2015-05-10 - Gayle Edmunds
Serene in sandstone A sky view of Lionsrock Lodge, a not-for-profit sanctuary for rescued big cats from all over the world.
It is our first evening at Lionsrock Lodge and Big Cat Sanctuary, a few kilometres outside Bethlehem in the Free State. We haven’t yet been to see the more than 90 big cats that are living out their lives here in peace, but the sound of them is a strangely haunting lullaby, especially when the high-pitched cackle of the brown spotted hyena adds the bridge and even an owl hoots a minimalist solo.
We took a chance on the place. We’d never heard of it, but there was a great special on offer – so we booked and crossed our fingers. The first bit of good news was that it turned out to be exactly the three-hour drive – to the minute – it promised to be from Johannesburg.
As we approach the lodge, we see a trio of stone and wood cabins. “Don’t get your hopes up,” I say. “At what we are paying, no way we are getting one of those.” I am wrong, the second bit of good news. It is quiet midweek and the Rhebok Cabin is indeed ours. We are next door to the Tiger Cabin, a strange name given there are no tigers in Africa.
The lodge is what I like to call self-catering lite. It has a braai, microwave, counter-top two-plate oven and bar fridge, but there is a restaurant attached to the reception that is open all day. If, like me, you don’t think holidays are holidays if you have to cook in a strange kitchen, this sho’t left is for you.
The restaurant menu isn’t fancy, but is wholesome and honest. The meat is sourced from “happy cows”. The steak is good, the ribs delicious and the burgers more-ish. But the winner hands down was the home-made cheese-and-tomato pizza. When my daughter left most of it, my husband and I had an unseemly tussle for the leftovers.
Rescued from harm
The next day, we take our first drive to the enclosures where the cats are. You have to be accompanied by your hosts and can’t drive it alone. There are cats here that have been rescued from a Romanian zoo where they were kept in concrete cages as small as eight-seater dining room tables, others that have been saved from the circus, a whole pride brought here to escape war in the Congo.
Tiger Cabin, we find out, is named after Koda, a huge Bengal tiger that comes jogging up to the fence when you call. He was hand-raised here, with Thulani, an uncharacteristically social leopard. There is strictly no human contact with these cats. They now live much like nature intended and as can be managed in the circumstances.
Our guides, Alvin and Donald, tell us big cats that are used to humans are much more dangerous than those in the wild. One of the guest at the sanctuary is Nyanga, the white lion that tragically killed her keeper, Joe Ramonetha, in 2012 in Joburg.
Nyanga, though, is likely to live alone, unless the charity that operates Lionsrock, Four Paws, has cause to rescue more white lions. More likely than not, she won’t be chosen in the elaborate dating game the sanctuary has going to create prides for the rescued lions to live in.
The newly arrived lions are put into enclosures that adjoin each other and the staff watch to see if the new lions show any interest in the established lions on either side of them. They introduce the lionesses first, the males last – after vasectomies. When we were there, Andi, a Romanian rescue, was making good friends with her neighbour, Simone, a retired circus lion. It was the beginning of a new pride at Lionsrock.
Good cause for Paws
The lodge is run as a not-for-profit organisation, as all the money generated from it goes back into the maintenance and feeding of the cats. And it isn’t chump change. To feed all the cats, the trio of hyenas, the three-legged cheetah and the wild dog takes 19 cows a week. They get fed twice a week and the surrounding farmers are generous with their dead cows, but with a cow costing between R5 000 and R6 000, it’s an expensive operation.
We leave filled with new knowledge and stories. We are rested and we have contributed to a place that offers shelter to the defenceless. Our guide tells us there are about 160 big-cat breeding programmes in the Free State. Most end up as hunter’s trophies because of the illegal canned-hunting trade – 26 of the cats on the property were saved from this fate when the farm was bought by Four Paws.
It’s a good feeling to have a nice holiday and contribute to a worthy cause at the same time.
Visit lionsrock.org.za for rates. Various accommodation is available.We paid R600 a night for ourchalet, on a special.
Local Travel
The lodge offers quad biking and you can take your bicycle among the herds of wildebeest, impala, springbok and the like that populate the rest of the farm.
- There are hiking trails up the magnificent sandstone hills behind the lodge, where you can find Khoisan paintings.
- The lodge is currently retraining its horses, so horse riding will be available soon.
- There are game drives to see the feeding of the big cats on Tuesdays and Fridays. Drives to see the rest of the farm happen every day, or on request.
- Clarens is a 50-minute drive, door to door, away. Not really a children’s destination. Several shops have signs saying “uncontrolled children will be sold as slaves”, but there are two places in town with jungle gyms, although they could do with a face-lift. Nice shopping and eating for adults though.
Don't forget
- Snacks if you have children. There isn’t a shop, just a restaurant, and Bethlehem is 18km away.
- Sunhats, binoculars and windbreakers for the chilly winter days and evenings.
- Good, closed walking shoes for hiking the hills and wandering around in the bush
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