roaming.kiwi

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!