Movin’ On Up

Leaving Cape Town, we headed up to the central west region of South Africa, stopping off for a short tour of Pretoria, the nation’s capitol. Between the Dutch pioneers, British imperialism as well as more recent Apartheid it was an interesting stop. We had our picture taken with Paul Kruger (of Kruger Park fame) in Church Square that didn’t have a church anywhere to be seen as it burned down and was never rebuilt.

The countryside, traveling to the Lost City, reminded us of central California- dry and generally boring. Along with fields of dried up sunflowers (it is winter there), there was open pit mining for platinum in that area, and it was neat to see a huge explosion, from the mining process not to far from us as we traveled by.

Entering the gates to the Lost City complex changed the whole perspective. We left the dry country behind and headed into hills and jungle. The complex has three hotels, two casinos, a lake, water parks and two golf courses built in the crater of an extinct volcano. We were told that we would be staying in the largest and most luxurious hotel, the Palace (6 stars), and folks from the other hotels were only allowed in on guided tours. Entering the Palace you could see all was top quality!

After settling into our huge room (and reading the sign to keep all doors and windows shut because of monkeys and baboons) we explored. Everywhere there was the sound of waterfalls and birds.

Paintings, mosaics and sculptures were incredible. And yes, the monkeys and baboons wandered freely. Sunset was beautiful from the highest turret of the Palace. Each turret on the building had carvings of different jungle animals. Along with waterfalls, there were fountains all around.

The most spectacular fountain was the elephant one in the main dining room – the Crystal Court – where we had breakfast each morning. The fruit was served on carved ivory skewers. Chairs in the entry hall were covered with zebra skin and both the carved wood floor and mosaic ceiling were amazing jungle scenes.

Transportation was provided for guests every fifteen minutes twenty-four hours a day to other parts of the park. We noticed, as we wandered, that the further you got away from our hotel it appeared more like a Disney park. We went to dinner by the main casino complex. On the menu I saw steak with monkey gland so asked the waiter what monkey gland was. He explained that they cut the monkey open, extracted the gland and sautéed it. I figured that as long as I was in Africa I should try it, so I said ok. He started laughing and said he was pulling my leg and monkey gland was really just a spicy sweet sauce to dip bread or meat into. It was unusual to be on the receiving end of a joke, usually I’m the one playing it, but the sauce was delicious! That evening to relax, we went to see the movie Wall-E in the theater complex.

While in the park we had the incredible experience of going to a ranch where they take abandoned and orphaned lion cubs and train them to go back in the wild. We could enter the pens with a trainer and hold the youngest (3-4 months old), beyond that their instinct kicks in and they will defend themselves.

What an unforgettable experience! The first one we held was a four month old (and already getting heavy). He was very calm and let both Sue and me hold him. Suddenly, after she snapped a picture of us, he turned his head and bit me on the chest – I still have the marks today.

The three month old that we held next was smaller and cuddlier, but their fur was coarse not soft like expected and their claws already long for being so small.

Like kids they could be playful, and one guy in our group let one of the older cubs gnaw on his boot and use his leg as a kind of scratching pole. He turned and walked away, and the cub came after him jumped up and bit him on the butt (in fun of course) and the trainer had to intervene and pull the cub away. After that I stopped complaining about my chest bite.

We also visited the crocodile ponds.

What a contrast to those cute cubs! I guess in their own way, they’re beautiful, but it was hard to see.
They grow really big though and are very territorial, but then we’ve learned all jungle animals are that way. We passed on visiting the local Pilanisberg National Park there as we would soon be staying on a private game reserve bordering the Kruger National Park.

There is no way that we could include all the pictures we took (yes, we took more than the ones here). Take time to click on the picture to see it enlarged (hopefully). Enjoy! We sure did!