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KESTELL

Kestell is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa. The town is not really a touristic attraction but it definitely worth the stop, especially to visit "My Little Africa", a wildlife sanctuary where you can meet the King of Africa in a really intimate way. This experience make it one of the hilight of a trip in South Africa.

MY LITTLE AFRICA

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MY LITTLE AFRICA

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LOCATION :  70 Jan Van Riebeech street, Kestell

 

COST : donation

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CONTACT : +27 (0) 73 731 3034

stuart@intsa.co.za

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WEBSITE : mylittleafrica.wixsite.com

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OPENING HOURS : Aug-April 10am-6pm / Mai-Jul 10am-5pm / Every day of the week

My Little Africa Wildlife Sanctuary was initiated for the conservation of near extinct species in the region. The place has some lodges, do not expect luxury, where tourists can spend the night around wild animals such as snakes and lions. The owner is really nice and totally true to himself. We were expecting to visit a sanctuarry but actually we saw My Little Africa more like a breading program. There were around 15 lions, they looked quite healthy and it didn't seems to us that this place is a tourist trap or that the owner was actually making a business out of these wild animals. Yet, it was a bit wierd to think that there so many lions in this small town, disconnected to the wild life. 

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The main attraction that offers My Little Africa is meeting with the lions, which is such an incredible experience. This was our last stop in our itinerary and what a stop it was! At first, we didn't really know what to expect. We heard about this place from tourists we met in our trip. They found this place by hitchhiking with the owner and told us about how incredible it was to meet the king of africa and to be so closed to the animal. When we arrived in Kestell we were really surprised to find this little sanctuary, that actually didn't look like a sanctuary at all but more like a mix between a cheap "hostel" and a wild farm lost in the middle of the Free State. We met with the owner, not really sociable type of guy, but fully true to himself and didn't look like he cares much about tourists, that actually what we liked about him. He took us traight to the animals, and explain us how to behave with them in order to go closer to the animal. Only a tiny electric fence separated us from the animals. It was already unbelievable for us to stand so close from them. Then the owner told us to jump the fence and go to sit with the lions, that was incredible. The lions are really familiar with humans. We could see the owner jumping in the dry grass with the lions and cuddling with them by rolling on the ground. That was pretty crazy. The owner only asked us a donation, telling us that usually people give around 50 ZAR (less than 5 euros). We didn't stay long time in My Little Africa because we were already on our way back to the airport and we were a bit short on time. But if you stay few hours, you'll probably have the chance to see the lions being fed.

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