After 3 flights and a 6hour bus ride I made it safely to Antelope Park - with my luggage (others weren't so lucky).

Our first day consisted of introduction talks about the aims of the park and reasons for the conservation of these majestic animals. The irony of the lion symbolically so strong and powerful and yet in reality so vulnerable. After these talks I was then able to go on my first lion walk! What an experience to be able to walk right next to 3 lion cubs (18months old) with nothing but a stick in my hand. This was to be used to distract a lions attention of it started to track you or someone else as they have a very short attention span...fortunately for me as at one point I had the male and one female tracking me.

The next day I went to heard the 4 elephants they have here and watch them graze, the rumble they make is just so beautiful, it echoes through your whole body as if you were hollow. They are such incredible animals barely making a sound as they walk. I learnt they don't stop growing until they are 35-40 years old that is when they are fully matured. I was able to get close enough to touch them and feed them, it was such a privilege to stroke them, their skin is much tougher than you imagine. Their skin is 3cm thick, and very rough.

After spending time with them we went for a game drive where I was lucky enough to see zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, antelope, waterbuck and monkeys. Later, we had a quick tour of the snakes they have found in the area nearly all deadly - worlds most poisonous snakes adder's and black mambas etc. I then went back to walk the elephants in the evening sun back to their enclosure for the night, allowing them to graze along the way. I even witnessed one of the females pushing a tree over to eat the branches. It was quite surreal, as then I noticed the 5 giraffes were grazing merely metres away from the elephants. That wasn't all the excitement however as after placing them back into their enclosures we walked back to camp where we witnessed the lion cubs on their walk try to take down one of the giraffes who then approached us, we then had to stop until the handlers could regain control of the lions. It wasn't until chatting to a friend who was walking the lions at the time said that they at first were tracking the giraffe but then saw us and started to track us and the keepers had to be quick to intervene (Ignorance is definitely bliss). Thankfully all was well.