Big Cats at Impala Park

Tammy had a lunch to attend earlier today, so I had the brilliant idea, "I'll take the kids to Impala Park to see the animals."   Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that it's the middle of the dry season and we live on the equator?  It was a little hot, but we had a blast!  Plus, we got to up close and personal with some BIG CATS.  It's amazing that this place is a short walk from our house!

In addition to the Page kids, we brought along two of the KJ's, Jack and Charlie.

King of the Hill anyone?

Checkin' out Lake Victoria 

Our old friend the Leopard stalking Lyla . . .

. . . and Lyla stalking some monkeys . . .

 . . . and everyone else stalking some impala.

A hike down railroad trail

Four buddies

A mama monkey and her baby

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

Lyla and her new friend, Cedric.

More pirates in their boat.

So, we had some pretty incredible timing today.  We arrived at the lions' cages right at feeding time.  In one cage they had one male and three females, and in another cage they had two males.  

The two males were brand new to the park and were still very wild.  This video will show you a good depiction of how wild . . . it was hard to believe that I was only a few feet from these guys, separated only by a chain link fence!

The other group of lions were pretty laid back.  Here's a cool video of a mama lion chowing down on some beef ribs (rare). 

Some of park employees asked if I wanted a photo with the cheetahs.  There only instruction was, "They are just big cats.  Don't be scared, just pet her."  This is Alice, and believe it or not she was purring while I was petting her.

And this is Alice's husband, Festus.  It was a little creepy petting him while he was eating, but he didn't seem to mind.

Connor hangin' with her two new friends.  She wanted to ride one like on Swiss Family Robinson!