Jeff snuck off this morning while I was still asleep and picked some flowers from the resort gardens to give me for our anniversary. Awwww

Had a nice breakfast then went to book a taxi . Christ alive, what a palaver! Hotel reception can't ring one for you. Oh no! Instead you have to walk over to the tour office so they can write out a form in triplicate and then call a taxi for you. You then walk back to reception and wait for the taxi. This whole drama takes about 15 mins. It's all about keeping you in the resort surcharge spider web.

For example, Jeff's friend Kunal charges 2,000 RS for a full day (normally 2,500) but the hotel charges 3,200 for 8hrs then it's 200 RS for every additional hour and after 6pm there's a night levy too.

Anyway we finally got a taxi and spent the whole day at Casela wildlife park.

Confusing ticketing process at the park - you book on certain activities that are ticketed as being at a specific time but in reality only some things are for a "hard and fast time" and the others are "sort of" on demand. It's like they've adopted "Agile methodology"!

Casela originally started as a bird park and then 15-20 years ago the owner introduced the lions and now they, plus the tigers, giraffes and a few other African animals are the main attraction . 
 
We elected not to do the walk with lions as its about A$120 each which is quite a lot.

Had plenty of other animal encounters though. First we hand-fed the giraffes. They have the most beautiful-looking eyes. Such unusual looking animals but absolutely gorgeous and gentle too. 

I chatted to their keeper a little and he was so happy to be working with them and said how never in his wildest dreams did he think he would be working with giraffes and now he's been doing it for 3 years and loves it. I said to him "better than a desk job hey?" To which he replied with a look that said "are there sharks in Reunion".

After the giraffes we did a game drive through the herbivore section and saw Kudus, Zebras, Impalas and some Ostrich (Ostriches? Ostrichi??) Good thing this wasn't a real game drive in Africa as the Indian ladies on the bus kept clapping and singing loudly as we were driving along . Bizarre.

Our next animal encounter was with the lion cubs. They have 3 cubs at the moment, 2 males and one female, and yes one of the males is called Mustafa haha. They were all very sleepy kittehs as it was near midday and stinking hot. We were allowed to sit with them and pat their backs while they slept on the rocks. As with cats everywhere, naturally they chose the most awkward place to sleep and you think to yourself "how on earth can that be comfortable!"

The cubs were very sweet but they were a little on the nose! Only 6 months old and paws the size of side plates already.

Next we went to play with the Caracals. They have 3 here and they're a little more shy than the lion cubs but we still got to pat one and her coat was a lot softer than the lion cubs. The Caracals have the funniest long black hair on the tips of their ears. So tempting to touch however I like my fingers so we obeyed the keepers and only patted their backs .

The next cage had Servals which looked the most like our little Tabby kids back home but unfortunately we hadn't booked an encounter with them. Maybe next time!

Our last booked activity was the Big Cat drive through. As soon as we came through the main gate there were 5 tigers waiting for us. Most were the usual colour and 2 were white which looks quite unusual and still very beautiful. The driver stopped so we could take photos and kept asking people if they wanted to get out to pat them then laughing his head off. One girl thought he was serious which was quite amusing for us.

The next paddock had the adult lions and again, as soon as we came through the gate there were 4 lionesses and Raja the lion waiting for us. Two of the lionesses were laying along branches in a tree and the others were just lazing in the grass.
All of these lions have been raised here at Casela. They stay in the cub encounter until they're about 10 months, then they go to the lion interaction or lion walk up to about 5 years of age then they come out to the lion paddock .

With the Tigers, they have them as cubs and then for interaction for only 2 years before they come out to the tiger paddock as after that age they become too unpredictable.

"Unpredictable" ... Yeah, that's a nice way of saying "they want to eat you".

After all these big cat encounters we ended the day walking back through the petting zoo section, playing with bunnies. They're unpredictable too ... but that just means they'll nibble our shoes and backpacks.

Back to the resort for soul-refreshing showers and to wash the salt and lion-stink off. So nice to have a shower after a day sweating in the hot sun. Bliss.

The resort was holding a welcome cocktail night so we had a couple of for gratis drinks there then headed over to the poolside restaurant for our anniversary dinner. Had a superb table right next to the pool and close to the beach as well. The atmosphere, service and food were all excellent and then at the end we found out it was all included in our half board package and no supplement to pay. Bonus!

Had a little walk through the gardens then turned in for the night.