Harnas Wildlife Foundation, Namibia
It's just dusk and I quickly grab a sleeping bag and headlamp, packet of repellant, long pants, fleece. It's sleepout night and I'll be spending mine with Duma and Goeters, two of Harnas' cheetahs. Entering their enclosure, I set up my sleeping bag on a wood platform, barely able to make out shapes in the dark. The sounds of the lapa bar carry over for a couple of hours, then it is just the beautiful sound of african-night. Lion roars, crickets, the sound of Duma circling under the platform, purring and rubbing up against its edges. The sound of a lone mosquito. Brilliant star filled sky above, spots of clouds.
Duma joins me once for a few minutes, then a second and third time before settling in for the night. First there is the purrrrrrr below the platform, the sound of cheetah rubbing against the wood corners. Then a lanky figure leaps up gracefully onto the platform, strolls over. Then paws are placed on the corner of my sleeping bag by my head. A slumping down hard against me. Purring, a few licks, a nibble on the corner of my fleece collar, cheetah head on my shoulder, we both go to sleep.
A final 5am wake up, Duma leaps down, stretching one paw out, then the next and next, then saunters off to Goeters. I pack up in the still-near-dark and walk back to the village as the sun rises. Eyes of bat eared foxes shine across the lawn, a herd of springbok bound out of the way.
Back at the village, I wash the scent-of-cheetah off me and my clothes. There are the sounds of birds, Africa waking. A hot cup of tea out on the picnic benches, 3 zebras frolic at the watering hole. 3 giraffe lumber in.... a handful of cookies with my tea. An ostrich pecks at the BBQ, then trots off to play with the hammocks, fascinated.
Sun rising, warms my back, wet hair drying. A mob of mongoose enter, criss crossing the area for bits of food, heads just barely bobbing above the slightly-taller-than-them grass. Wildebeast enter, springbok moving nervously away. The rest of the village still sleeps.
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