And so the real big adventure begins. :)
I was greeted at the airport by Lozanne. The volunteer co-ordinator with Kingdom Lion Sanctuary. She also was picking up another volunteer Christian from Germany. Driving back to the Game Reserve we got a glimpse of what I hope to be many wild animals on the game reserve. A small family of kudus. We arrived at the camp about 2pm, along the way greeting Kevin Richardson, Lion Whisperer, for the first time. Had the afternoon off but got a small orientation. Days to start at 7.30am and finish around 5ish with an hour for lunch. I also met Daniel from Italy who is the other volunteer. Just the 3 of us this week which is good as hopefully we will get to experience more than what a big group would. :)
As dusk came we saw 2 giraffes, a mum and her young. Met the rest of the crew and workers and settled in for an early night to get a good rest for the day to come... feeding day!
Day 2 on the reserve. I arose early, way too excited to sleep. Today was lion feeding day! We had 27 adult lions to feed, hyenas and black leopards to feed as well. I took a couple of early morning photos and took advantage of the early rise with views of zebras, another giraffe and some more kudus.
Heading out we saw some warthog, waterbuck, impala and secretary bird. Pretty amazing creatures that God has blessed us with.
We loaded up the truck with the meat for the day which included (and this is not for the faint hearted) cut up horse, cow and giraffe for the lions, hyenas and leopards. Animals were fed in feeding houses so that we could go into the enclosure and clean. No face to face interactions with these big animals, it's too dangerous! Which I completely understand. I enquired about the Lion Park and other such places where you can interact with cubs and other big cats but was warned to stay away as a lot of their animals are used for canned hunting. After doing some research and reading, I have decided to not pay these places a visit and make sure that my money doesn't contribute to this.
After lunch we went to the south enclosures (these 'enclosures' are huge by the way) and prepared for Kevin's arrival to move 3 male lions from one enclosure into another enclosure where we placed a dead baby giraffe (whole carcass) for their enjoyment and enrichment. Then Kevin moved 5 male lions into that bigger enclosure after we had organised a scatter feed. Watching Kevin work with these gorgeous majestic and powerful animals was just mind blowing. The lions relate to him, they know him and treat him as one of their own. It was incredible to watch.
The day ended with a bit more cleaning then back to camp where I am now, just relaxing and waiting on dinner.
Tomorrow we walk Thor...
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