Cape Town to Windhoek: 12th September 09

We were up at 4:30 again this morning to get our flight to Windhoek back in Namibia. We were met by Clive and Roma who run the cheetah conservation project in Okonjima, a three hour drive north of Windhoek. The camp is in the middle of the 55,000 acre Okonjima reserve, an amazing setting with nothing else around for miles other than the main lodge which houses an education centre and accommodation for tourists.

The reserve has been acquired over the years by the Hanson family, originally cattle farmers who recognised that farming was destroying the natural habitat of the wildlife and decided to move to conservation, gradually buying up surrounding farms and creating a fenced border in which to protect and research the animals.

We’ll be generally working in the mornings, clearing up old farm fencing and digging out non-indigenous bushes, and then in the afternoons we’ll be doing a variety of game drives, bush walks and animal trekking!

The campsite is cool – we have our own tent, with beds in, and an area to sit in front. Most of the action happens at the kitchen area – an open fronted thatched hut with a massive table – it overlooks a small waterhole which is visited by kudu, baboons, dik dik and others. Also, every night it’s visited by 3 massive porcupines, who then come into the kitchen to raid the bins!