Neuras Winery

I dragged myself out of bed early on Saturday for our five hour drive to Neuras, the research arm of Na'ankuse. It was a pretty uneventful and bumpy ride, and we switched over to a 4x4 for the last hour of the drive. The resident dog, Noodles, got us to our new base camp in one piece.

We had time to unpack, and I foolishly volunteered to take the tent rather than be in the rooms with the others. But I think it was worth not being put in a room with others - I'm a light sleeper and I also tend to sleep-talk.

Neuras is a fully functioning winery and is also the driest winery in the world.

We got a quick tour of the place, and let's just say it's a lot, lot prettier than Na'ankuse!

There are fountains all about the property, and later in the week, I took a chance swimming in the largest of them despite the greenish bottom and the many fish swimming around in it. I figured, when am I going to get a chance to swim with weaverbirds again?

There wasn't time for much else that day, so we all piled into the trucks with a packed cooler for a quick drive to a nearby viewpoint to enjoy a "sundowner" - basically drinking as we enjoyed the sunset.

The night was much quieter than those at Na'ankuse, and I missed the roar of the lions in the night. Neuras is in the middle of nowhere, which means that you could see the stars clearly without any light pollution. I fell asleep looking at the clearly visible Milky Way through my tent window- pretty amazing.

Sunday was our first "official" day at Neuras, and we kicked it off with some GPS training. It was a bit like a scavenger hunt, with clues leading us to the next clue. It was pretty straightforward, and we had lots of fun making decoy cairns for the next group. We decided to fill the decoys with various facts and riddles. Teehee.

We checked on some camera traps afterward to collect memory cards and to ensure they were charged and working. After we returned to camp, we looked through the photos on the memory cards to see what animals we could identify.

After lunch, we all hopped on board the open game-viewer to go on a game count despite the threatening clouds that were gathering in the distance. Once we were out in the bush, the raindrops began to fall, but we continued on with our binoculars to record any animals we saw and to jot down the relevant details. We spotted some kudu, ostrich, springbok and a jackal or two. My vision is pretty terrible so I usually caught on to the fact that there was even an animal there only after someone pointed out exactly where I should be looking. But I did spot the rainbow all by myself!

The drive was nice, but I was glad to be warm and dry back at camp. We were enjoying the evening bonfire when the heavens split open and big, fat raindrops came down while the thunder and lightening gave us quite a show for the next few hours. It was honestly the most amazing thunderstorm I've seen in my life, made even more amazing by the fact that it normally doesn't rain in Namibia in May!

Cheetahs!

Today was all about the cheetahs, which is pretty much the reason why I chose to come to Namibia, home to the largest number of cheetahs.

Our group spent the morning looking at pictures from camera traps to identify the various animals that were snapped by the stealth camera. Since it's kind of a one-person job, I snuck off for a bit to visit the tame springbok in the yard (it has arthritis). She was in a makeshift enclosure to prevent the jackal from annoying her, and she had the sweetest eyes I've ever seen.

Some of the others snuck off to play with the kids from the onsite school.

And it turned out I wasn't the only one watching.

After muffin break, I rejoined my group to make a visit to the cheetah enclosure to set up traps so that two of them could be moved to a different enclosure. Those traps were heavy - I can't imagine how much heavier they must be with a full grown cheetah inside!

We used sticks to guard the people doing the heavy lifting, and the cheetahs came over quickly to investigate the traps as soon as we stepped away. We left the traps there for a few days for the cheetahs to get used to them, and they will probably be triggered in a few days.

We broke for a quick lunch and regrouped to clean the enclosure of a cheetah duo that are frequently used for photoshoots and movies.

We went in armed with yellow buckets to pick up any bones and poo that we came across.

They were a bit curious as to what we were doing and wandered over to investigate.

Maybe they were were grateful to their cleaners, since they both came over and we got to have a impromptu photoshoot with them. They are just so beautiful, and their purr sounds like an engine idling. It was beyond amazing!

We also visited Baloo, an eight year old cheetah who just recently arrived at the sanctuary.

We learned all about cheetah paw prints and how they can be used to identify each cheetah, much like fingerprints.

We tried to convince Baloo with some chunks of meat to get him to make tracks on the freshly raked dirt.

Cheetahs have a terrible sense of smell so the trick is to hold up a piece of meat and make sure he's got his eye on it by waving it from side to side before tossing it. Otherwise, he'll have a hard time finding it even if it's right below his nose.

He got a little snippy at times...

But the little hunks of meat definitely got his attention!

It was far and away my favourite day at Na'ankuse and the perfect way of ending my time at Na'ankuse! I couldn't wait for Neuras tomorrow!

Walking in the Wild

I passed a rough night, fighting a losing battle to avoid going to the bathroom so I wouldn't have to encounter the warthogs and jackals lurking outside of my tent. I ended up being late in the morning, but I was glad I made it since we were going on a caracal walk!

The caracal was a bit on the smaller side since she's still quite young, and it was easy to treat her just like an oversized cat. She spent her first moments out of the carrier exploring the truck and checking each one of us out.

Then she wandered off on her own and explored the area around us.

Eventually, we began to walk with her alongside us, and Jo figured out that she'll even play fetch like a dog. I threw a rock, and she'd go running like mad to chase after it.

It was really good fun, and the sheer speed at which she took off was amazing!

After we finished the walk, we went to feed the not-so-tame caracals. They jump incredibly high, and the hissing and spitting between the cats was pretty nuts.

We returned to camp only to go on another walk, this time with the junior baboons. It's safe to say that the baboons aren't the most popular animal here since they like to climb on people despite being nearly twenty kilos, and they're not afraid to bite if they think you're getting out of line.

I didn't mind them so much, except for the smell, which was just as well since I ended up getting more baboon kisses. Yuck! I much preferred feeding them the seeds from a nearby tree.

The others were busy getting groomed.

Or having to scratch baboon butt. If the baboons like you, they'll present you with their behind, and it's only courteous to scratch it in return. I was so, so glad that wasn't me.

It was a pretty mellow walk as the baboons behaved themselves, but we had some excitement when we came across a giraffe family - they're really beautiful on a grand scale.

It turned out to be a day for walks since our afternoon activity was taking two mongoose and one meerkat out for a short walk.

They're not shy, and had lots of fun with us humans when they weren't busy digging little holes everywhere.

Did I mention that they're curious little buggers? I guess they thought I had something good in my backpack...

It was really nice relaxing out in the bush - we saw lots of wild meerkats, warthogs, hartebeest, springbok and horses while we were out there.

The day ended with another short walk with the baby baboons to a nearby tree, and I was more than ready for some food by the time dinner time rolled around!

Babooning Around

The morning started out with food preparation again - I made the day's food for the warthogs and fed the goats and rabbits. I also helped one of the guys feed the vervet monkeys, and they were not happy about it. Scarlett (the female) jumped at me and decided to try to scratch all the skin off my hands while I held the gate shut.

We had a quick muffin break, and then I was off to babysit in the baby baboon enclosure. No one in my group wanted to do it, and I got stuck holding the buck. I think the reason is that you get really, really disgusting while in there, mostly because the babies will pee and poo on you with abandon. I put on my dirtiest clothes, and the baboons were more than happy to use me as a jungle gym and bathroom. It was only about five minutes after I entered the enclosure that I got pee on my shorts.

Just my luck, a tour guide pulled up with tourists in tow while I looked like the baboon queen with two of them curled up on my lap. It was rather strange sitting in a cage while people took pictures.

The rest of my group soon fetched me, and I returned to the food prep area to package some meat to be sold to the local Bushmen. After a quick lunch, we took all of the baby baboons on a walk to a nearby tree. I was a bit nervous since I heard stories about some people who had been bitten quite hard during the walk, but it actually turned out to be quite fun.

There were about ten of them, and they would climb on whoever they felt like and then jump on someone else whenever the fancy struck them. Some of them are quite heavy, and it does give you a bit of a start when a fat, warm bundle plops itself on your shoulder without warning.

We hung out under a large tree while they climbed and frolicked, and they would occasionally come up to us for a cuddle. I was the reluctant recipient of more than a few kisses from the baboons - gross and funny.

After making sure the animals got their afternoon meal, I got to count sheep! For reals. I never thought I would do this in real life - only on those nights when I couldn't go to sleep and then only in my mind.

The day finally ended with baby baboon induction, where I learned how to change a baboon's nappy, make baby formula and to give the babies a bath. Sheila, the demonstration baboon, turned out to be more of a shower kind of girl and succeeded in thrashing water over all of us while she fought to get out of her makeshift tub.

Needless to say, the shower that night was amazing - no more baboon pee and dirty bath water!