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Heading towards Windhoek, we stopped at
Düsternbrook Farm, 269 kilometres away, of which 18 of them were on the
worst road we had travelled on so far! This road had several deep sand,
dry riverbeds, two shallowish rivers, road-wide potholes and protruding
rocks to drive across! What awaited us though was worthwhile!
Our tent overlooked the river, which although
was virtually dry, still had enough water left in it to attract Baboons,
Warthogs and some free-roaming horses. The birdlife was great to, don't
get us wrong, we are not turning into birders in any way, but some of the
Woodpeckers and other birds here are beautiful.
Our afternoon consisted of two trips on the
open-top landrovers. The first to see the Leopard and Cheetahs and the
second on a game-drive. The Leopard was a problem child that kept killing
local farmers' calves. The owner of Düsternbrook does not agree with
shooting wildlife, unlike many of the surrounding farmers. He captured
her, tried to get Etosha to take her, but they explained that it would be
pointless as all cats walk home! Instead of destroying her, he built an
enclosure to see if she could get used to captivity. She settled down
quite quickly and the farmer decided that he would test public reaction to
viewing a captive Leopard. As they are so hard to see in the wild he got
more visitors than he expected. He worked out that he could build an even
bigger enclosure for her, as the money he could make from visitors would
pay for the cost of the electric fence and meat she ate.
So, does this sound right? Well, maybe not, but
the enclosure she has is huge, it takes a couple of minutes in a landrover
to drive from one side to the next so that gives you a good idea of the
size. No it isn't the same as being free, but at least she isn't dead!
What this does mean however is that all the other cats on his land remain
free and alive. "What?” I hear you say! Most farmers in Namibia catch
and kill Leopards to stop them killing their cattle. This captive Leopard
generates enough income to not only sustain the cost of her fencing and
food, but also provides additional income. What this means is the money
he loses because of cattle being killed by other cats on his land can be
covered by the income made by the captive one. Therefore he does not have
to capture and kill other cats, but can leave them to live free on his
land. Now that may not be perfect, but it is a compromise.
The game-drive was ok, we saw some bucks and a
few Giraffe, but nothing that we hadn't already seen, although he does
have Hartman's Mountain Zebra on the farm.
Dinner that evening was a bit strange! We were
booked in on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis. At 7:00pm we walked up to
the house and into the dining room, along with nine other people who were
staying on the farm. We all sat round a huge dining table, a family of
five from Denmark all in a row facing us, a couple of Germans one side of
us and a Swede the other, along with the farmer and his mate! The meal
was lovely, but the conversation was a bit stilted!
Our last night in
Namibia, for a short while, was spent in Windhoek at Vondelhof
Guesthouse. In the afternoon we had a wander around the pedestrianised
shopping area and had something to eat. Other than that we just chilled
out at what was a great guesthouse and played with Craig and Yvonne's
dogs, Pulla and Poem. Vondel was a Dutch poet and Pulla means water in
the local dialect, we both spent ages splashing water out of the swimming
pool at Pulla, who loved trying to catch it! |