Day 198 - Fun with the fast cats

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After a not-very-good night's sleep in the cave we slept for most of the journey in the truck today, arriving just after lunchtime at the Cheetah Park. This is a refuge for cheetahs run by a real African character - an ex-hunter called Mario. A literal poacher turned gamekeeper due to him killing a cheetah who was causing havoc on a farm, later to find out that that cheetah was a new mother of 2 cubs who they took in and the refuge farm has grown ever since. We were basically forced to rehydrate our bodies with a couple of beers before visiting 3 tame cheetahs who live at his house. Mario is bald with a head covered in cheetah-inflicted scars, so we weren't exactly sure how tame he meant. We took turns to stroke a cheetah which was an experience, before heading into the fenced-off reserve to watch feeding time. The idea of the reserve is to take in cheetahs that would otherwise be shot by farmers, and at the moment they have 26. Feeding time was incredible as we stood in the back of the pickup truck whilst Mario chucked 2kg pieces of meat up in the air (donkey, with fur!) for the cheetahs to fight over. Hopefully the photos convey what it was like (when we find an internet connection that can handle photos). Gemma was in 7th heaven.

We spent the evening in the bar after Mario had explained that the more we drank the more cheetahs he would be able to save and look after, as he got no additional funding from the government or others. The bar had been decorated with some funny stuff, mostly animal parts. The main attraction was some bits of an elephant that Mario had carved up with a chainsaw a couple of years ago (the elephant had died of natural causes and the farmer whose land it died on had asked Mario to clear it up, in payment he could keep the meat to feed his cheetahs, by the by it had taken 6 hours to cut it all up!). There were 2 ears pinned to the wall, with a trunk sticking out of the wall in between them. On the bar was an elephant foot. And a bit below the trunk was another elephant part, this one about 3 feet long and indicating it had been a male. We played pool late into the night and Ed even beat Mario and his expensive, handmade cue.

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