An early start and a long journey down to Na'an Kuse's desert project and the edge of the the Namib desert via Neuras to switch vehicles. Only 4 of us were going to be in Kanaan that week - two nice but young German girls - Eva and Indra and a pain in the butt Mexican girl who was staying there another week (as she would have to share a room if she went to Neuras as planned).

We were picked up in a strange vehicle that they called Wonderbread (as it looked like a loaf of sliced white!) and I sat up front with Karl the coordinator while Indra and Eva slept in the back. Karl is, as he admits, hard to get to know and takes a while to warm up to people but has an incredibly dry sense of humour which went well with my sarcastic streak!

Kanaan is like going to the back of beyond and then a bit further - even the lodge is around 10km from the entrance gate. The place used to be a farm then a tourist destination and hunting zone meaning the land had been overgrazed, driven over and the game scared of humans. The process to restore the land and the animals trust has only just begun.

I managed to get my own room again and this time it had on en-suite. We were introduced to all the staff - Lola, August and Bella the dog and got an early night.

The week consisted mainly of walks in the hills looking for hyenas and cheetahs, checking camera traps, blocking off old roads and taking down a sheep enclosure. Hot work in heat that got up to the mid 40s - drank lots of water and hardly weed at all!

Each day we feed the four cheetahs who were in a large 5ha enclosure - Crawford, Cubby, KFC (Kanaans fastest cheetah) and Hannibel. One day we were joined by French lodge guests and I ended up as translator - using a lot of hand gestures and my three months of French learning was nearly 30 years ago!

We got to eat at the guest lodge 3 times as one of the cooks was away and watched amazing sunsets while eating fabulous food and drinking G&Ts.

As extra activities we got to have breakfast on the sand dunes as the sun came up, a night game drive (only saw oryx, springbok and hare and cool barking geckos) and had a sleep out in the desert watching the stars move slowly across the sky - except the shooting ones which went in a flash. The Mexican did her best to avoid going out of her room - her rational was that she was travelling for a long time and usually had to share a dorm so wanted to enjoy her own room. I much rather sleep under the stars in an unforgetable location but there you go.

The highlight of the week came as I packed to leave and while emptying my water bottle on the plants (water cannot be wasted in a desert!) Karl decided to check the capture cages himself and asked me to go along. He said not to bother with the other girls as he did not have the time to waste waiting! I pointed out that I had flip flops on, a big no-no for going off the farm - he said as long as I didn't get out the vehicle I would be OK - I did not reply.

We were driving out and nearly at the first cage when we saw cheetah tracks in the road. We both got out (me in my flip flops!) and saw they were fresh - Karl thinking one of his collared cheetahs was on its way to the cage - fingers crossed. We drove on and came around a corner and saw what we both first thought were springbok but quickly realised were three cheetahs! We both said "f***" and sat back and stared - Karl had never seen 3 cheetahs in the wild together. Neither of us had cameras so we sat and watched as they ran around the marking tree avoiding the cage and disappeared into the distance - a truely memorable experience.

A long drive back to the farm and ready to book a week in Neuras!