Rock carvings, petrified forests and cheetahs!

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Well these few days have been quite eventful.... After our bush camp with the scorpians we drove east inland through some gorgeous lushous hilly scenery to a ancient rock art site, called Twyfelfontein - some of the most extensive in Africa. The area was formed mostly of sandstone and was very red and dry, similar to the Northern Territory in Australia. We paid about 3 quid each for a local guide to show us around and explain the meanings of the images and symbols. Most of the rock art there is carved into flat surfaces of fallen rock from the surrounding hills. The carvings were made by the San people when they danced themselves into a trance and visited the spirits and their ancestors. Most of the carvings are of animals (giraffe, lionman (half man, half lion), penguins (indicates travel), elephants etc) and have spirtual meanings. There are symbols too but the meaning of them wasn't described in detail. A few of us went on a self-guided walk afterwards to some other rock art which included paintings of groups of people dancing, something I had seen before in South Africa. After lunch at Twyfelfontein, we drove further east to a petrified forest. Only five of us chose to visit the protected site, again we had to have a guide who was actually very good. He showed us huge ancient conifer tree trunks which were 260 million years old and as a result of pressure and heat from overlying sediments which had burried the wood, had turned them into rock, allowing them to remain for much longer. It was amazing, you could see the bark patterns and the tree rings preserved! The theory is that the trees were washed down from Central Africa after the ice sheet covering Gondwana melted and they remained there whilst sediments covered them and overtime they turned to rock, and it is only in the last century that they have been re-exposed - fascinating for me!

We then drove another 150km that afternoon as we were suppose to be at Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park in Kamanjab by 3pm to watch the cheetahs being fed but instead we arrived after 7pm and so it was decided we'd stay two nights here and see them the following afternoon. Whilst dinner was being created, bangers and mash, by the cook group, the rest of us went to the bar which was full of intersting animal artefacts such as a huge python skin, elephant ears, a warthogs arse and balls of which was made into a drinks dispenser, and lots more random things. On the 29th, we had a very chilled out morning. Harriet, cut my hair (oh the benefits of a hairdresser on board!) as it was so matted by dust, wind, sea spray and goodness knows what else! We lounged around the pool until early afternoon when we were taken upto the farm house to see the tame cheetahs. But first I must explain the history of the Cheeah Park.....
It was originally a family run cattle farm, and still is, but as the local area began to grow with agriculture, farmers were shooting the cheetahs, and so this cheetah park was set up to protect them. The cheetahs have a huge enclosure area where they can roam around and continue being wild and doing their normal thing. There are also a few cheetahs which live up at the main farm house and are now tame-ish as they were bought to the farm ill or injured and were hand-reared. So the whole farm is a worth-while cause and everything is done to allow the cheetahs to remain wild. The wild ones in the enclosure are fed every other day with meat to supplement their diet as no natural food sources can enter the enclosure.

So after lunch we went to the farm house and met some of the tame-ish (well they are still wild at heart!) cheetahs in the garden of the house. It was amazing and scary at the same time to experience these creatures so close and to stroke them too! We took a few photos and then left them alone. Also, rescued at the farm was an ophan baby giraffe, it was so cute and really enjoyed sucking us visitors thumbs! We jumped into the back of a pickup and drove into the wild cheetah enclosure to watch them being fed. It was funny to watch each cheetah come out of its hiding place in the long grass and come over to the trucks. Once they were all there the keepers threw over the meat and within a few seconds nothing was left; it had all been taken away to feast on.

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