The day that I wrestled a lion....

Greetings to you, one and all....

What a week it's been since last I wrote. I have managed to avoid further interaction with the police although have narrowly avoided being 'taken down' by the boys in blue (or orange). On one occasion I'm not sure if I was asked to pull over or not, but when the car next to me began to indicate and move towards the side of the road I decided that my best course of action was to speed up and if chased I would stop.....fortunately the rozzers did not pursue me! I just heard on the news this morning that four of the 'orange' cops have been arrested after they pulled a man over outside a casino, stole his winnings of €10,000 and drove off! No joke!

Since last we spoke a lot has happened, the presidential elections in Iran sparked unheard of rioting, MPs expenses were officially published online and Michael Martin gave his farewell speech to the commons. In sport, England went out of the World Twenty 20, Andy Murray won Queens and the Lions continued their unbeaten record. Speaking of lions.....on Saturday I went to the lion park just outside of Johannesburg with a colleague. After a week of rotten weather I was thrilled to open my curtains to bright sunshine on Saturday morning. We managed to get slightly lost on the way, largely thanks to my beloved satnav, but eventually arrived at the park. It was not thirty minutes later that I had my first head to head with a lion. The fact that you are reading this now is proof that I won (sort of), or at least survived. The sun was shining, conditions that suited the lion better than my fair English skin. We were on a caged plot of land, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. With a bead of sweat on my brow I made the first move and got a hand on the untamed beast, suddenly and without warning it leapt from its slumbering position to plant its teeth into my back..... As dramatic as the story may sound I can't go on.....I did indeed get lion teeth around my bod however, they belonged to a 5 month old cub and did not break my thick skin. As for my 'hand on the untamed beast' this was in fact stroking it while I had my photo taken. The lion park was a fantastic day out, highlighted by my first 'wrestle' with a lion as well as having a giraffe stick its head through my car window (you drive yourself around the game park). See photos for the full story....

The rest of the weekend was relatively quiet, with the odd gym visit, watching the lions match and watching England beat India in the cricket, as well as making it to church in the evening. After a good old chin wag with the familia back home as well as el Maxo et Marina I hit the sack. I had a long day back in the office on Monday and then went for dinner with a colleague in the artificial 'village' I live in. We went to a great sushi restaurant and had a Rothschild bottle of red....fantastic! Tuesday was a bank holiday so I went with two colleagues to the botanical gardens, about 45 minutes from the apartment. Unfortunately, as it's winter, there were not too many flowers out, but it was great to be away from the city and the waterfall was pretty awe inspiring. Another win for the lions finished off the day nicely.

Over here the Confederations Cup has just started. The Confed Cup is a prelude for the world cup in 2010 where the 'top' teams from around the world come to the host nation for a pre-tournament. Each team has qualified by winning a continental tournament, Brazil in South America, Spain in Europe, Egypt from the African Cup of Nations and of course Italy from the world cup, as well as USA and New Zealand. I was fortunate enough to score tickets to Thursday nights match between Italy and Egypt, the latter of which had come out unlucky from an epic 4-3 match against Brazil just two days before. On this occasion it was Egypt that triumphed in an awesome match, played to a near packed stadium. It was a great night and probably one of the noisiest that I have ever heard a stadium, for shizzle.

Without doubt the most exciting news of the week came when Chris Ellaby made the bold move to book some flights and come out to SA. Chris is coming out early in July to watch the third and final lions test with me at Ellis Park. At this rate the match promises to be an absolute stonker and I'm so looking forward to being at the stadium with his company. We plan on making it to a game reserve for the rest of the weekend where I hope that more lion wrestling will ensue.
This weekend looks to be a quiet one here in Johannesburg. I am going to try and make my first cinema trip on Saturday evening as well as watching the lions in their first test against South Africa and of course the Twenty 20 final on Sunday afternoon. All topped off with some ESPN Classic, where Wimbledon is the non-stop show at the moment, should do me nicely!

Over and out for now. With love and cuddles, Mikey 'Lion Grylls' Wilmot