Lion Park / Lesedi Cultural Tour
Today was another tourist day, taking a break from the games. We went to the Lion Park and Lesedi Cultural Village, both very close to our hotel. The lion park is part zoo, part drive-thru safari. In the zoo section, you could wait in line to be able to walk around with the lion cubs for about 4 minutes. They let groups of 10 people go in to different pens with about 5 cubs in each pen. The cubs were from 2-5 months old, and were as small as a big cat to as big as a hefty dog. You could pet them and get chased by them, pretty much everything but pick them up. That part was really cool. The zoo section also had a place to feed giraffes and ostriches. Pictures below.
After the zoo section, we went on the drive through the adult lion areas. This time, there was no going out to pet the animals, as there were many stories of people doing that and getting killed. It turns out that contained lions are more dangerous than wild lions because contained lions don't fear humans. A truck was driving around to make sure people didn't stop too long and hold up traffic, but it was the same truck that fed the lions so it looked like the lions were hunting the truck. There was also a giraffe roaming wild on the road that was holding up traffic - I guess he was immune to the truck coming by to tell him to move along.
After the lion park, we went to a cultural center that had people from 5 different tribes of South Africa. We toured around to each of their "villages" to learn a little about each culture. At one of the villages, we saw some Mexican fans mixing with some tribesman, giving shots of tequila. I hope that there is a theme coming across - those Mexican fans are everywhere, and some South African liquor store owner is jumping for joy over their dramatic increase in tequila sales.
One of the interesting stories was from the Pedi tribe, who fought the British and Scottish settlers when they first came over. The Pedi leader looked out on the battlefield and saw the Scots in the front line, and thought they were women (because of the kilts). The Pedi leader told his soldiers not to attack the women, and ended up being defeated. After that, the tribe wore the kilts as a reminder of the trickery.
The people working at the villages all came together for a show in the afternoon, which was pretty amazing. They performed dances from each of the tribe, and got some volunteers to dance with them as well. Then we had some good, somewhat traditional, food at the lodge. I kind of felt like the people were about 60% working to make money from the show, and 40% working to preserve/showcase their cultural heritage. But then again, I think we were the last tourists of the day, so maybe it was mostly because the people were cold and tired.
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After the zoo section, we went on the drive through the adult lion areas. This time, there was no going out to pet the animals, as there were many stories of people doing that and getting killed. It turns out that contained lions are more dangerous than wild lions because contained lions don't fear humans. A truck was driving around to make sure people didn't stop too long and hold up traffic, but it was the same truck that fed the lions so it looked like the lions were hunting the truck. There was also a giraffe roaming wild on the road that was holding up traffic - I guess he was immune to the truck coming by to tell him to move along.
After the lion park, we went to a cultural center that had people from 5 different tribes of South Africa. We toured around to each of their "villages" to learn a little about each culture. At one of the villages, we saw some Mexican fans mixing with some tribesman, giving shots of tequila. I hope that there is a theme coming across - those Mexican fans are everywhere, and some South African liquor store owner is jumping for joy over their dramatic increase in tequila sales.
One of the interesting stories was from the Pedi tribe, who fought the British and Scottish settlers when they first came over. The Pedi leader looked out on the battlefield and saw the Scots in the front line, and thought they were women (because of the kilts). The Pedi leader told his soldiers not to attack the women, and ended up being defeated. After that, the tribe wore the kilts as a reminder of the trickery.
The people working at the villages all came together for a show in the afternoon, which was pretty amazing. They performed dances from each of the tribe, and got some volunteers to dance with them as well. Then we had some good, somewhat traditional, food at the lodge. I kind of felt like the people were about 60% working to make money from the show, and 40% working to preserve/showcase their cultural heritage. But then again, I think we were the last tourists of the day, so maybe it was mostly because the people were cold and tired.
[gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="title"]