It was my last day working at the Lion Park today. Since I spoke to Carolina on behalf of the rest of the group we have arranged a later pick-up tomorrow so we can have more time with the cubs, but today was our last day of work. I set of to the enclosures first thing this morning. The smell of lion poo in the morning is not pleasant and I have also noticed it is particularly bad if they've had fresh meat the day before... which they did yesterday. I hurried around the enclosure trying not to breathe. The cubs [View Full Entry]

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I was back to the usual routine today after my trip away from the Lion Park yesterday. I set off for the early morning shift and got to see the cubs first thing today as I now have enclosure cleaning duty. Glenn, Tara and I quickly located the things we'd need for cleaning the enclosures in the hovel and set to work. I soon discovered that our cute little cubs are quite revolting creatures. We walked around the enclosures picking up the mess they'd made in the night while the cubs trailed along behind us and every so often lept onto [View Full Entry]

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I had a unexpected trip today. I was sitting alone in the cool morning air hands cupped around a mug of hot tea when Carmel joined me, not dressed in uniform. I asked where she was going and she said that she'd been talking to a tour guide who'd been telling her about Glen Afric, a game reserve nearby where they film the ITV series 'Wild at Heart' and when she'd expressed an interest in going he'd said he was taking a couple of people there today and could take her along too for a reduced fee! When I said I [View Full Entry]

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It's been a fairly quiet day at the Lion Park. The most excitment I had was at breakfast since Purdy was still loose in the camp. I was sitting on the bench outside the kitchen when a large shadow passed over the material covering and rippled over the wooden posts of the fence. I looked up to see a giant giraffe's head silhouette looming over me before she got bored and walked off. Glenn soon came to join me and as the two of us sat there Purdy returned. This time she managed to find the entrance to the fenced off [View Full Entry]

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I had a new morning duty starting today - nursery! I wasn't too worried about it since the two cubs have gone to cub world. There was one morning after the cubs had a slight toilet problem followed by the realisation it's fun to slide in that I was exceptionally glad I wasn't responsible for cleaning it up! There have been days when we've been ready to throw up on entrance to the nursery and I've been glad I only ever had to grab a broom and run back outside to the trucks. The nursery seemed clean and relatively fresh smelling [View Full Entry]

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It was my last morning on truck duty today. Glenn, Tara and I walked up and stopped in the middle of an empty car park, no trucks in sight. We successfully located the trucks in the staff car park by the nursery. I picked a truck and struggled to get in while holding the cleaning things and my own bag. Fortunately a member of staff spotted me futile attempt to get in the truck and ran to my rescue. I've obviously got the knack of cleaning these trucks now and finsihed the job in twenty minutes. Tara walked up to see [View Full Entry]

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It's strange that the lion park is starting to feel like home. It seems normal to me to get up with the sunrise, shower in bathrooms patrolled by dive-bombing weird insects, eat breakfast outside and then walk out of the campsite, exchanging greetings with the wandering giraffes and tiptoeing across a cattle grid on my way to work! Tara managed to wake up in time for morning shift today so we all set off to clean the safari trucks this morning. With three of us it took less time than yesterday and we barely managed to make the job stretch into [View Full Entry]

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Another early start today, another glimpse of a beautiful red sunrise I was too tired and cold to appreciate and another almost silent breakfast as the volunteers huddled on the wooden bench outside the kitchen cradling hot drinks and staring bleery-eyed at our food. At 8am we set off for our first duty of the day. I was on truck cleaning so Glenn and I walked through the deserted car park to the nursery and fumbled around looking for brooms and cleaning cloths. The two safari trucks were parked one behind the other in the car park, the doors already unlocked [View Full Entry]

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I woke up early and stumbled across the field in the cool morning air to our bathrooms (appropriately labelled 'lions' and 'lionesses'). I made myself breakfast in the kitchen and perched on the wooden bench outside where I was soon joined by Glenn, Tara, Em-J and our fifth volunteer Iris, who arrived late yesterday afternoon. In addition to us five newbies there are five other volunteers staying on, who have already been here a few days. We seem to be a pretty multi-cultural group and are from England, Ireland, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Australia and various parts of the USA. We've also got [View Full Entry]

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Today I finally arrived at the Lion Park, the original purpose for this whole, now rather extended, trip. I can't believe I have finally made it! I got up early, double checked all my documents and travel plans and dragged my rucksack to reception to await my taxi. I got to the airport to meet the rest of the group, but not seeing anyone else, sat down to wait...and wait. When it got to 9 'o' clock I decided to phone one of my contact numbers as I was starting to wonder why no-one else was at the airport. I was [View Full Entry]

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