Cheetah Outreach and Franschhoek

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For our last day in Cape Town we were again with Karl for the day. After a quick breakfast in the hotel, we were off in the comfortable van. Our main agenda item for the day was Cheetah Outreach, which is located out in the wine country east of Cape Town. However, since they don’t open until 11AM, we took the opportunity to have an early morning stroll in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Karl dropped us at the upper entrance, making it convenient for us to meander through the gardens and then meet him at the lower entrance. The lush gardens show off some of the incredible botanical diversity of South Africa and the Cape Peninsula in particular. Sonia, being the plant lover in the family, enjoyed the exotic species throughout our walk through the meticulously maintained gardens. In the early morning of this overcast day, we had the park mostly to ourselves, seeing only crews of workers busily replanting things and keeping the park so clean and beautiful. The wide lawns and the backdrop of the mountains made for many great photo opportunities, but mostly we photographed the kids with some of the birds that dropped in. We saw a large family of Egyptian Geese as well as the very common (but quite odd-looking) Guinea Fowl. After a pleasant walk we rejoined Karl and were off to the Cheetah Outreach. Cheetah Outreach has about ten cheetahs, several of whom are sociable and willing to greet visitors. Their mission is to raise funds to place Anatolian Shepherds (dogs) with farmers all over South Africa. The dogs are superlatively effective at keeping predators like cheetahs, serval cats, caracal cats and jackals away from farms and livestock, thus keeping the farmers from shooting them. We waited for a while, but then we were prompted to wash our hands and the soles of our shoes and step into the cheetah “habitat.” The employees made it very clear to us that the cheetahs did whatever they wanted to, and the employees didn’t force them to anything. They told us that because of this, they had never had an issue with a cheetah threatening or injuring a visitor. John and Andrew were the first to pet the cheetah named Enigma. Enigma was very calm, but still the handlers watched him carefully and were very tuned in to any change in his disposition. Andrew and John were a bit nervous as they put their hands on the cheetah to pet it. When it was their turn, Sonia and Lauren did the same as John and Andrew, but they were forced to move when the cheetah rolled over to the other side. The handlers guided them around to the other side of the cheetah. They continued to try to pet the cheetah, but it growled and the handlers decided that we should leave Enigma alone for a while and try another cheetah. This time, only Andrew and Lauren got to pet a cheetah named Pedro. After our time with the cheetahs, our docent, a cheerful Canadian college student, took us on a brief tour, showing us some of the other predators that are protected by their Anatolian Shepherd program. In addition to the species mentioned previously, this also included the bat-eared fox which is very cute and isn’t a livestock predator at all. It is however frequently mistaken for a predator and shot by farmers. Back in the van we had a nice drive through some of the mountains and down through orchard country. We stopped at a few view spots to find the weather cold and very windy. We eventually made our way down into the valley of Franschhoek (translates to “French corner”) and stopped for some lunch. This charming little town caters to tourists and day-trippers from Cape Town with a variety of restaurants and shops, including many art galleries. We were quite hungry and made a bee-line for the pizza restaurant. The kids were both suffering from carbohydrate withdrawal and were quite excited by the prospect of pizza. After lunch we took a short stroll along the road looking in some of the galleries. Down in the valley it wasn’t as windy as in the hills, but was still chilly and damp. After a brief exploration, we headed out for a stop at a winery. The Haute-Cabrière winery specializes in champagnes, but also makes chardonnay and pinot noir. We sat in comfortable seats by a fire as they brought us a series of champagnes and wines to try. We have enjoyed sampling the South African wines during our stay and have noted that good quality wine is quite affordable here. Today’s wines were not our favorites, but we enjoyed the discussion around the fire as Andrew sampled a bit of each pour -- enough in total that we had to cut him off. We were all tired from another long day and were happy to have a relaxing ride back to Cape Town. We thanked Karl for his excellent driving, recommendations and information and said goodbye. Back at the hotel, we packed, caught up on email and lay about for so long and with such pleasure that we had trouble rallying to get out of the room for dinner. We went back to the waterfront and had a nice meal, despite all being ready for bed. After dinner we finished packing and got off to sleep as quickly as we could.

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Photos

Kirstenbosch
We had a lovely walk through the botanical gardens.

Lauren at Kirstenbosch
We had these extensive and beautifully manicured gardens almost all to ourselves.

Andrew in Kirstenbosch
Mountains from the same range as Table Mountain form a spectacular backdrop.

Egyptian Geese
These cool looking geese stopped in with a family of chicks and allowed Andrew to get very close.

Cheetah Outreach
Andrew and Lauren pet Pedro. The male cheetahs are much more sociable than the females.

Windblown in the Hills
Overlooking Franschhoek on our descent into the valley.

Haute-Cabriere Winery
Andrew sits on a wine barrel overlooking the valley after our wine-tasting.