The weather wasn’t exactly the best it could’ve been, but we braved the cold wind and the spotty rain for a chance to see the animals at Paradise Valley Springs. As we arrived, we entered the park and picked up some food for the animals, we turned left and followed the path along. We came across lots of beautiful animals as we walked through the valley. We took the gentle walk through this almost rain forest like scene and met different animals along the way. The food was a good idea but to be honest, the animals weren’t that interested in it, well except goats! They would have eaten the bag if I had let them hehe. It’s a great place to take children as they would love how much you can interact with the animals.
It wasn’t a huge walk either, about an hour or so, so it’s great in that way too.
We took a wander a bit further and found the lions enclosure, a stunning pride of lions and lionesses. As they lied there we sat and ate our picnic, it was very tranquil, after we had finished our lunch they started coming over the edge of the fence of their enclosure. They were just starting towards the tops of the trees! Staring at what we couldn’t see anything, but they would pace up and down, then stop and stare again. It was quite dreary, but we just figured that it was just close to their lunch time, and maybe they could smell the food.
Half past two rolled around, and it was food time, all the lions were pacing now, and they knew it was coming!
A lady emerged with a wheelbarrow and cordoned off an area next to the enclosure. She spoke about the lions and told us about each one’s personally, then she went to the box in the wheelbarrow and pulled out lumps of raw meat and chucked them over the fence. The Lions went into full roars and fought each other for their naturally delicious dinner. It was surreal to see it so close, especially as they went from these subdued big cats to these full-on roaring machines.
What an excellent experience and one I’ll never forget.