It was great to have a sleep-in this morning. We didn’t need to be up as early as usual, so I set the alarm for 6:15 am. We had arranged to have a 7:15 am breakfast in the campsite dining hall. Even though there was a glow of light in the sky at 6:45 am, it wasn’t very easy to persuade Andrew to pull himself out of bed and get ready. I think he is too leisure-oriented sometimes.
We had our buffet breakfast as arranged with the aim of leaving at 7:45 am. We were about a quarter of an hour late because there was so much happening at the waterhole near our cabin – it was all quite a distraction. There was a wildebeest, about a dozen zebras, lots of springbok and four very playful young black-backed jackals. It was a quintessential African scene as they came to the mirror-like still waters of the waterhole, under the shade of an acacia tree, to have their morning drink of water.
One important task for today was to get to Windhoek by 2:00 pm, as the place we were due to stay (actually 28 kilometres south-west of Windhoek) conducted a rehabilitation program for ‘big cats’, and a drive to see them was due to start at 2:30 pm. We managed the 450 kilometre drive quite comfortably on excellent roads, arriving at our accommodation (Armani Lodge) at 1:45 pm, having stopped just twice, one for petrol and one for a coffee and to pick up some toasted ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch.
The drive at Armani to see the cats was fascinating. Not only did we get to see cheetah, lion and leopard, but we learned quite a bit about the rehabilitation program that Armani was conducting. On balance, it appeared to be highly ineffective.
Our accommodation at Armani was in a free-standing cabin with its own ensuite bathroom, but extremely minimal lighting and no heating, the latter being an issue as it was situated on a hilltop and the temperature dropped quite low as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon. We had a great dinner, followed by a fairly early night, although getting to sleep was not as easy as you might expect – it is quite off-putting when you are trying to go to sleep with a lion roaring down the valley from your cabin.
