AfriCat

We waived the chance of another early morning game drive in favour of a lie-in, and pulled in at Outjo for some more apple strudel just before lunch. Today's destination, and Judith's last night in Namibia, was Okonjima, home of the AfriCat project.















AfriCat's aim is to rescue and rehabilitate large cats, principally cheetahs, which tend to get shot by farmers. The project funds itself, by providing very high levels of accommodation - we were camping, although even that was a private camp ground, with flush toilets and rather nice outdoor showers. However, it was made very clear to us that we would need to be self-sufficient, and were not welcome at the lodge for dinner; that may have more to do with not having us drive at night (and killing their cats), rather than keeping out the riff-raff.














Shortly after we'd pitched the tents, our safari Land Rover turned up with three guides (perhaps two too many). First off was the cheetahs, seven of which live in a 25 hectare enclosure, in preparation for (possible) release into a much larger and tougher enclosure, followed by eventual release into the wild. Previous cheetahs have not faired so well, not knowing their proper pecking order in the world - one was killed by a oryx (gemsbok) and another by a giraffe, while two more were killed while trying to scavenge food off leopards.













After driving around the enclosure a while, we finally came across two males lazying in the late afternoon sun. They seemed completely undaunted by the guide pulling the Land Rover up right next to them (this may not bode well for their release) – one of them eventually did a bit of a stretch and walked off.













Next was the only enclosed leopard – this was hand reared from birth, having been rescued from a farm, and couldn't cut it in the (semi) wild. It was given a large slab of donkey, and did the proper leopard thing of taking it up a tree to eat. We spend the next 15 minutes watching it eat and make powerful crunching noises – they are considerable bigger than their cheetah cousins.

One of the most endangered of Africa's mammals is the wild dog - almost impossible to see in the wild. The project (for reasons I forget) had a small pack of these dogs in captivity, which were making very undog-like noises; they don't bark so much as emit a high pitched squeak. They are however, pretty spectacular creatures, with swathes of different coloured fur earning them the title of the painted dogs of Africa. After watching them for ten minutes or so Kirsten was very keen to take one home.
















Shortly after dark, two guys turned up with a walkie-talkie for us, in the event of an emergency (I don't think running out of gin counted). The project covers some 22,000 hectares, and contains many oryx, steenbok, kudo, warthogs and (apparently) giraffes, along with the big cats. It's possible to do leopard tracking with a guide, and some great leopard wildlife shots come from this.
















We got Judith safely to the airport (she subsequently had a 12 hour delay in Jo'burg), and returned the car in Windhoek - they ripped us off for a 'damaged' tyre, but failed to notice the missing gas cylinder, so I didn't complain too hard. The guesthouse (Puccini House) was a relaxed place set around a pool, and it was a shame we only stayed one night; we had a great dinner at the Namibian Institute of Culinary Excellence (NICE), just around the corner. In the morning a South African lady turned up with our Land-Crusier Bushcamper – she'd drove it up from Cape Town in 2 days, we were going to take 2 weeks getting it back down there.