We got up quite early for an 8 hour drive to Antelope park, however it did not all go to plan. After about an hour and a half the truck came to a stop, we had an oil leak!! Whilst Issacc and Aly tried to fix it we had quite a nice time sunbathing on the grass verge. There was a local shop nearby so we could buy drinks and snacks. After a while there was quite a crowd of locals who had come to look at us. So the boys being boys set up a football match against the local boys and the girls sat with the local little girls and watched. Seven hours later the truck was fixed and we could get on our way again but we had, had a nice day at the side of the road. We had gone 2 minutes down the road when Alice who was sat at the front at the left said "I think we have a flat tyre it doesnt feel right." So we buzzed down to the cab and Aly got out to check and YES we had a flat tyre!! We drove slowly to the next garage where we pumped it back up. Then hoping nothing else would go wrong we carried on our way. By this point we were all hungry but had got used to the idea we would not be eating today, when we stopped outside a Pizza Inn. We all got very excited when Aly shouted up "does anyone want pizza?" She got a big fat YES shouted back. You could tell we were all hungry as we all ordered a pizza that was too big for us. We got back on the truck with our pizza boxes and most of us could only manage to eat half. We put our other halves in the fridge and tried to get as comfy as we could and have a nap but it was getting cold. We had no more problems and arrived at Antelope Park at 1am. It was freezing, we quickly put up our tents, put extra clothes on and got in our sleeping bags. It was so cold that Sarah's contact lenses had frozen in the case!

The sun started to come out and we had a showerand some breakfast before we had a tour around the park and were told what activities we could do. I chose to do a lion walk, a night drive and elephant training. The lion walk was'nt until 4pm so we sunbathed and went on the internet and had our cold pizza for lunch. At 4pm I went for my lion walk. First we had a safety talk about what to do and what not to do. Then we went to the lion enclosure to meet the lions, there were 4 of them. They walk the lions until they are 18months old as part of a lion breeding scheme. These lions were coming to the end of their walks. After that they take them out with a car. Two of the lions were tamer than the other two as they had been hand reared from a cub (6weeks old) but the others had stayed with the mum longer. We stood back and they opened the cage, the lions ran out in all different directions. The guides started to walk down a path and called "come cats come" and they appeared and followed down the path slowly, we also followed. As it was quite hot they wanted to sit down a lot and not do much walking. This meant we had lots of chances to get close to them and have our pictures taken. We only had pictures with the friendlier two as the other two kept their distance. Whilst the lions were sitting or laying down we could stroke them, we were told not to touch their heads as they dont like it. We stroked their backs and patted their bellies which were pretty fat as they had just eaten. They didnt mind us being close and were obviously used to human contact as when they first layed down they were facing the wrong way for the sun to make a good photo so one of the guides got hold of one of the lions paws and dragged it around to face the other way! Whilst we were walking we could also stroke them and hold their tails. Aftewr 90minutes we walked them back to their enclosure and then we went back to camp ourselves. That evening we had a meal in the restaurant which was very nice and had an early night as we were going on a game drive at 4am to hopefully see some lions hunting. We got dressed in warm clothes (5 layers) and got in our sleeping bags ready for another cold night!

We got up at 3:45am as we were already dressed and went to the meeting place. We got into the game vehicle and wraped ourselves up in the blanket they gave us. We drove to a different enclosure, these lions were over 18months old, there were 3 of them. They walked in the long grass near the vehicle and we watched them using a spot light. We drove around trying to find some antelope hoping they would chase and kill it. After a short while we saw a lone impala and the lions were sneaking up on it but the impala had seen them and ran away. After a while we saw some wildebeast but couldnt see the lions, then all of a sudden one of the lions started chasing the wildebeast which scattered everywhere. The driver started to drive fast to catch up with the lion to see if it would catch the wildebeast. We were bouncing around all over the place, bums flying off the seats! We had been warned to hold on tight at all times as the road is bumpy and we need to drive fast to keep up with the lions. We were enjoying the ride and chase when Kylie who was sitting on the back seat shouted "Stop, Stop, Syop!" We stopped and all turned around to look at her. Sarah said "Whats up? Did your camera fall out?" Then this head popped up from the side of the car, one of the guides that had been sitting quietly at the back had bounced right out of the car and landed on the ground. He obviously wasnt holding on!! He was ok but had hurt his shoulder a bit when he landed. Once he climbed back in we carried on but by now the lions and wildebeast ad gone and we didnt know where they were. We spent the next hour/ hour and a half looking for them. By now the sun had come up and it was light. They had just radioed for a car to come and get us to take us backto the camp whilst they looked for the lions when we spotted them laying in the grass. The guides got them to follow the car as we made our way back. So we arrived back at camp at 8am with a story to tell but not one about a lion kill.

I grabbed a quick slice of toast before going elephant training at 8:30. They had 4 elephants each with a trainer. The trainers would shout left turn and the elephant would turn 90 degrees left, then right turn and it would turn to the right. When they shouted about turn it turned 180 degrees. The elephants sat down when told and stood up when told. They could do "trunk up" and "open mouth" and also salute which was lifting up a front leg. The elephants could also kick a ball and pick it up and throw it. After watching the trainers it was our turn. First we gave them some peanuts whilst they just stood. Then we told them to sit so we could sit on their knee and give them some more peanuts. Then whilst they were sitting we climbed on the back and told them to stand. We gave them the command trunk up so the trunk would come up for some peanuts. Then it had to sit again so we could get off. Then we gave the final reward of peanuts and I felt its tongue, it was so smooth. We made our way back to the truck to set off for the next place called Hwange National Park.