Good afternoon dear Hivean friends!
Hope you are doing well.
It is Monday again and time for my new travel story, again from Namibia. This is now the fourth part in the row, if you have missed the last one you can check it out on the following link.
Previous part was not as successful as the second one, but still many people saw it and hope they liked my write up and photos.
I decided to change the posting community from OCD to TravelFeed.
Past week I already published one post through travelfeed.io and I think I found myself a community which is the most suitable for my kind of work, especially with travel/photo stories.
I will try to pill that part to be a real GEM :) I will see what response I will get now, but I certainly hope that even more people will see my photos and read my post.
Thank you all for support in the past and looking forward to our cooperation in advance as well.
We finished with a short stop at Petrified Forest on day 5 of our travel in last travel story and we will continue directly from there on. We hit the road and after few hours drive we came to Himba village near to Kamanjab and our stop point for that day at Otjitotongwe cheetah guest farm.
Himbas are different from Damara people, similar to each nation being different. Still I would say that there are even more differences between tribes in Africa in general. Their living habits and culture is much different between them.
After searching for the right meeting point for a while we parked our car in front of their local school. As soon as we turned out our engine, few children came to greet us. They showed us around the school, they were not scared at all. They approached to us, even if they didn’t know who we are. We could saw that they really like guests on their premises. After checking their school, which is you can see on the photos below, we met with our guide who lead us through their village.
Guide was again the only one who speaks English, but we have communicated with non-verbal language and were able to agree on everything needed.
So Himbas are known to use red-orange clay to cover their body. From what we were able to understand this is for their hygiene as they don’t use water often. It also helps them protect from sun and insects. They are half naked, wearing only traditional cloths to cover most explicit body parts. Women have their typical hairstyle which can be seen on photos below.
They are living in small houses, which look more like tents. They are made from some sort of clay and straw. There were more families living in one house, sometimes also more than 15 people.
And now to share more about my personal experience meeting Himba people. It was great feeling again, a warm welcome from kids, which were really the highlight. They occupied each of us and were with us like our shadows for all the time. But it was not forced or annoying, it was genuine at least it felt like that. Kids were super curious, so they wanted to try, see and touch everything. Most interesting was my mother’s watch. They were looking at it like it was a golden Rolex. Our hair was also very interesting. They wanted to touch it as it is so different. Our skin was also interesting of course as we are white and skin type is different as well. I can say that they were almost cuddling us. We have to hold hands with them all the time. I would need 5 arms at least for that time :)
Another interesting thing was camera and looking their own photos, which is usual for African kids as they actually don’t see themselves ever as they don’t have mirrors.
Our half day spent in the village was really pleasant and would visit them again. Good thing is that there is still not a lot of tourists, so they are still living their life as long before. They are a community for themselves and are self-sufficient.
To conclude my Himba part, I have to expose that this kids didn’t want anything from us. This is what makes my heart warm. They were with us for half day, all the time. Smiling, playing, holding hands and when we were leaving they disappeared. They didn’t go with us to the car, or wanted anything from us. When we get to the car we took some sweets and school supplies which were meant for them and carried back to the village. They were happy of course, but point is that their kindness through the day was genuine and not only in order to reach goal. Another experience which should make us better people also in our modern society.
From Himba village there was only few minutes drive to Otjitotongwe Cheetah Guest Farm, where we had an accommodation booked and also afternoon cheetah tour arranged. We did the check in first and had an hour of free time before meeting cheetahs. I was really looking forward to this experience as well and now looking back, that could very much be the craziest experience on my travel ever.
Adrenaline, when you are just before meet up with cheetah without any fence, is pumping through your body like crazy. Feeling that can not be described. They say that dog know if you are scare, hope that cheetah doesn’t as I was scared as hell!
I will just shorty write a small background of that Cheetah Farm in order to prevent any negative feedback of this cats not being well threated or being used to make profit.
I don’t have lot of information about the guy who is an owner and I have forget many things about what he said that day as it was already 5 years ago.
But what I know is that this farm is family owned, it is not a great tourist attraction, so actually you have to search to find them. During our visit we were the only ones staying in the lodge and there were another couple camping on their premises and they also joined us on the tour.
There is no one welcoming you and opening doors in front. Actually they have instruction to open the doors at driveway (about 5 km) and close by yourself.
This is the right indicator I would say that they are not into money, but there is still possibility of being lazy and not treating animals well or even abusing them.
Also for second part I would definitely say that it is quite the opposite. Animals are well looking, relaxed, definitely not drugged as some tigers in Asia or else on the world.
They are actually participating at Save the Cheetah project. As said I don’t know much about it, as I was probably too thrilled that day with enjoying my visit and not to remember all the details.
I know that the owner was also on TV (Discovery Channel I believe) and he started saving cheetahs before local farmers. They were, actually still are shooting on them as they were hunting their livestock. Other danger for cheetah is also leopard which lives in the area as well, but that is already natural selection…
So to conclude, I would say that this cheetah project is well designed and is doing in animal specie favor.
They have three cheetahs that are possible to encounter and about 20 (semi) wild cheetahs which are looked after every day and have a huge gated space (we drove for an hour at it).
Back to my feelings which were fear at most when clock was 16:30 and it was time to meet with the owner. He opened the fence and three cheetahs were walking just near to him. No guards, no chains, only wild cat vs. us. I was there with my parents and another couple was there at the tour. Cheetah choose me for first contact. She went directly in my way and bumped in my arm hanging dead from my body with her mouth. I felt something rough and warm on my hand and it was cheetah tongue. Ohhh scary feeling if you believe me… I am a bit afraid of a dog already, what about adult cheetah.
But after that first encounter it get better and we all relaxed a bit. Cheetahs were playful climbing around, licking us, one of them also jumped on my father’s back while he was seating on the grass and started licking his head from the back side. That must have been a scary feeling as well.
Also an interesting note is that none of three cheetahs licked my mother. Why? As she was the only one went after shower before coming to them and, ladies of course, using some lotions etc. so they didn’t want her.
After playing and photographing, the owner said that he is going to prepare the food for them. OK, I thought that they ate before we came at least! Come on, we are at hungry cheetahs place. And the scariest 15 minutes began. This was like an hour! The owner went preparing food, so us 5 tourist remain with cheetahs alone! At that time you see how great relationship and trust the owner has with his cheetahs. But I didn’t care about their relationship. I only want not to be eaten by one. We all backed up at the wall of the house and were more or less quiet waiting on the owner. You never know what wild animal is thinking :) Brains started working and I was looking around searching for escape routes. But all the fear was unnecessary. The owner came back with three pieces of meat and they get each their own part. He left again, preparing meal for wild cheetahs. Scary feeling again as the cats were eating and we were just beside them. Two cheetahs fought a bit as one ate here piece quickly and stole half of the meal from other cheetah as well.
I forget to mention that all three cheetahs were female and that only and key rule is don’t ever run in front of cheetah as if you do, they might think you are a prey and hunt you, or they will just want to play with you, but their way.
After this unforgettable experience we climbed the opened semi-truck and drive to the (semi) wild cheetahs. There was great savannah landscape and they heard us at the moment we entered their territory. The owner knows each cheetah and were monitor if all are there and at the end when he was feeding them, he also took care that each get his meal. That was also a great experience and opportunity to take photos. I don’t know when it will be the next time to be that close to cheetah without some kind of fence in the zoo.
After long day at Himbas and later hanging around with cheetahs we were tired and good dinner was a must. Thanks God that the owner was also a great chef. He prepared us a meal which we ate together and talked a bit more, but not too long as it was time for bed and to prepare for our next journey – Etosha National Park.
I hope, you liked my today’s story. I already announced that now it will be more wildlife involved, so if you like animal stay tuned next Monday again when it will be time for Etosha photo story.
Until than, I would like to thank you all for support. Share my story further in order to share beauties of Namibia and if you can, visit that country once. My advice is that if you will be in Namibia; definitely do not miss hanging out with cheetahs!
Thanks for reading and watching and enjoy the start of new week!
[//]:# (!pinmapple -19.658228 lat 15.042015 long d3scr)
View this post on TravelFeed for the best experience.