Tuesday: Or Disconnected Africa

Well, the update I received from Julie this evening was as follows:

"aaagggg

I wrote loads and it lost it all :-(

Too dark to redo ( sorry!) so frustrating!

Love Julie"

Of course, the internet connection is poor, particularly if multiple people are trying to use it at the same time. Anyway, after a quick exchange of text messages, we decided that I'd phone Julie quickly and take some notes.

Last evening there was a thunderstorm, with spots of rain. The thunderstorm set the dogs howling at around 3am. This morning the air somehow smelt fresher and there was a cooler breeze, but of course the ground was already dry. The locals were sniffing
the air and thinking that the rains are on the way.

The first job this morning was cleaning out the goat pens; raking and shovelling! The goats were keen to help and were jumping in and out of the wheelbarrow. After that, it was off to the 'teenagers' pen. The teenagers are 13 month old, orphaned cheetahs named THE STARS. Their names are Quazar, Phoenix and Soraya. Their pen is split into two and they were herded into one half of the pen whilst we worked on the other half. Just like domestic cats, they were sticking paws through the fence to try and bat the rake. When they weren't doing that, they were chasing each other, playing football, micromanaging their staff and purring, purring, purring! When that all became too much, they slept, with a big sigh and putting a large, languid paw under the nose....

Following a lunch of fresh rolls, salads, cold meats we spent some time on a video project. Some of the volunteers who are on the project for a longer duration are making some videos to put on YouTube, so we spent some time filming with them, talking to them about our experiences at the CCF and so on. The interviews we did will be edited into films, mixed with plenty of cheetah footage!

As the farm is 44km from the nearest town, you can't just nip into the shops. Tuesday is shopping day and if you want to add anything to the list, you can, just give them the money and a few hours later, the CCF Shopping Service will deliver!

I asked Julie about the photos and video she's taken. She's really pleased with the photos. The Flip video has been working well, though the wide angle lens probably isn't ideal for distant animal shots.

So there we are. And it was great talking to the intrepid traveller.