I went on a trip with my friend Claire to go and visit some of her friends who are both wildlife officers at Zebula which is a game reserve and spa a couple of hours outside of Johannesburg in Bela-Bela in the Waterberg region of Limpopo Province in , South Africa. They run a rehabilitation sanctuary for wild animals and have a cheetah run in which a pulley with something tasty is accelerated away from them as they run towards it to get their exercise and to wow the audience.
It was a fantastic weekend trip and had special access to the cheetahs in their cages and their cubs - the male cheetah suddenly decided he didn't want me in his cage anymore and was gesturing towards me which I was blissfully unnaware of until Marietta came and shuffled me out of their cage to safety. It was a blessed experience to have contact with such amazing animals and one that will always be cherished.
Amazing yellow on Polly the parrot.
The main entrance of the lodge.
Some crocodiles bathing in their pool.
Some scenery of the bush, they have a shared runway there with another nature reserve that caters for little planes.
Lol.
An otto which is another rehabilitated pet who seems to have a fetish for biting toes.
They had a snake sanctuary there too with many beautiful specimens.
That is one rather large snake it would be best to stay away from.
One of my favorite: a Meerkat which is what animal I see myself as! It's an extremely cute, ferocious and sexy looking animal and loves living in communities.