After breakfast, we rode in the back of the bucky to a cheetah farm a couple of kilometers away. I wouldn't mind riding the in back of a truck all the time--too bad it's against the law here. The cheetah farm was started in the 1970's by a brother and sister who wanted to help with cheetah conservation. We saw caracal, serval, wild african cats (that looked very much like domesticated cats), wild dogs, cheetahs, and a variety of vultures. The wild dogs made an amazing amount of noise and were going crazy when the ranger fed them.
The cheetahs were beautiful and I loved just watching them walk around. You can just tell that they were built for speed. After the tour, several of us got our pictures taken while petting Zulu, one of the cheetahs they have at the farm. He was quite content and was purring away. I'm assuming I'm allergic to these cats as well.
When we got back the game reserve, we had to pack right away to leave for Johannesburg where we were meeting the people from Epworth Children's orphanage. We said our goodbyes to Mariana and Lauren and all crammed into the Epworth comby and went to their home.
The Epworth Children's home just celebrated it's 90th birthday this past year. The children that are there are removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect. There are usually about 75 kids there but right now there are only 53 and about 22 of those kids are HIV positive. The home rents out rooms to people like us for extra income but it only costs $11 per person per night and that includes two meals. Aunt Joan is taking care of us and she has lived her for about 20 years.
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