Victoria Falls - Lion Walk and Night Drive

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Went on an organised lion walk. This organised group has raised cubs and walked with them to get them used to humans. Then when they’re 2yrs old, they go into a fenced park where they are responsible for their own hunting in a semi-controlled environment. They form their own pride and their babies have no contact with humans at all. Once there are enough babies for a small pride, they are then all released back into the national parks. So, we were walking with two sisters who were 18mths old. The will shortly be moved to the semi-controlled park. One was over being with tourists so was a big grumpy pants, she growled a bit and then ran off on her own for a while but came back later. It was amazing to see how fast she moved without even trying!!

Had a night drive in the Stanley Livingston Park that started with a pick up from our hotel at 1530. There were only 4 of us in the car so had heaps of room and great views. The biggest hit was seeing an endangered black rhino up very close. I was the closest in the car and it was only about 3m away from me. I was never sure if it was going to charge or not as they are supposed to be the more aggressive of the two rhinos. This one had his horns cropped to discourage poaching. Recently the park had poachers attack some animals there. They got caught and are now in jail, but too many animals are being killed just for their horns or tusks. We continued to tour around until just after sunset and then were taken to a hut for an amazing 3 course dinner in the middle of the park. No electricity there except for a generator that is run for lights. All the dinner was cooked on the fire and tasted amazing. During dinner we heard 2 male lions roaring very loudly and quite close, announcing their territory to each other. We didn’t see any cats on this tour though

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