Ruins and Roars in Zimbabwe

After leaving Harare, we visited the site of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. This site was built during the 12th century and is the oldest historical site in Southern Africa. It is also what the country is named after, when they changed their name from Rhodesia after independence. Here a king resided, along with his 300 wives and 700 children. In fact the whole complex only housed the royal family! There is still alot to see here and I did enjoy climbing to the top of the enclosure (why do they always build on the top of mountains and hills?) - the view was magnificent. From the ruins we drove to Antelope Park, a park situated on the outskirts of the town of Gweru. Antelope Park is a vast area of land where a lion breeding and conservation program is ongoing. The lions here do have human contact but they will be released into a managed park land and their cubs (which will never have human contact) will be then fully released into the wild. I was able to get incredibly close to the lions and even witnesed them feeding (which is not for the fient hearted). We even got to go inside the enclousure when the youngest cubs were feeding. I was sat about 2 metres away from 3 lion cubs eating! I participated in a lion walk with these cubs - which turned 1 year old today. The cubs (which are more lion like than cub-like at the age of 1) bounded alongside us as we walked for an hour in the bush. They were very playful and enjoyed play fighting with each other - one even climbed a tree. I got to stroke them - they are so beautiful.
When they get to around 14 months old the cubs no longer go on the walk - that degree of contact is topped. The next stage is for them to go out hunting on their own during the night. These hunts are watched by the keepers and I was able to join a night encounter and also watch some 2 year old lionesses hone they hunting and stalking skills. They are so graceful, totally silent and of course - deadly. The 3 lionesses worked together to herd their prey before going in for the kill. I witnessed a couple of failed attempts but after a couple of hours hunting, we lost the lions for a bit (we were trying to follow them in a jeep) and when we found them again, they were happily tearing a gazelle apart. Watching them was amazing. I felt so fortunate to be able to see them, it will be as close as I will probably get to seeing a lion kill. At the age of 2 and a half the lions leave the park (with their top notch hunting skills) and are placed into managed parkland. They have radio collars so that the rangers will be able to tell if they are coping all right, but they should have no human contact, unless there is a problem. From here the cubs will be truely wild.
As well as lions, there are also a few elephants and horses at the park. I had my first ever horse riding lesson but did not go elephant riding this time - I thought I might need the ability to walk for a little longer!