Part Twenty One: Sleeping with Cheetahs (9th – 11th March)

 Our out weekend started with a lift into Outjo from Gilly who was passing through so we were there but 8 o’clock. In return for the lift Gilly left us with 210 letters to stick stamps on, luckily this didn’t take too long but we were left with that horrible stamp taste in our mouths. After posting our own letters and buying new stamps we headed to the stationary shop where I bought more envelopes as well as being able to print off some more photographs. I have kept two for my diary and I am in the process of sending the rest home to various people. We then went to OK Foods, not only to stock up on shampoo and chocolate but to buy food for the rest of the weekend. After looking around a couple of shops and visiting the bank we headed to the Bakery for 11s. Outjo Backerei has gone bust and been taken over by new people and neither Chelcie nor I were too impressed with the new food! We then went to investigate a different internet cafe to see if they had lower prices and they did - $40 per hour rather than $72 and the internet was twice as fast. We spent an hour, reading emails and starting to reply to some (because of my birthday I had hundreds which was lovely but the first bit on the internet is always stressful as you want to read everything and time goes so quickly). It was lovely to read two email with the subjects ‘Darling Daughter’ and ‘Dear Darling’ – one from each of my parents before you start speculating!

We then had an early lunch before returning to the internet. I had a chicken salad pitta with chips having realised that I hadn’t eaten chicken since the holidays and I love chicken! We then spent just over two hours on the internet which I found very emotional. I have wanted to listen to Hattie’s new music since I came out here but have never had the chance to before so I listened to all of them on YouTube (if you haven’t listened to them type in Hattie Briggs to YouTube immediately, not only does she look absolutely stunning her photos but the music is incredibly beautiful and I am so proud of her). The combination of this and looking through lots of my friends photos had me sitting in absolutely floods of tears for about an hour – I think I started to worry Chelcie a bit when I started properly sobbing! I was suddenly feeling very overwhelmed and incredibly homesick; I just wanted to be at home surrounded by my friends and family. Luckily Matilda was on hand to cheer me up and then I even managed to Skype Abi for a little bit. This was very amusing as we could both see each other and I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me. Luckily after a while I was able to find where I could type and we managed to have a conversation which was lovely and it was amazing to see her. I managed to talk to a couple of friends on facebook but then had to be content to leave messages for the rest as they weren’t online. After another quick shop to get meat for the weekend we started walking out of town trying to catch a lift. We were totally unsuccessful in trying to get a lift but luckily Gilly passed and took us back to Otjikondo, we tried again to catch a lift from there but failed miserably so in the end Stanley drove us.

We were headed for a Cheetah Farm which was between Outjo and Kamanjab, about 40km beyond Otjikondo. It was 8km off the tar road and we passed through various gates telling us that we entered at our own risk and that there was Danger! We arrived at a house surrounded by a gate with a bell telling us to ring and on the other side of the fence was a cheetah. This was so surreal that I got nervous giggles. Having rung the bell two guys arrived and they drove us to the campsite where we were staying. Having failed to find a tent at Otjikondo, we stayed in what looked like a garden shed although it was camouflaged on the outside. On the inside there were four beds and that was it, not even electricity so we were lucky that we had brought torches. There was a gas canister attached to a little hot plate on which I cooked borewors which we then ate with brotchen and tomatoes. This tasted amazing washed down with Savanna. The guys who were in their late 20s then came back and we went to the bar and had a couple of drinks with them. It had been a very good day with some very high points seeing my first Cheetah and some pretty low ones.

Saturday morning was blissful, after a lie in until 8 o’clock (!) we went over to the pool which was big and round and lounged next to it reading our books and writing our diaries. I did my first sunbathing in Namibia before it got too hot! We then read inside eating brotchen and cheese with some Doritos for lunch. In the afternoon the guys came and collected us and we went to their garden where we met the tame cheetahs. Before we were picked up we made friends with a tortoise although he objected to having his photo taken; we have photos of each of us lying next to the tortoise and they are all really nice however in mine I look absolutely petrified....I didn’t want it to lick me! They have three tame cheetahs which are 3, 10 and 12 years old and one is even called Babar! The cheetahs were just like cats although a lot bigger! We could stroke them and one of them lay on his back and wanted his tummy tickled! At first I was a bit scared but then I relaxed even though I could have technically been eaten at any moment. They were really soft and very friendly, just like a cat; apart from they had really rough tongues which felt like sandpaper. I had scratches on my leg from being licked! It was very odd just chilling in a normal garden but just sitting next to a couple of cheetahs. We then watched them eat; a hunk of donkey meat with the fur still on was on the menu. They were actually very civilised eaters – they didn’t use their paws or anything but just lay on the ground nibbling at the meat. This was when Chelcie cracked out her joke if it can be classified as that “Why aren’t they allowed to compete at the animal Olympics? Because they’re cheaters!”  We then went to meet the wild Cheetahs.

They have 14 wild cheetahs that all live together in a big field but which wasn’t as big as I had anticipated. We were in the back of the open-back truck and as we drove around small groups of Cheetahs would pop out to follow the truck. After there were quite a lot we stopped so that they could be fed. Not all of the cheetahs came, probably 10 did, as if they have caught something themselves and aren’t hungry then they don’t come. These cheetahs looked a lot more scary and a little bit evil – not sure why, maybe because they were thinner and they had the ears back? It was amazing to be standing on the back of a car and to be surrounded by cheetahs. It was fantastic to watch them run towards us and to watch them jump for the meat and between us we got some brilliant photos of the cheetahs in action.  It was only when we returned to where we were sleeping that we released that the cheetah run finished literally right next door to where we were sleeping!

On Saturday evening we had an incredible braai! We cooked chicken kebabs, green pepper kebabs and bacon which were accompanied by tomatoes and some left over Doritos. I finally got to make real use of my pen knife and got great satisfaction out of using it for anything and everything! The knife is actually very sharp and a good size for cutting things. We talked outside for ages and had a really fun night although our conversations got a little deep.

On Sunday we spent the morning relaxing and reading before hitch hiking back around lunch time. The guys gave us a lift out to the road and said they would ring us in an hour or so to check if we had got a lift and if not they said they would drive us which was very kind. Fortunately, our luck had changed and we managed not to flag down one car but two cars. Luise got put in the boot with our rucksacks and Chelcie and I sat in the middle. The good thing about this was that there was air conditioning which is a luxury we have never had on a hitch before but the down side was I was in the middle of Chelcie and a guy who had his arm around the back of my seat and was pressing his leg closer and closer to mine as I shifted closer and closer to Chelcie! However, they were really nice despite playing the song “Girl, I just want to get you pregnant” twice in a row which slightly creeped us out, and we got safely back to Otjikondo!

We didn’t have any signal at the Cheetah Farm and when we got to the gate I had two texts from my sisters; one saying “Wish you were here at Florence and the machines!!!!!!!” which I would have loved also, and another which was a little more difficult to understand from Cluny: “CONGRATULATIONS!!! OMG well done soooo exciting mummy screaming!!” Obviously I had no idea what this was about and was about to text back when Chelcie made me ring home on her phone as she was too impatient to find out what had happened. The news was......I had got into Exeter! This was very exciting and a massive weight off my shoulders. Although I haven’t been thinking about university at all, it has been lurking in the back of my mind that I have yet to hear from them and having an unconditional offer was very exciting and was a great way to end the weekend! Now I just need to be 100% sure that I want to go so that I can reply. It’s very difficult trying to picture myself at university while I’m out here so trying to choose which one I want to go to is even harder!

All in all it was a pretty amazing weekend. It was lovely to talk to the people who I managed to talk to although very disappointing to miss the ones that I didn’t manage to talk to. I hope that you are all well and enjoying whatever you are up to at the moment

Sending so much love

Ottilie xxx