So, continuing saga of the toilet meant I was moved again today to room 13. Definitely a good move this time, as double bed, air con and inside & outside shower. Must try that tomorrow as I have a bit of a lie in - again!!

Anyway, today was lie in no.1, which was blissful after a full nights' solid sleep, then off to the Cheetah Rehabilition centre at 9am for the 10am tour. The Centre is amazing, they do great work with endangered animals and also any injured or orphaned animals that come their way. Got up close and personal with possibly the most georgous animal on the planet - the cheetah!

First stop on the tour is the video, which shows some of the amazing work they have done in the past and then the first stop on the drive around tour is the boneyard. This is where all the left over scraps and caracsses that the cheetahs etc have finished with are put and the local vulture and marabou stork populations come in & pick it clean. It's then collected up & sold to a local bonemill & the money is reinvested back into the centre - which is pretty cool!

Then a couple of Ground Hornbills, both of which are slightly deformed, but are kept as a breeding pair for zoos and other parks. Next stop was the rescued lions, which had been in a carnival and a private reserve as a hunting trophy (totally illegal and completely awful that it still happens) and all had been abused or neglected. The male who'd been in the carnival had been castrated and declawed when very young, so was abnormally large and had no mane, and it was incredibly sad to see.

Then onto the main attraction - the cheetahs. They are so beautiful and this is a great place to see them, up very close with no barriers, as in some of the larger pens, you actually drive into them so the cheetahs are right there by the truck. They also have this thing called "Lovers Lane", where all the females' enclosures open out on & then they introduce a couple of males into Lovers Lane to strut their stuff and the females decide if they want to mate with them. After viewing the 2 boys who were next on the list to visit Lovers Lane, we drove down it and I was within touching distance of one of the females. They also have a couple of King Cheetahs, which are incredibly rare and are distinguished by the dark stripes on their back. It's caused by a recessive gene and has to be present in both the parents, but it also means that they can't be released, as they are too noticeable and get too hot with all that extra black fur.

They also have a pack of African Wild Dogs, which are pretty funky looking and again we drove right into the enclosure. It's right next to the enclosure for the teenage cheetahs, so they often pick fights with each other through the fence, which happened while I was in the Wild Dog pen.

Saw a couple of other cats; Cararcal and the Serval, both of which had been domestic pets. (Could kind of see why people would as they are about the size of a medium size dog and both apparently have good natures).

Back to the lodge for lunch and my room move and a bit of a lie down in air conditioned luxury, then another game drive in the afternoon. Same place as before, but this time with a new set of americans - my lovely retired couple had left that morning - all college grads from NY. We were incredibly lucky to see a leopard this time, although we had to drive a long way south to find it & used up a lot of our time on it, but it was definitely worth it. (Unfortunately it was just a little too far away for my camera & pretty much all my pictures were blurry, which sucks!) Not normally a fan of the leopard, as they are very unsociable agressive animals unlike most of the other big cats which will generally live in pairs or groups, but it is a fine looking animal. This one had been lying in the grass, but had had quite a few trucks pull up, so when we got there it decided it had had enough & got up to move away just as we were stopping. Fortunately all it did was climb up the nearest tree.

Saw quite a lot of other stuff including another angry elephant, which managed to frighten the college grads quite successfully!!

Got another lie in tomorrow, as on the Panorama Tour at 9am, so get to enjoy my air conditioned luxury away from the bar and the pool (as the new set of americans are being loud and drunk and ignorant in the way only Americans can) and will maybe have that outside shower tomorrow morning if the weather's nice.