After Fish River Canyon….

….we stayed at the Canon Roadhouse.

In the middle of nowhere, on the dusty sand & gravel trail west towards Keetmanshoop (pronounced Keet-man’s-verp) we found a campsite / motel stuffed with vintage cars in both the garden and the restaurant.

Out here it’s so dry that although things rust, they don’t seem to rot.

We were only there for an overnight stop, but were exhausted and used the restaurant.
I had my first Oryx steak (see beast in last post, silhouetted against the sky).

Delicious.
The next day, more dust, sand and gravel for about 300km.
We arrived at the Kokerboom (Quiver Tree) Rest Camp.
When most people out here arrive at a campsite they pull up in a cloud of dust in their gleaming Toyotas and Nissan 4x4s, switch off their aircon and emerge refreshed.
When we pull up in the Land Rover we open the doors to let the dust OUT!
Quiver Trees (you’ll see from the pictures how they got their name) usually grow singly. Here there are a hundred or more. They grow to about 8 metres tall and the ones with a diameter of more than 1 metre are more than 300 years old.
Although a dusty campsite, it’s in a magnificent setting called the Giant’s Playground – over 40 square miles of absurdly balanced and weathered rocks.

The view from the penthouse….

However, the highlight of the stay was the adjacent Cheetah reservation. About 300 acres of heavy security fencing where 4 cheetahs live. They have to be kept behind fences or in Game Parks otherwise the farmers kill them – they are ruthless livestock killers – only a few months back 2 escaped and killed 140 sheep in 2 days.
Beautiful animals.

Bertus (native Afrikaan) manages the sanctuary and we had arrived at feeding time (since they can only hunt the rabbit, dik-dik and small game in the reserve).
He walked into the enclosure and after he’d got about 15 metres, told us to follow him – quietly.

A bit apprehensive, we followed (particularly after he reassured us that Cheetah won’t attack from the front and only like stalked prey.
He also said not to worry – “if they charge, just stand still, don’t run, and I’ll get in front of you and take the hit”.
Right!
Anyway, we went in and although they were a bit boisterous a couple of times we managed to get within about 10 feet of them. (Helene says that’s rubbish, I was only about six feet away and didn’t realise how close I was when taking these pictures – I was so engrossed).
All these shots were taken standing only a few feet away from them.

At one point the female walked between us slowly, walked about 10 feet past us. then accelerated (like nothing I’ve seen) for about 40 feet and threw herself at a fence behind which she’d seen a goat!
That makes your heart pound a bit.

I guess I was a bit close sometimes – this one is not in focus as she made me jump when she got a bit arsey!

Next – Keetmanshoop to Windhoek, north along the B1.