Then we went for a walk. On the walk we saw some plants that the Bushmen use for medicine. There were some that you made tea from the leaves and some that you used the bark and some that you used the roots. If you had a headache then they cut your head and rubbed the cut with the root of a tree! Whatever ached, you would cut and rub with the root! One of the trees was used by the Shaman to go into a trance. A Shaman is like a witch doctor.

On the walk he showed us his quiver, which was made from the root of an Acacia tree. He called it his Bushmen’s Wallet, because he kept all his important things in it. He showed us a tree where they get their poison for the arrows. The poison comes from the larvae of the ladybird. The larvae is like little caterpillars. He also showed us a snare where they catch guinea fowl.

When we got back, Mummy, Genevieve and I helped make some ostrich egg shell jewellery. They used seeds as well as the ostrich shell. It was fun and I got to keep my bracelet. Daddy also bought me a matching necklace.

Then Daddy and I helped to make a bow. We had to scrape the bark off some wood. Then he tied string to it. We saw them make the string too, by scraping a reed with a knife. Then we got to shoot the bow. It was very hard. We pretended to be a hunting party chasing an antelope. There were 4 of us. If one missed then hopefully someone else would hit the target. Daddy and I were very noisy in our hiking boots, the bushmen had bare feet and were very stealthy. Daddy shot over the target and my arrow landed before the target. But the bushmen were very good. Then we had to search for our arrows. It was very hard!

After that the women sang us some songs. The first song was about friends and they held hands and looped around each other. The second song was my favourite and was about the rain. They were hopping and had one foot lifted up and made a square with 4 people. The last song had a man come and pretend to be the Shaman in a trance.

I enjoyed it, but I would not like to be a bushman. It would be a hard life, as you have to hunt all your food.

Then we went to the Khaudum National Park. The first night we stayed at an old campsite called Sikereti. We had a massive fire and toasted marshmellows. (But we haven’t found any chocolate digestives in Namibia) There was also a hornbill that came really close. Daddy gave him a bit of carrot.

In the night Mummy heard some elephants. In the morning we could see where they had pulled branches off a tree near our tent. First we drove to a waterhole. On the way there we saw 4 elephants. There were some antelope at the water hole too. We kept driving north, but the road got sandier and sandier. Daddy was not happy because the sand was really deep and then the exhaust fell off, (twice) so Daddy had to crawl under the car. Driving on sand is really slow. Mummy had to dig us out twice. But we did see a giraffe and we also saw a herd of about 30 elephants crossing the road in front of us! At the end there was a tiny baby elephant!

Daddy wanted to get out of the park so we camped just outside. We had a big fire. There was an animal lair right next to us. But we didn’t see anything go in it.

Then we had to drive to the main road. It was 40km of deep sand and took all morning. Now we are at a nice campsite on the Okavango River. There are 2 crocodiles opposite us in the river. There are lots of guinea fowl running around and one peacock. At night all the guinea fowl flew up into a tree. They looked funny. Daddy tried to catch a tiger fish. He said he had 4 touches but didn’t catch one.

Then we went to a campsite called Roy’s. It had a cold swimming pool, but the best thing was the jungle gym!!

We learnt lots of interesting things about cheetahs:
* Cheetahs hunt in the day time, so they don’t compete with leopards, lions and hyenas.
* Cheetahs get blamed for killing farm animals because they are the predators that the farmer sees.
* Cheetahs can see 5km!
* Cheetahs are the fastest land animal and can run about 110km/hr! They use their tail to steer, like a rudder on a boat.
* There are only about 7,500 cheetahs left in the world, with 3,000 in Namibia.
* When cubs are born they have long hair on their backs and it gives them a disguise, because they look like honey badgers.
* Cheetahs can’t roar, but they can purr.

We saw the cheetahs have their lunch. They eat old donkeys and horses, and the food has predator powder on it, to give them their vitamins. The cheetahs were waiting and rushed in to get their food. The food is given in a bowl, because in the wild, the cheetahs eat their prey from the inside out. So the skin is like a natural bowl. It was interesting because some of the cheetahs put their paws on their food, just like a dog. That means the cheetah was taken away from its Mum too early. In the wild the cheetahs have to always be ready to run because other animals steal their food, and they are not good at fighting.

At the Cheetah Conservation Fund they also raise Anatolian Shepherd Dogs. These dogs are brought up to protect all the farm animals. They get trained with goats and they think the goats are their family! The dogs are sold to farmers, so the farmers don’t shoot cheetahs.

I like Cheetahs. My favourite was one called Tiger Lily! There was also a Rainbow, Aurora, Hermonine, Harry and Ron. Like the Beautiful Gate orphanage in Lesotho, The Cheetah Conservation Fund runs on donations. It also gets money from visitors and from selling cheese it makes from its goat farm. It also has interns from all over the world, and maybe I could do that one day when I am older!