First days at the centre

I am here at the Dell Cheetah Centre. It is actually Sunday 2 Feb, but I'm not sure when I'll actually get a chance to publish this post. I was concerned about how reliable the internet would be before I came, and sure enough there have been storms in the area and the wifi has been down for the last 5 or so days! Someone is coming to have a look tomorrow so fingers crossed I'm online soon. 

Anyhow, I've had a good day and a half and a chance to settle in. Estelle, one of the owners/founders of the centre, met me at the airport yesterday along with Isabelle - the only other volunteer here for the first 2 weeks of my stay. It is just the two of us for now until another 3 or 4 arrive on the 15th. We work with Estelle and Hardus, who lives on the property and works with the cheetahs while moonlighting as an amazing chef and keeping us fed. 

Upon arrival I was excited to lay eyes on a cheetah almost instantly - their enclosures are all around the house, some just steps from the front door and the others I can see from my bedroom window. We got to meet the lovely Jade who came straight up and head butted me, and I was able to have a nice big pat.  

Last night we tried to do the evening feed but got stuck in an absolute torrential downpour. So we ended up spending a fair bit of time stuck in the cheetah kitchen (affectionately known as the slaughterhouse) waiting for a break in the weather. I just concentrated on trying not to sing out loud about blessing the rains. 

Sundays are mostly a relax day at the house. There is still the morning routine to be done though so we got our first experience of our daily duties. Every morning around 6.30 we're up to scoop poop, take away the food dishes, clean and refill the water buckets and check on all the cats. Sunday is also bone day so the cheetahs all get a special treat - though when I say bone they are from a horse so not quite what you'd give your dog! I got my arm workout for the day carrying one to an enclosure. 

The rest of the day has been a chill out here before into normal duties tomorrow. It is raining again as I type and thunderstorms and showers are predicted for the next few days. It's keeping the temperatures down a little but I hope it doesn't interfere too much!

I've already learnt a lot about the cats and will post about them soon. I look forward to introducing them all properly once I have some good photos - I haven't had a chance to really take any yet. But just to prove I'm here, I've attached one of the gorgeous Shaka. 

I think it is going to be an amazing 4 weeks, I can tell I'm going to learn an incredible amount and have some very special experiences.