territory, unsuccessful in finding another before the hot sun crept away and the winter cold darkness fell.

Arriving back at Burke’s Paradise, we were greeted by several large pizzas Vee had ordered for us all. No one felt much like cooking so it was a welcome gesture. After dinner, we headed back to the Club House for a beer, but the day had taken it’s toll, we were soon back, & straight into bed! Drifting into a deep sleep, thoughts of the next day & the beauty that is promised to be Victoria Falls, danced around our minds.