Mr Psycho and Cheetahs

Another early start (sigh), and we were off to Cheetah park. Not sure where, somewhere in the middle of Namibia, and we didn't know much about this place. On the way out of the camp site, must have been 200m down the road we stopped to watch a lion hunting some small food type, I think a Springbok....about 10m from the road.

Unfortunately, she wasn't too successful (much to Dave's disgust - having constantly wanting to see something killed)...and the big herd of springboks saw her, and proceeded to follow her as she walked away in a huff.

After a few fairly ordinary hours driving, we arrived in the cheetah park campsite. No pool, or electricity but a bar - and apparently all profits went to helping the cheetah. Anyway, this bloke and his family have 3 PET cheetahs - yes thats right! And then about another 25 WILD ones in a big park out the back. He saves them from farmers that would otherwise shoot them - and then tries to rehome them in wildlife parks. Now this bloke looks like a dangerous individual - strong Saffer accent, shaved head, big goatee beard - and a stare that makes you want to go wee wee - especially after you make what seemed like a pretty witty remark !

So the 1st part of the tour was off to his house, where these 3 cheetah roam about and basically pick on this small jack russel. You actually get to pet these big scary cats while they purr (well rumble) and the owner makes sure they don't get too hungry/playful !

Next it is into the 2 trucks to see and feed the wild ones.... Now when I say trucks I mean utes, and when I say utes I mean old utes with no back tray and fairly low to the ground. We drive in through a big gate and sure enough, the cheetahs must know it is dinner time... There are about 8 around the truck, quite wary - going in and out of the bushes - kind of like shark cruising, almost seeing to size up the clicking tourists for dinner...now this is a little unsettling as Josie and I are at the back of the ute (with no back tray) and the cheetah need only say lift its head up to be level with our ankles!! So as we watch with our head on swivels as we slowly drive through the scrub more and more cheetahs come from everywhere, until we stop the 2 trucks with about 20 around us.

Then this guide (lunatic) gets out of the truck with 20 WILD cheetahs - oh, and he has a stick. A wee thing about 2 feet long... of course a big ruddy cheetah comes at him all hissing and smashing the ground with its paws - where he raises the sticka and tells the cheetah to (in Saffer accent) "Git owta it"... which to our amazement, the cheetah does?! His brother gets out of the other ute, with an even smaller stick and they walk to the bin (of food) between the utes. Well now the cheetahs start going crazy, running circles around the utes - like sharks in a feeding frenzy....hitting the trays on the way past and jumping between the utes as well.

So then this guide (lunatic) starts chucking lumps of meat, one at a time, to the left - whereby the cheetahs explode into a frenzy to get the meat. The first bit is grabbed by about 5 - who proceed to fight it out, growls, hisses etc - while the remaining lot go into overdrive! An incredible sight - you don't know whether to take photos, or watch the back of the ute in case one gets too impatient. The lumps of meat keep flying, one to the left, one to right and the cheetahs are jumping and taking the meat outta the air, fighting or running off with a lump of donkey to eat it alone. It was STUNNING ! And to be honest, the rawness of it, the lack of safety and the savageness of the cheetahs all combined to make it that good !!

Then it was shakily back to the bar (after feeding some wild cheetah cubs) for a much needed beer. The bar was great too - picture how you would build a bar if you were a bushy lunatic saffer - it had animal heads, elephant ears, trunk and penis (yes that's right), boobs flags and bottle tops. I spent the night playing Killer (a darts game) with him and his brother and Dave and Breeny...where we weren;t too sure what would happen if we beat him !!

A cracking day & night !