Namibia - Cheetah Park

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Cheetah Farm

Tuesday 9th February

Cheetah Park is about 350 km from Spitzkoppe so we spend a lot of the day driving there. We make one stop at the town(?) of Brandbergto pick up supplies where we lose Miro for a while when he shows a passing interest in some of the shiny stones the local boys are selling and is mobbed.

Cheetah Farm

Cheetah Farm is a privately owned cheetah reserve based on a 15km2 farm. The argument goes that if the cheetahs weren’t kept on the reserve they would be killed by local farmers.
Our first visit is to the farmhouse where there are three cheetahs which have been orphaned or abandoned. They are “domesticated” enough to allow us to pose for photographs with them. Towards the end of the day we are taken for a ride around the reservation to see the cheetahs being fed. Animals are introduced into the reservation to allow the cheetahs to hunt but they are still fed every day. When we arrive at the area where the cheetahs are they obviously know why we are here. Cheetahs are famed for the speed they can run at but these cheetahs are happy just to jog behind our pick-up as the farmer drives like the Pied Piper through the reservation until we have collected seven cheetahs jogging behind us. The feeding does provide us with the opportunity to photograph the cheetahs - they are one of the more difficult animals to spot in the big game reserves.

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