Second Saga of South Africa

Part of my current view

Annabel the Cheetah

Here's the second part I've already told you guys was coming! In case you were wondering where I'm hiding out at I am currently riding a train along the countryside of some country somewhere in Europe and it is very beautiful and refreshing to be away from the city and airports. Now that I'm done bragging about how great my day is you might also notice my photos are not as wonderfully placed as usual and that's because I'm on my phone and I don't have a laptop to make them look pretty, if you're seeing this and they look pretty, I was able to get to a laptop! Anyway, Do you want to hear about the rest of my beloved Jo'burg? I'm sure you do. Here you go!

They have 11 white lions!

About three days before I flew out I decided to go to a Rhino and Lion Reserve! Talk about exciting, Rhions, Linos, and Ashley oh my! (I know I typed them wrong, its for fun, also I said it that way about 5 times every time I was tired I would say it wrong). So after about an hour Uber drive out of the city I got to the reserve at about 9amish and I'm glad the driver was so sweet because I didn't realize there was no walking around allowed on the grounds unless you were in a specific area because there are literally animals just roaming around everywhere from Rhinos, zebras to various breeds of antelope and large birds. So he drove me into the walking part of the reserve and happily dropped me off and even gave me his number so he could come back and pick me up and I just think he really wanted to stay and do the tour with me but after it all he said he would be going out there soon to see it.



4 of the lion cubs

One of the whacky leopards

I bought about a $7 ticket so I could get into 3 enclosures with baby big cats. The first one was a 3 year old cheetah and she was a cutie but I didn't want to bother her too much, the whole able to kill me in 60 seconds thing if I annoyed  her was too nerve wracking for me. I did kiss her head and take some selfies. The next enclosure was 3 baby leopards. 2 black ones and one spotted one and they were perfect. My host told me not to pick them up and stuff because its unnatural for them so I didn't but they did climb all over me. I was told I had 5 minutes in every enclosure but the lady showing me happily let me stay about 20 minutesish in each. As soon as I sat down they climbed ALL over me and jumped on my head and it was so wonderful. I did get a few scratches, but now when I get back home I can saw I was attacked by a leopard. How cool is that? The last enclosure was a lion enclosure with 4 cubs and they were already in a cute little pack and didn't trust me one bit until I started playing with an old soda bottle and slowly one by one they came to me. They would all be so interested in biting me and if they did you just lightly tap them on the nose. 'Hey look its little old me bopping a lion the nose, the king of the jungle. And I'm telling him to stop it'. It was a great experience. Now I'm going past the ocean, talk about beautiful. After disinfecting my wounds I went on to start the safari after getting chased by a stork and ground squirrel. The safari went one for about 3 hours and we were able to openly cruise through enclosures of Rhinos, Zebras, 11 White lions, 9 brown lions, some number of cheetahs and various other animals. The big cats had no interest in us because they see the truck we are in as a whole and know they'll lose if they try, however if you get out, yeah you're going to get eaten. There was some safari in South Africa where some lady thought the big lion rubbing against her window was trying to be friendly and she rolled down her window and was killed. Also Lions are the worst hunters. They only catch about 30% of things they hunt. So the safari was by far the best thing.



The 80 stairs at 45 degrees

Inside of the cave

After the safari I was interested in seeing the wonder cave! The Wonder cave is a part of a thing called the Cradle of Humankind where people believe we all originated from. Which is funny because one of the biggest themes in Africa is that everyone is African 'We are all African' is on a lot of paintings. Not saying I agree with it, just a little insight for you guys. The wonder cave is about 5-10 million years old and was pretty exciting to go into despite to scary elevator and 80 stairs at a 45 degree decline. We got told the story behind the cave and how it was used to mine for gold and how they think there could be more 'human' fossils down there but they start excavating and find something the government will take it over, so they stopped. Anyway it was dark and really cool and I didn't get to see any bats which sucks because I love bats but it was still cool. After climbing the stairs and almost dying I went home to take a shower and rest up for the days to come.

Oh Ashley, where could you possibly be now?

Well I am in or was in or somewhere in the United Kingdom!