We finished the student house on Friday and were feted last night at a braai where Ann gave us ‘A Day in Africa and Spots Before Your Eyes, co-authored by her and Howard Buffet with a forward by Dr. Jane Goodall. We also met Ron Magill from Miami Metro Zoo, a big supporter of the Cheetah Centre. It was a fun time and we are happy that our work has been appreciated.
On Saturday we left for Fahad Game Farm on the South Africa/Botswana border. Kelly drives as fast as she talks but we somehow were able to keep up. Fahad is owned by nine-year old Prince Fahad of Saudi Arabia and it gives new meaning to luxury. Kelly Wilson and Deon have been contacting local landowners and convincing them to become ‘cheetah friendly’ and protect cheetahs on their property. Fahad Game Farm is one of their successes. Kelly and her beau, Daniel, are with us tonight but will leave tomorrow and we’ll be on our own until Wednesday. There have been cheetah sightings here and our job is to find places to set remote cameras to get a more accurate census. It is tedious work but important and better then tiling.
We spent all day Sunday checking for cheetah scat with Kelly and a Fahad guide named Pete. Daniel elected to sleep in and take care of his cold. Both Connie and Kelly found cheetah poop, a sign that they are present and are marking their territory. This is important for Kelly to place traps so they can catch, collar, record data and release the cats. We’re also on the lookout for scent/scratch trees where she can set up remote cameras. But this area, unlike Atherstone, has few marula or Shepard’s trees, favorite species for cheetahs to mark.
Kelly and Daniel left after lunch and Connie and I checked trails on foot, without success. It is hard to distinguish between the various kinds of poop and baboon tracks cover almost every inch of the trails. We are beginning to get the lay of the land and map out where we’ve been and where spore has been found. After weeks of working on hands and knees I know why our primate ancestors were anxious to stand up and walk erect. But with the pain we’re having walking I am surprised bi-pedalism caught on. There’s no explaining evolution.
Monday was more of the same – with the same dismal results. On the way home, Pete got a puncture on the Land Rover in a remote part of the farm. As luck would have it , our spare was fine but we had no ‘spanner’. When the local African version of AAA arrived, no one quite knew how the jack functioned. It went up OK, but not down so when the tire was changed we pushed the truck off the jack. There’s a right way, a wrong way, and an African way!
Connie was certain we would see a cheetah if we went our early this morning. We did see eland, kudu, gemsbok – but no cheetah – or cheetah scat for that matter. So after breakfast we walked the entire area where cheetah had been seen. Again, no dice! Hedrick and Erika are very gracious hosts. After lunch they took us on the Limpopo River in their boat and showed us several new birds (white-throated bee-eaters) monitor lizards and baby darters. It was a side of Fahad we didn’t know existed and one we are very excited about. We will encourage our friends to include a visit here on their next trip to South Africa. Hedrick was an attorney in Johanesburg who gave it all up to manage Fahad. He and Erika have three beautiful blonde daughters who go to boarding school in Jo’burg and spend holidays with their folks.
As we used to say in Vietnam, “one day and a wake up!”