Animal safari

 

 

 

Suzy and I decided to do an animal safari. This consisted of an elephant ride, and feeding the elephants, walking with lions, walking with cheetahs, and watching the cheetahs race.

It was an absolutely incredible day. Although I'd had a quick ride on an elephant before on a holiday, it wasn't nearly as good as this one! The whole group rode a herd of elephants - Suzy and I got given a slightly smaller elephant which, to be honest, was good with me! We rode them for about an hour, and then we got to feed them. They were these kind of pellets, you would throw a handful into the elephants mouth, and then they would hoover another handful of pellets right out of your outstretched hand.

We then got to see the cheetahs. We were able to stroke them and take photos of them, and then we took them on a walk. The cheetahs were on a type of harness, and a leash, but even with them you could feel their sheer power! We were then shown a demonstration of their speed. They brought the cheetahs out one at a time, from slowest to fastest. They have a lever system set up, which pulls a plastic bag 'chicken' around the enclosure. The cheetahs run after it and if they manage to catch it they are given a piece of real chicken as a reward.

It turned out that all the cheetahs and the lions they have are orphans. They are being prepared to be released into an animal safari, where they are kept in a 'controlled environment'. Then, their children will be released into the 'real' wild, where they will have no contact with human beings.

We then got to see the lions! We got to stroke them and have lots of photos with them which the entire group adored (thousands of photos must have been taken of just the lions!) We also got to walk with them, where you can hold their tails like a kind of lead.

It was an absolutely amazing day, and fulfilled one of the things on my bucket list - to hug a real lion :D definitely one of the best days of my entire year, and something that I would recommend to absolutely anybody!