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Colin & Margaret Shaw - Antelope Park Lion Release and Rehabilitation Programme Newsletters » March/April 2007 » Africa volunteer profile VOLUNTEER NAME Colin and Margaret Shaw AGE Colin is 57 and Margaret 54 OCCUPATION Retired COUNTRY United Kingdom PROJECT Antelope Park Lion Release and Rehabilitation Programme DATES AT PROJECT July 2006 The male Lion had its amber eyes firmly fixed on us.  We were only a few feet away from the animal and it had placed itself between us and our only escape route.  Suddenly, I was aware of two more female Lions approaching us from behind.  We were surrounded!  Before I could do anything, my Wife had stepped forward and knelt down beside the first animal as if to sacrifice herself, instead of me.  “Look here”, I said.  “This is no time to be making a fuss of them.  We’ve still got other enclosures to clean………..!!” We often found ourselves in that sort of situation during our four week stay at Antelope Park, but it took a little time to accept that we could quite safely be in the vicinity of up to 7 Lion cubs and expect to walk away unharmed.  We had been given expert tuition by the project staff as to how we should approach them and if necessary, discipline them (the Lions that is!) but it was still a daunting prospect at first.  However, our initial nerves soon disappeared and we were able to interact with the cubs on a daily basis.  The private game reserve is situated about 10k from Gweru in the beautiful rolling countryside of Zimbabwe.  We had travelled from the UK via an overnight stop in Harare and arrived on site at about midday, courtesy of a local pick-up by one of the project managers.  He wasted no time and showed us where we would be living for the next month and introducing us to other volunteers as they arrived back from their various daily tasks.  Those duties ranged from walking the Lion cubs twice a day, cleaning the enclosures, preparing and delivering food for the animals and recording significant data, to be eventually entered onto a computer.  We were also to be involved in enclosure maintenance and repairing roads that had been washed away in the rain, an interesting and varied programme that kept us fully occupied from dawn till dusk.  As a married couple of some 35years and recently retired, we had been looking for a new, shared experience in the wild that would also provide us with independent goals and achievements.  We found over the four weeks that we were able to attain just that and spend as much time apart as we were together and therefore view each task from a separate perspective.  I got a great deal of satisfaction in physical activities such as walking the park boundary to check on the fences and helping to dig out and replace the soil from one of the enclosures containing younger cubs.  My Wife on the other hand, discovered that she had previously untapped skills when she found herself clearing up old bones and ‘Lion poo’ and repainting fence poles!  The age range of people involved tended to lean towards a younger element and I was surprised (but not unhappy!) at the proportion of girls to guys, statistics that I could not explain other than the ‘gap year’ principle applied and blokes might think that walking with Lions was a bit ‘tame’!  Believe me, when you’re standing next to a frisky 10 month old male Lion cub, then ‘tame’ is not an expression that immediately springs to mind…..! Neither age or marital status however, is a barrier or disadvantage in this situation as one can use life experiences to meet a challenging and changing routine.  From everyone sharing meals at one table to the bunk beds in our room, we found that it all blended together nicely. The joy of walking with the cubs in a glorious African dawn, is the ultimate aphrodisiac.  The day then just gets better and better so that with good food, good company and hard work, the hours fly by until once again, the glowing ball of a setting sun kisses the horizon and night falls. Truly a memorable and magical time of our lives. Colin (57) and Margaret (54) Shaw, Antelope Park Lion Volunteer Project       print this page | bookmark this page (CTRL-D) | send to a friend back to top