Good thing people sometimes visit. Otherwise you might never your home town’s tourist attractions.

So it was that, after 22 years in the region, we finally visited African Lion Safari. Turns out it’s more than just an annoying theme song. The idea of this “zoo” is that the animals roam free, while people are kept in metal cages (also known as cars). The preserve has had good success in its breeding program for a number of endangered species.

They really do have majestic lions.

But the most exciting big cat encounter was with the leopard cheetah, who decided to walk over to our car.

And hang out right beside it.

The ostriches, who look like living dinosaurs, pecked at the car window, hoping for food.

The baboons often climb on the cars, but ours didn’t prove attractive to them.

We discovered that giraffes aren’t overly fond of rain (that it was raining for a change was amazing in itself), as they all huddled together under a shelter.

Rhinos are really big. Fortunately, none of them did any car-charging, that we saw.

Some other continents were also features, such as kangaroos of Australia.

And even deer of North America.

It was fun. Definitely worth a visit, if you’ve never been.