Cheetah'd
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2002
1
11
17
Trip End
May ????
Swakopmund, Namibia
Friday, September 2, 2005
Well I hope this finds you all well and happy.
Last time I wrote I was in Kasane in Botswana. From there we traveled to Chobe National Park. The next morning we did a game drive (hippo out of water was the highlight) and in the afternoon we did a cruise on the Chobe river. The cruise was awesome. We saw a lot of elephants and buffalo and a few crocs. At one point we saw a large group of elephant heading towards the water to drink so the boat went over there so we could have a good look, we then saw another herd heading to the same place - all up there were close to 70 elephants in one place. We watched them swim, drink, and splash themselves with mud and water. They ranged in size from very small (relatively speaking) to very large. It was a really nice scene to be watching, especially watching the baby elephants playing in the mud and almost getting stuck, it was up there with watching the gorillas.
The next day we traveled to a town called Maun which is very near the Okavango Delta. The Delta is the only one of its kind in the world. It is basically where the river ends, but there is no lake and it's not on the coast. In effect it is a huge wetland. We stayed one night at a camp then traveled by truck and dug-out canoe (Mokoro) into the Delta. Once in the delta we rough camped for two nights. We did three game walks, again we saw elephants close up (not too close, they get grumpy) and on the last walk we saw a full grown male lion about 250 metres away (close enough), we followed his tracks but didn't see him again. We did see the remains of a dead giraffe (lion kill) and leopard prints (but no leopard) and cheetah prints. We also did a sunset ride in the mokoros, nice but cut short due to a hippo in the water, hippos attack the mokoros so it was thought best to use discretion. Our local guides were really good and made it into a great experience. All up, a lot of fun, if not a little dirty - we camped on sand/dirt and got filthy.
We traveled out of the Delta and back to the camp the same way we got in. That afternoon we went for a scenic flight over the Delta. It was in a small Cessna (5 passengers) and we flew for an hour at 150 metres over the Delta - very different from above than in a mokoro in the water. That night we watched a tape of the rugby between NZ and South Africa.
The next day (yesterday) we crossed into Namibia. We had to wake up the customs guys on the Botswana side before we could exit. We stayed at a town called Rundu for the night and next day travelled into the Etosha National Park (I was wrong about Chobe being the last place to see Leopard, they are in the delta and Etosha, but we didn't see one at either place). This was once an inland sea, but has now dried up though in the wet season the Etosha Pan gets to about 30cm deep and attracts flamingoes. We did some game drives here and saw our first Springbok and Gemsbok (Oryx). The camp we stayed at the first night had black-backed jackals running around (and mongooses too) so that was fun, and the second night we stayed at a different camp which had lots of squirrels running around. The second camp was located right next to a waterhole - there was a fence between the camp and waterhole - and they floodlight the waterhole at night so you can watch the animals as they come to drink. So that afternoon and night we sat there until late watching lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffe, and assorted antelopes etc come to drink. It is surprising how quietly elephants walk, they actually feel the ground with each step to ensure the ground is solid enough to take their weight so they do walk very softly.
So after two nights in the park we drove on to Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park - this is a privately owned campground/farm/cheetah sanctuary. They get the cheetahs from local farmers. If the farmer has a problem with cheetahs eating their stock they call the sanctuary who put a trap on the farm, then take the cheetah to the sanctuary and release it into the huge enclosure they have. This means the farmer is happy and the cheetah isn't shot. They have about 25 cheetahs. 3 of the cheetahs are tame and we were allowed to pat one of them as it wandered around the bar area in the campground. It licked me, I got licked by a cheetah - very rough tongue! Later that day we all got into the back of utes and trailers and drove into the enclosure. There was a bin of zebra meat and we were off to watch the cheetah feeding. As we drove around the enclosure the cheetahs came out and followed us until we came to the feeding point. Then the owner threw out the hunks of meat and we watched the cheetahs grab a piece and run off to eat it. Good fun.
So the next day we drove to Swakopmund (where I am now) on the coast. Along the way we stopped off at Cape Cross to see the seal colony - I have never seen (or smelt) so many seals in one place before. We even saw a new-born seal (and afterbirth) which attracted the attention of a jackal (he ate the afterbirth, not the seal). There are several jackals here.
So today a few of us went sandboarding on the dunes in the Namib desert - great fun, huge dunes, and lots of sand (it will take me a week to get all the sand out of my ears I'm sure). Rugby tomorrow morning then quad biking. Sunday morning we head off.
That's about it really. I know, a bit long-winded but I there is just so much to wriet about. Take care, have fun. I hope you like the photos.
Colin :-)
