The time has really flown and we are now at the Johannesburg airport waiting for our flight back to Sydney. We are staying in Coogee tomorrow night then flying back to Brisbane on Thursday afternoon. We miss our little guy Eric (he’s made the blog). I think he is hoping we come home soon although he is loving being with Kate and Gzi Gzi.
After we had our breakfast at the Protea Balalaika we got our bags and waited to our transfer to the Lion Safari Park. We have really enjoyed our couple of days at the Protea.
The park is about an hour from our hotel and we thought it was like a rehabilitation centre or sanctuary. We were very wrong. We were on the tour with two other Australians who had included this tour in case they hadn’t seen lions, which is also the reason why I had added the tour. The tour is also a half day tour and we can get dropped off a the airport in time for our flight.
Once we had our tickets we were lead to safari buses for want of a better word that had cages around them, we could tell straight away this was not the normal safari we had experienced. I know it sounds counterintuitive but the proper safaris are in open vehicles not cages.
What we had entered was effectively a very large zoo. We were caged and the cats were all caged. The cats looked really sad and despondent, we didn’t really want to take their pictures. The Cheetah’s, Leopards, Hyena and Wild Dogs all looked very depressed. While I can say I have seen wild or painted dogs I would have preferred to have not seen them in the wild than see them like this.
As it turns out as well the black and spotted leopard they had in a really small cage were actually asiatic leopards. The guide said that they gave them a small cage so they couldn’t run and jump but that’s exactly what leopards should do. She said this way all they do is climb the tree in the cage and mate – very sad.
The other Australians with us were very disappointed as well, Diana even said she wished she’d seen the white lions in Kruger where the park had “acquired” them from. I am sure in Kruger they said they didn’t sell lions to zoos (they do to game reserves). I hope they don’t classify this place as a private reserve. We wish we had done something else on our last morning the animals all looked so sad.
davstuholidays 