Born Free

Category: Lilongwe Wildlife Centre | Date: Mar 23 2009 | By: bornfree

March the 3^rd, some time around midday is the time everything had to be completed. Months of hard work by Born Free and Lilongwe Wildlife Centre across three countries will come together at exactly that moment. I just had to make sure Bella’s new home was ready here at the Centre in Lilongwe. This was something I and the now thirty strong construction team were well aware of! The arrival day was never going to be quiet, something always comes up at the last minute. Everyone else had gone to the airport and I remained to make sure all was ready.

After erecting 400m of 5m high electrified fencing, landscaping the size of two football pitches and building a solid night room with bed and en-suite drinking facilities, we had one more job to do… dig a 2m x 0.8m hole which we could reverse the truck into and slide off the 500Kg crate carrying Bella. After the last 3 months that was almost easy. A few hours and it was done.

At 11am I did a last full walk around with Jam our head foreman, checking the fence, locking the doors and preparing the gates. Then the moment of realization came. It was done. Well, all done except one thing.

This one activity I had been saving to the very last. Putting up the ‘Born Free Lions’ sign above the entrance of Bella’s night room. The construction team members gathered round, I handed the sign up to Jam and he hammered in the two nails fixing the sign. The job was finished and it was 11.45am, 3^rd March 2009. Plenty of time to grab some lunch before she arrived.

I got the call at 2pm. Bella is here! We will be there in ten minutes! I took up position at the enclosure, waiting for them to arrive. First I see our truck moving very slowly along the dirt road with the hazard lights on, almost at walking speed. I see John, Tony, Richard and Lee holding onto a big white crate. The truck pulls up. Bella has arrived!

Then I feel a bit sad, the realization that I can no longer walk in to what has been my home for the last 3 months. The enclosure was no longer mine; it had been handed over to a lion.

But then I felt better, Bella deserves a home like this and what a great home it is!

Mike Waterland

Lion Enclosure Project Manager