Grade 4s have a Roaring Time at the Lion Park

On Friday 17 September, the Grade 4s set out on 2 buses for the great adventure, with 3 teachers on each bus. In busy morning traffic, the M1 offered a wide cityscape for viewing. Soon songs broke out and a few boys played the Overtake game in which they repeatedly urged the bus to pass various slower large vehicles on the left. Once past, they would whoop with glee. Gradually the surroundings changed until we were in open country and crossed the border into North West Province, which aroused some excitement. Finally we rumbled in past the grand statue of the adult male lion.

After a quick snack in the carpark, the group walked down the leafy lanes to board the 3 very secure trucks for the game drive, with 2 teachers on each truck. The first sighting was of the main lion pride. The head was a large, bored male that paid no attention to us and carried on resting in the shade of his tree. However, his two “teenagers” struck terror in the hearts of those girls who did not understand they were well protected by the metal gratings that completely covered the truck. One of the teenagers did a careful inspection of our group, so giving us a beautiful view his fine form. At least 12 cubs and 2 lionesses made up the rest of this pride. The 3 month and 6 month old cubs were bigger than many of our children! The tour guide did an excellent job of reassuring the tearful fearful and expanded our knowledge of the animals all along the way.

From enclosure to enclosure, our children were wide-eyed. In a safe zone, we saw hyenas behind a fence, loping along in their own laborious way. Later, a group of 4 cheetahs (all brothers) did a good job of ignoring us while we admired their distinct spotted coats. Sadly, part of the reserve had been devastated by a widespread veld fire, but life continued even in those dreadfully blackened areas. Our sightings included giraffe, wildebeest, herds of eland and springbuck, a fine ostrich and only the black tips of a wild dog’s ears as he slept behind a rock.

Back at the base our lunch was also special. A lone giraffe took his lunch right next to us behind a fence and didn’t mind us having our pictures taken with him behind us. The children were overjoyed to find playground equipment next to our open restaurant area. See-saws and tunnels were in demand, but the highlight (which kept Mr Nkomo very busy) was the jumping castle!

The return ride was thus noticeably quiet, with a few gentle snores emanating from some quarters… A delay occurred when a breakdown jammed up the M1 but the children were blissfully unperturbed. One thing we all agreed on when we finally returned to school was that we had had AN ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL TIME and were all very grateful for it!