Saturday Nov 22, 2008
It is time for me to let everyone know what I have been up to since I departed! I must apologise for not keeping this blog continually updated but it is now my plan to start doing so :) This afternoon I sat down to go through my photos to pick a 'few' to post and 2 hours later I realised how much I have seen and done in only a few weeks- I've visited South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe (for 1 day) and am now relaxing in Mauritius. But the best piece of all of this has been my 2 traveling amigos- BG and Val, they have literally saved me from large-large bugs, ensured that I know what food I am eating and made me feel right at home in our tent on the roof of the truck where any number of baboons, crocodiles, hippos or elephants were roaming around while we slept and most of all reminded me of how lucky I am to have this amazing travel adventure with them!
Our trip to the Cheetah Conservation Fund http://www.cheetah.org/ has been a highlight! It is located in Namibia and is currently home to over 50 orphaned Cheetahs. The photos were not taken with a zoom lens as we were in their pen with them as they did their morning 'run'. Cheetah babies are brought there from all over Namibia and depending on their age they are hand feed until they are old enough to eat on their own. None of them can be released back into the wild as it is only their mother who can teach them how to hunt. If they are released they would die of starvation. They are amazing animals as they can run up to 110 km/hr! What CCF is doing with the orphaned Cheetah's , the local farmers and the community has meant that Cheetahs are no longer endangered. It has been through listening to the local farmers who usually kill the Cheetah mother's who are attacking their livestock; that they are now using dogs to guard their herds which chase off the cheetahs. Through combined education of the local school children who go to the centre to learn about the Cheetah, they get to interact with the animals and learn about the importance of the survival of the Cheetah. 
It is time for me to let everyone know what I have been up to since I departed! I must apologise for not keeping this blog continually updated but it is now my plan to start doing so :) This afternoon I sat down to go through my photos to pick a 'few' to post and 2 hours later I realised how much I have seen and done in only a few weeks- I've visited South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe (for 1 day) and am now relaxing in Mauritius. But the best piece of all of this has been my 2 traveling amigos- BG and Val, they have literally saved me from large-large bugs, ensured that I know what food I am eating and made me feel right at home in our tent on the roof of the truck where any number of baboons, crocodiles, hippos or elephants were roaming around while we slept and most of all reminded me of how lucky I am to have this amazing travel adventure with them!
Our trip to the Cheetah Conservation Fund http://www.cheetah.org/ has been a highlight! It is located in Namibia and is currently home to over 50 orphaned Cheetahs. The photos were not taken with a zoom lens as we were in their pen with them as they did their morning 'run'. Cheetah babies are brought there from all over Namibia and depending on their age they are hand feed until they are old enough to eat on their own. None of them can be released back into the wild as it is only their mother who can teach them how to hunt. If they are released they would die of starvation. They are amazing animals as they can run up to 110 km/hr! What CCF is doing with the orphaned Cheetah's , the local farmers and the community has meant that Cheetahs are no longer endangered. It has been through listening to the local farmers who usually kill the Cheetah mother's who are attacking their livestock; that they are now using dogs to guard their herds which chase off the cheetahs. Through combined education of the local school children who go to the centre to learn about the Cheetah, they get to interact with the animals and learn about the importance of the survival of the Cheetah.
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