What It’s Like to Walk Among Lions and Cheetahs

I can’t even find words to describe the day I went on a morning walk with two lions and a cheetah! Honestly, it’s every word you can think of between amazing and phenomenal. It’s also quite a few more choice words after arriving at the park. It’s when I realized that maybe I did not think this excursion all the way through.

But, let’s start at the beginning.

My first steps ever on the African continent was in South Africa. It came about via an error fare with Etihad airlines. It was the best Christmas gift I’ve ever had and I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was in bed that morning checking my emails and I saw an urgent one from The Flight Deal. Etihad was selling round-trip flights to Hong Kong, Dubai and Johannesburg from between $200 – $300 each. It was a huge computer error for flights that are normally quadruple the price. I was in such a dazed state of mind, I didn’t know what to do! This was like a super rare once in a life time occurrence! I was searching through the comments and folks were saying it was really legit. People were buying up tickets and they were going by fast, I had to hurry and make a decision quick!

The thing is, it was the end of December! Like how do you plan out your year so quickly? Was I going to have enough vacation leave? Enough money for all the hotel rooms? It was too much! I also called my friend Michelle about the deal as she had always wanted to go to Africa as well. It was then we purchased our tickets to Johannesburg, South Africa for probably around $350 round-trip. After that I went ahead and chose some random dates for Dubai and Hong Kong. I was going to figure it out the details later, the deal was just too good to pass up.

We booked our trip for April and we discussed some things we wanted to do on our first trip. Of course, I wanted to see some wild animals in their natural habitat! But, we were on limited time and the closest area for a safari was four hours away in Krueger National Park and meant we would have to forgo visiting Cape Town. We chose the beaches in Cape Town over the safari. That is how Lion Park and the walk with the animals in Gauteng came about.

The Walk Amongst Kings

At the airport we took a taxi to our first hotel. We were so excited to finally be there and told the driver about all our plans. He asked, ever so politely could he be our driver for the rest of the week. I don’t know why I thought that was so kind and nice! He picked us up the following morning and I gave him the address for Lion Park. He seriously almost refused, he thought we were absolutely crazy! Apparently locals don’t mess with wild animals, they seem them in cages in zoos and that’s about it. To walk alongside big cats was extreme and he didn’t understand why I booked such a thing. Even my friend Michelle was like, wait – we’re seriously doing this? YES MA’AM WE ARE!!

Did I mentioned I didn’t really tell her our exact plans at Lion Park? Oops.

So we get there, pay our fee ($75) for the walk and meet our guide and the other people in our group. It was about six of us total. Everyone is excited, pumped up, fearless and ready to go. We get in the truck with the guide and two handlers (with rifles) and go pick up the lions from their area. Thats’ when shit got real. The handlers decided that it was time for Mufasa and Scar to go on the morning walk with us. NO MA’AM. It’s a whole different story when you see a big full grown lion with a big mane in person with absolutely no restraints. Go get Simba them. NO GAWD. Between the nine of us we can fight off a young lion or two. It’s a wrap if a grown lion gets a hold us.

I know we’re from the motherland, but I don’t exactly wanna die there. Get somebody else to do it.

They load up the young lions, I think they were around two years old. We head out for our morning walk. The lions were very excited it for it, on the level of a dog that’s been in the house cooped up for twelve hours and is ready for their daily walk. These lions were not drugged, subdued or anything – they were absolutely free and happy to be out in the field to play and get meat snacks.

At first it’s quite intimidating, but as time goes on our tensions edge a smidgen but not much. In the beginning the lions focused more on the raw meat and we were able to pose with them for pictures. After they ate all the meat, they played with each other and then wanted to play with us. But, their definition is not what we considered playing. No belly rubbed or stuffed toys. There were a tad rough and I wanted no parts of playful nips. Like the one guy on our tour below.

I don’t even remember if the tour was timed or we all got too scared and wanted to call it quits on the walk. But, we loaded up and go out of there. Fortunately, for Michelle and I we had one more big cat adventure. This time with the fastest animal in the world, a beautiful female cheetah. I don’t know what with happened with our other group mates, but it was just us this time.

This time around it was a guide and one handler with no weapons. The cheetah actually rode with us in the vehicle and paced up and down the aisle excited for the walk. It was so surreal! Who rides in a truck with a cheetah?!

Our experience with the cheetah was the exact opposite of our lion experience. The walk with the cheetah was like hanging around a lazy house cat. She purred, stalked birds, and laid down and took a nap. The only reason they had a harness on her its because she fast and who can catch a cheetah?

So ladies and gentleman, that was my full experience at Lion Park in South Africa. It was a rush of many emotions, but I am so glad that I was got to experience it. Unfortunately the park no longer offers the walk with the big cats. In 2021, an American woman was killed after a lion mauled her on a vehicle safari (he jumped through the car window) at the park. It’s crazy because she was in a vehicle, which you would assume is safer and lost her life. I guess that’s just animals, you’ll never want they will do.

There are still a lot of places in South Africa and other African countries that offer the experience, if that’s your thing.

Is it crazy that I want to do it again? This time with a fully grown lion. Why am I like this?! I am planning a trip to Africa next year, you never know. Until then..

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Would you ever do this? Am I a little loony. Let me know below in the comments 🙂