Arrived today at a campsite called Cheetah Park. It is a farm just off the main road that has 18 cheetahs under their care. As we arrived we realised that we were the only people staying in the campsite which was a little eerie, especially as a number of the main buildings of the site are closed - it has clearly not been high season for quite some time in this part of the world. At 4pm the owners son came to pick us up in his utility. Half of us rode in the back of his utility and the rest in the trailer behind. There were bars around both so the ability to hold on and not be flung out on the dirt was available. We started by visiting his house where his parents and brother also live. Both brothers are in their late 20s. The family lives with 4 tame Cheetahs in their house yard. They range from 7 months to 3 years old. The Cheetahs that are living in their house have been rescued and nursed by them back to health, once they were well enough they had unfortunately had too much human contact to be let back into the wild. They live like a house cat with the family and even play with the dogs. Apparently the dogs survival is only from the fact that they have grown up together and the dogs know that under no circumstances are they to run from the Cheetahs or they will quickly become viewed as game and not a friend. We got to pat the Cheetahs and take loads of photos. The 7 month old was rather naughty and kept biting peoples shoe laces, ankles, and trying to grab anything you put down on the ground including bags, sunglasses, water bottles, etc. We spent about 45 minutes with them in the back yard which was really awesome.

We then piled back into the ute and headed for a paddock which has 8 Cheetahs roaming freely. Every day the Cheetahs are fed fresh meat, today Donkey was on the menu. We found 3 Cheetahs quite quickly and when they didn't approach the vehicle we were advised that they have clearly killed something and are not actually hungry. The best guess was that it would be a warthog. We continued on and came across 4 more. These guys had clearly not eaten and were hungry. The farmer got out of the car and the Cheetahs started stalking around the car - rather scary as you must remember that these are wild cats and they were hissing and generally showing that their patience was wearing thin. The farmer had a shot bamboo stick and seemed rather unconcerned. Apparently when you grown up with Cheetahs from the age of 7 you get to know when they are serious about killing you and when they are not, today we were told that they were not serious. As the chunks of meat were thrown out the Cheetahs jumped in the air, grabbed and ran to feast. One piece each, it was really rather civilised.

Back at the campsite we were to discover that a tortoise had decided that the grass around our tent was rather tasty. A few pats and photos later and I could tick off another African animal that I have been lucky enough to pat.