What a wonderful 24 hour whirlwind we've had. Landed in JNB after the funniest thing watching a semi aborted take off delay waiting for family of watrhogs to casually stroll off the runway. They showed no fear as airplane was coming straight at them...dumb!
We were greeted by a driver and off we went to "Walk With The Lions". We were late arriving but the owners and staff couldn't have been any nicer. They made us lasagna dinner, salad, desert, bottle of wine and escorted us to our cabin for the night. Our cabin was rustic,a clean free standing unit with sparse furnishings but a very comfortable bed, adequate bath and just fine for our 1 night there. It reminded me of going to camp as a child.
We were awakened early the next morning by roaring lions...they sounded like they were right outside our door, yep, they really were! Our guide "gathered" us at 8:00 and off we went to walk with the lions. This group of lions approximately 4-6 years old, the teenager group not quite fully grown and a bit mischievous. It was amazing, a bit scary but with the guides we both felt comfortable. It was such an experience I'll never forget.
Back for a 3 course breakfast around 9:15 then off to learn and see more about all the research they're doing and seeing 3 day old baby cubs. Just a quick glance as not to make "Mom" nervous. We were able to play with a group of approximately 12 "toddler" lions under 1 year old. They had a thing for "jeans" and continued to try to tug at Tom's leg. It was hilarious. I could have stayed there all day with these playful pre-schoolers. They also have 2 rescued tigers that are huge and so pretty. We met Emma, a resident cheetah and I was able to pet her which was very cool. The final program of the morning was cuddling with the babies. OMG, you've never seen anything cuter. So precious, you want to bring 'em home. This is an amazing facility, doing so much good work for the betterment and future of lions and in depth studies especially re breeding of white lions (recessive gene).
There are other animals within the compound (zebras, impala, and such) so the lions are able to practice and learn hunting skills. There are lots of volunteers from around the world and and a very dedicated group.
After our farewell with the lions our driver drove us about 1 hour away to the Elephant Sanctuary. Another fantastic experience spent learning all about elephants, hearing the stories about how they came to be there (some so sad). We were able to feed some, touch them and really feel them. We spent several hours there, I got a kiss from one male. It made me giggle.
We were then whisked from the sanctuary to JNB airport for the beginning of our journey home. I just can't begin to tell you what a special 24 hours we had being able to visit both the lions as well as the elephants and all because we had a 30 hour layover due to unavailability of ff seats. What a Blessing! I would highly recommend visiting both of these if you ever have the opportunity, would be difficult to have to choose one over another. Both have lodging facilities, I did take photos of some of the cottages at Walk With The Lions and peaked in the windows of one of the rooms at the elephant sanctuary and it looked nice.
Now in the Concord room here at Heathrow waiting for our final leg home.
I uploaded photos if anyone would like to see them here.
Walk With The Lions Elephant Sanctuary 
