After reading an article in an issue of The Week magazine mentioning Safari West where the cheetahs are so near your tent in the morning, you can count their whiskers, we arranged a visit.
Below is an illustrated narrative of our experiences.
After checking in at the office, we transferred our luggage from our car to a Safari SUV and were driven up to our tent by the lake.
For a tent, the accommodations were nice. It had a hardwood floor and all the furniture was custom-crafted and nicely furnished. It had a ceiling fan, an electric heater and an electric blanket.
We alternated between unpacking and watching various waterfowl from the balcony before walking down to explore the preserve.
In the late afternoon, the cheetah handler, Marie, rounded up the two cheetahs and took them into the barn. She invited us inside to watch as they were fed their evening meal. Unfortunately we didn’t have a camera on hand to catch a touching moment when the cheetahs washed each other’s faces. These two are sisters who were born in captivity and raised together. When separated, they cry for each other (by making chirping sounds).
At 6:30 pm we trekked to the communal dining hall near the fire pit. Only three other couples were there and we all served ourselves from a buffet table. We’d taken flashlights with us, but it wasn’t dark yet when he hiked back up the hill to our tent and settled in for the night, enjoying animal sounds of the lake area which included trumpeting swans. Although we turned the heater up all the way, we also needed the heated blanket to keep warm. The bathroom was unheated and ventilated by mesh material and the tile floor was really, really cold – uncomfortably cold for us coastal dwellers (warm weather wimps).
We were amused to overhear the following commentary the next morning at breakfast:
First person, “The bathrooms were refreshing.”
Second person, “You could call it that.”
After breakfast, we raced to the office to request an upgrade to the preserve’s only guest cottage. We were pleased to discover that it was available for our second night. We hiked back to the tent, packed and then walked back to the office to get a golf cart to collect us and our luggage for the move. The tents have no communication system, land-lines or cell phone access, no WiFi, and no TVs. We were cut off from civilization to which we’ve grown accustomed. The 3-room cottage includes a telephone (for local calls only), insulated walls, ceiling fan, heated bathroom, kitchenette, etc. During the day the cottage was too hot though (for us fog-loving coastal dwellers – ocean-loving weather wimps).
Soon after our move into the cottage, we went back to the fire pit for a private cheetah tour. We climbed up into the seats over the cab of the safari tour truck before the four handlers loaded the cheetahs into the back. Each cheetah was equipped with a collar and two handlers, each of whom held a leash. This was important, as we later learned.
With cheetahs in the back, our attention was riveted to the back of the truck and we took some close-ups of each of the “girls”.
Gijimi was on the right side and her sister, Thula was on the left. Gijimi was watching the scenery on the right and began to growl as we passed a lake. Thula became frightened and jumped over the left side of the truck, taking the handlers with her. The driver stopped the truck while the handlers struggled to control the cheetah sisters and calm them down. Cheetahs can see for a distance of 2 ½ miles, so Gijimi probably saw something invisible to us. Thula had been facing forward and, apparently, didn’t see what spooked her sister, but instinctively wanted to run in the opposite direction. After the initial panic, Rob began taping the event (2.5MB Windows Media Player file, or 6MB RealMedia file). At this point Thula is out of the truck and Gijimi is being calmed in the bed of the truck. No one was injured, but a handler lost her wristwatch and it lay broken on the bed of the truck. The handlers moved the two cheetahs down a slope below the roadbed so they couldn’t see the lake while our driver looked for a place to turn around. As luck would have it, the safari tour truck had no reverse gear, so we had to go forward up into the Watusi cattle area to turn around.
When we returned to the lake, we found another Safari vehicle that had been dispatched to the location. Apparently the handlers were equipped with walkie-talkies, but, as luck would have it again, our driver didn’t have one. When we didn’t return on time, they worried about having “a couple of guests out there somewhere".
Our cheetah adventure had ended. The cheetahs were walked back to their enclosure and we were driven back. The handlers were apologetic for our abbreviated cheetah tour and said that had never happened before. They speculated that Gijimi had seen a wild turkey.
Note: Close encounters with Cheetahs may not be available to everyone. Cheetahs are wild animals, however these two were raised in captivity by experienced staff at Safari West. At no time did we feel that our personal safety was threatened, and if invited, we'd do another private tour with them in a heartbeat. In fact, later that day we met the preserve’s photographer and had our picture taken with Thula. I assume that when Marie invited us to watch the cheetahs eat dinner and prepare for bed, she was assessing us to determine whether our demeanor would mesh with that of the cheetahs.
Rob, Nona & Thula
We met our guide, Gideon, at the fire pit promptly at 4 pm for a private tour of the preserve. Gideon, a South African native had traveled to Berkeley as a theatrical performer in the 1980s where he had been involved in anti-apartheid activities and could not return home until Nelson Mandela had been freed from prison.
He told us his English name was Gideon and then pronounced his Bushman name. If you ever saw the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy you've heard Bushmen speak . Their words include a series of clicks. He believes that he's the only Bushman in the United States.
Gideon sang a birthday song (295KWindows Media Player file or 764 RealMedia file) for us in his native language
Bushman is spoken principally in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa. Its speakers, the Bushmen, number about 100,000—divided between three countries: Botswana (50,000), Namibia (40,000), and South Africa (10,000). Bushman is a member of the Khoisan family of languages.
The most notable feature of Bushman, and in fact of all the Khoisan languages, is the use of the so-called "click" consonants, produced by drawing air into the mouth and clicking the tongue.
Our tour included complimentary refreshments of Chardonnay, three kinds of cheeses, several varieties of crackers and several bunches of red grapes which we enjoyed in the safari tour truck in the park's "outback".
Although Gideon identified each animal we saw and told us about their
characteristics, I’ve forgotten many of the details. He had wonderfully funny
and respectful descriptions of various animals. He told us about how mean the
Cape Buffalo are and how they hold a grudge. They are extremely territorial and
if you run away and climb a tree for safety, the bull will wait by the tree or
get his friends to come after you. If a hunter shoots at a Cape Buffalo, it
might pretend to be dead until the hunter gets close enough to be attacked. A
relative of Gideon’s was killed by a cape buffalo.
Gideon’s descriptions of the animals we saw reminded me of the view held by Native Americans toward animals. He seemed to describe the characteristics of each species as we might describe those of various human cultures.
If you go to Safari West, ask for Gideon as your guide, he’s very entertaining.
On Wednesday a tour bus arrived with a large group of people and we counted at least two school buses full of children, so people were packed like sardines on the other safari tour trucks. The extra cost for the private tour was well worth it to us. The roads in the "outback" were rough and we bounced around so much, my butt wasn’t firmly planted most of the time the truck was moving (kind of like horseback riding) and I was glad I wasn’t bumping seat mates on a crowded truck (although the weight of the other people might have stabilized the truck somewhat).
We return ed to Safari West when Dr. Laurie Marker was there speaking about her efforts to preserve the cheetahs in Namibia. The cheetahs are endangered there because their hunting territories are shrinking and farmers are killing them to protect their livestock. Dr. Marker is providing Anatolian Shepherd dogs to protect the livestock from cheetahs which reduces the conflict between farmers and cheetahs. Gideon mentioned that cheetahs are also killed by poachers who desire their pelts. Because of their reduced population, cheetahs also lack genetic diversity and Dr. Marker is working on a captive breeding program to improve the health of these gorgeous cats.