Our last stop in Africa was Livingstone, Zambia. They say that your pockets "bleed US dollars" in Livingstone, and they aren't kidding! I was kind of prepared for this, and the rest of Africa had been pretty cheap...well not the really, I just mean I hadn't spent much on food, drinks or souviners up until this point, so I was prepared to spend! Livingstone is an adreline junkies heaven of sorts. They have the 2nd highest bungee jump in the world, a zip line over the gorge, a gorge swing (which looks terrifying!), micro-light flights over the falls, white-water rafting...you get the drift! Well it seems the prices to do anything start at around $100 and go upwards, quickly! Since I'm not much of an adreline junkie (I know you think I'm lying, but I really don't like stuff like that, I just do it usually b/c I say I will and I don't like to look like a scaredy cat!), anyways back on the subject, I opted for walking with lion cubs and an elephant back safari! 
Most of you are probably thinking, "and how do those activities not induce adrenaline coursing through your body?" Well you are right I guess, it isn't every day you walk side by side with the "King of the Jungle" (haha, sorry, I couldn't help myself!) or sit on top of the largest animal to walk the face of the earth. Yes, I'll admit, I was a little afraid at first...seeing as I we are talking about a girl whose parents had to send her to the "doggie psychologist" when she was young just to get over her fear of dogs! But the "doggie doctor" worked, I went from screaming fits on top of kitchen tables to wanting to be a veternarian all in a span of a few short weeks! That is until I found out that they had to put animals to sleep. So I was very excited to have a chance to interact with these animals on this level. Still, I was ever-mindful of the risks and I didn't want to become the latest YouTube celebrity, think "Girl gets mauled by lion"
Ok back on track, a month or so ago, I ran across the YouTube video of "Christian the Lion". I was in tears by the end and wanted to know more about the story, so I hit up my good friend Google. I found out they had taken Christian to a man named George Adamson in Africa who had a unique relationship with lions and had released other lions back into the wild previously. I was intrigued, needless to say, I had ordered both the Christian the Lion documentary and his wife's book Born Free from Amazon by the end of the day! So with my new found love for all things lion, when I found out that you could walk with lion cubs at Antelope Park in Zimbabwe I called and booked my place immediately. Then, I started to read some things on the internet about how many places breed these lions for the sport of hunting them when they are full grown. I was horrified at the thought that I could be a part of this, so I started doing research on Antelope Park. Luckily, I found out the organization I booked through, Lion Alert, is dedicated to the conservation of lions. They have a program set in place to introduce lions back to the wild as they estimate the lion population in Africa has decreased 80-90% in the last 30 years due to human encroachment and poaching. You can read more about their program here.
We got to walk with two lion cubs that were just 7 months old. Still they were a pretty good size! We walked with them for about an hour, just following them where ever they wanted to lead us. They were so playful and pounced all over each other. They play with each other pretty rough, which is safe to say why the people in the park didn't want us to be their playmates! If you remember from a few entries ago, when I was in the Delta, how our guides told us that if a lion approached us to stand our ground and stare it right in the eyes. Well at the time I thought they were setting us up or something, haha! But again, before we met up with our cubs, the guides at Antelope Park told us before we met the cubs we needed to get rid of any fear we had because they would be able to detect it instantly. We needed to stand tall, maintain eye contact with them, not back away from them and definitely NOT run! Lions prey on the weak and they are innately able to sense this. They told us they would seek out the weakling of the group and harrass them the rest of the day! Sure enough, when we first approached the cubs, they stared us down, one by one! I guess we all passed because they left us alone we had a great day with them! I also found out that they have volunteers at the park who help out with the lions, there was one with us on our walk and I talked to her for a bit about it. I defintely plan on making my way back there one day to volunteer with the lions!
The next day was our Elephant Back Safari, where we got to ride on the back of the elephants and play with them a little bit as well. This was such an amazing experience. You wouldn't believe how graceful these giants are! They are actually good swimmers and are able to climb straight out of steep riverbeds with ease. My elephant was Mashumbi, and she is the Matriarch of the herd. Elephants don't take these roles because of size or age, but more based on personality. So she just leads all of them around and they follow! She is also an elephant of loose morals, as a few years ago, she disappeared her enclosure to be found 10 months later with a herd of wild elephants...she was pregnant! Elephants are pregnant for 22 months and their newborn calves weigh over 200 lbs! Yikes!
Our last night in Africa, Amy and I stayed at this really cute lodge on the Zambezi called the Chundukwa Lodge. The had these little tree hut lodges along the river that we stayed in, it was great! They took us for a sunset cruise along the Zambezi that night and we had our last African sunset. So I guess this is a good place to end my blogs on Africa!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment