Lion Park Resort

Another little back story.

Earlier on I talked about Schwarzkopf's Silver Arrow model and made brief mention of the Looping Star ride which was similar and a little more popular. Of the 8 that were made 5 are left residing in Japan, Netherlands, Italy, and the US. So what of the 5th?

This one used to be in Margate, England and I believe it was my first roller coaster. As a child our family, like many others would visit the amusement park and I recall seeing the huge rollercoaster near the entrance and it took a few visits over a few years before I mustered the courage to ride it. (Yes, I rode it before the scenic and my first coaster was a looper)

 As Margate started to decline the ride was moved to Scotland where it sat for 3 years, and after then it disappeared for a bit. In 2001, when I started this hobby properly the ride emerged at a park in Hungary and we actually visited it on an excellent club trip in 2007. In 2009 the ride disappeared once again and it took another 2 years before it emerged, this time popping up in Botswana. 

and with only an hour or so away from Joburg, it made sense to visit it.

Our flight was a nice little prop jet. I have a minor fear of exposed spinning blades, I don't like sleeping under ceiling fans for example so it was a pleasure to be sitting in row 3 directly opposite these huge spinning blades. If they were to snap it would have been my seat that would have taken the impact :)

Gaborone has a small airport.

Tal seems happy to have landed successfully. Picking up some currency from the ATM in the small lounge we then were approached by a random chap for a taxi. Having been stung in Romania by a similar approach I was hesitant to accept his offer but then realising there were no taxis waiting outside the airport we had no choice but to use him. He then walked us to a taxi in the car park in which a woman was waiting, ready to take us to our destination.

From Gaborone we headed about 30 minutes south to Lion Park Resort

Termite mounds were common place. The urge to push someone onto them to see what would happen was there.

For many years the park was a small safari park no doubt competing with others in the country. In 2010 they decided to grow their amusement park offering and had plans to include a rollercoaster. They took the Hungary-located ride in 2011 and moved it south. 

and there it was standing alone but majestically at the back of the park.

The ride wasn't open initially, but we were there pretty early.

The centre of the park has a selection of water slides, I imagine these would be hugely popular in the hot weather.

To the left on entering there is a selection of fairground rides of various quality, but to their credit everything was running. The programs may have been gentle but the crowd were still enjoying the rides and the group we rode with had clearly not seen rides like this before and were lapping it up. The group even ensured grandma rode.

A view of the coaster from the big wheel. 

After a short delay we could see an operator on the station so headed over to spend, what would become a lengthy session, riding the coaster. It took us to ride it first before the other group would ride it, clearly a rollercoaster was a new experience for these guys! Needless to say they were loving it, if initially scared.

The ride was in really good condition and clearly it had survived its travelling better than the one we had ridden at the Rand Show. There were no vibrations at all.

Later in the afternoon Tal and Thomas were given the honour of being allowed to walk up the lift hill. I chose not to bother as it wasn't my think but it also allowed me to take photos of them from down on the ground. I took the time to chat to the locals about what they thought of the ride, and telling them that this was my first rollercoaster decades ago.

I think they enjoyed themselves up there!

We celebrated our little adventure with a drink, I went for some Six Flags beer. It was great that we were the first enthusiasts to make the effort to visit this place and with all the travelling the community are doing around the world it is becoming harder and harder to find new places to visit. We also reflected on how well the ride was running and being looked after here. Any prejudices we may have formed based on the country were blown away.

The park is continuing to expand looking to add teaching spaces and adding more animals to their little safari park.

The park is literally in the middle of nowhere. If Tal ever wants to consider a career change then a scarecrow would be a good one to consider.

Rather than take a taxi back to Gaborone we found out at there's a shuttle bus that runs regularly between the park and Game City, a nearby shopping mall. So we decided to take that.

The owners of park had chosen to include a rollercoaster in their expansion because they wanted to attract more people to the park. They were expecting local people, which they'd gotten from the group we saw. It was great to see people having their first rollercoaster experience on the same ride I had mine. More importantly they were looking for international visitors, which has also clearly worked. If you are visiting Joburg do consider visiting here; it is very easy to reach. If Ratanga is going to go then this park is a great substitute to make a coaster trip worthwhile.

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