27 October 2016 - Johannesburg South Africa

After a week of team meetings in Cleveland I was flown off to Johannesburg (via Detroit and London). I did this trip about 2 years ago for the first time where I was introduced to the nightmare of the 15-18 hour flight from Atlanta or New York. I can usually handle about 7-8 hour max of being stuck in a coach seat. After that, due to back pain and dehydration, it rapidly becomes a living hell. To try an mitigate this destructive travel I tried a new strategy of flying to London, spending a night or two adjusting to the time change, then continuing to South Africa. This strategy worked quite well for my needs.

Johannesburg is an interesting city. I usually spend most of my working time in Sandton (stock exchange) and Randburg. It is spring this time of year and there are the prettiest purple flowers on the trees. Johannesburg is not the safest place with most homes and businesses having tall fences that are both electrified and barbed. This always makes me feel uneasy.


One of the ways I keep my sanity with frequent business travel is to try and get out an explore or have a unique local experience. I've wanted to go to a lion preserve or safari for a long time. Thanks to a coworker's input I finally got to go. We went for an evening feeding and lion cub interaction.


The cubs are super cute. These ones were about 4 months old. I know it is a bit of a tourist trap, but where else in the world are you going to get to experience touching a baby lion. The interaction starts out nice...

Then they decide you are their food...(ouch). This reminds me of Oatmeal's guide for How to Pet a Kitty.

After that we boarded a caged truck and set out for the Adult Lion paddocks. Lions spend most of the day sleeping and then try to hunt and feed at night.


Here is a little video I got of the feeding...

Lessons learned-

• Average life time of a male is 7-9 years in the wild (double in captivity); females live longer due to pride life
• Lions should be considered the King of the Savannah (tigers are for Jungle)
• Due to an interesting metabolism and digestive track, lions can eat a large meal of meat and then go a few days of napping