I pet cheetahs. There, I said it. On Sunday, our group went to the Titsika Animal Preserve, near the Tsala Treetops area. Their big attraction is allowing people to pet big cats, which we did. While there, I got to pet two young and two adolescent cheetahs, as well as some caracals. I’ll post pictures of these events as soon as I can.
Petting the cheetahs was awesome. I’m not going to lie, seeing the picture of Brianna doing it really made me want to pet a big cat, and now I have. It’s such a sweet experience, being next to something that is so elegant and lethal, and then getting to pet it like it’s a house cat; a house cat that can kill you whenever it wants. That said, once you get over the fear, its pretty amazing to be able to say you pet one.
I’m sure people are wondering what a caracal is. Well, if you look at my pictures, they are the animals with the brown coat and long pointed black ears, and they also have stubby tails. They are pretty sweet cats. They are not endangered, but are being hunted by famers because, as the cats’ natural habitat is being replaced by farmland, they are hunting the farmers’ sheep and livestock. It is interesting to note that farmers will accept having a leopard in the area, because it will keep caracals away. They, apparently, are more of a nuisance than their larger relatives.
We also saw a baby leopard. It was really cute. At one point, it climbed up into a tree; broke the branches because it was too heavy; fell onto the ground with a thud; and then ran away, embarrassed. Later, when they were taking the leopard inside (it is apparently too young to stay outside in the rain at night), the leopard “attacked” the attendant, and then, as they were walking inside, he jumped up on a trash can and just lay down (you can see the picture in the album).
After we left the reserve, we drove to Knysna to check into the hotel. After we checked in, we walked down to this local pub called Olde’s to watch the USA/Brazil Confederation Cup Championship match. Michael, Collin, Mike and I all got ribs (which were excellent). We also struck up a deal with our waiter to bring us a round of Jeiger-bombs whenever a goal was scored. That’s right: a goal. Not when the US scored, whenever anyone did. It was, unfortunately, a high-scoring match, haha. After four rounds of Jeiger-bombs, we did our last round with SoCo and lime.
When we were done, Matt and Dag went back, while Michael, Suvrat, Luke, Tara, Collin and I stayed behind to hang out for a bit. After a bit, Michael, Collin, Tara and I decided to leave. On our way back to the hotel, Mike thought it would be funny to play a prank on us. He went “Solid Snake” on us, and hid. I saw where he hid, and we approached this person lying on a picnic table bench. We shook his leg and said, “c’mon Mike,” at which point he responded, “I’m not Mike!” After this revelation, we ran back to Olde’s to tell Suvrat and Luke that Mike was missing.
We went back outside, and Mike was now walking towards us. He later revealed to us that he had been squatting next to the homeless man. Have I mentioned that Michael is the craziest person on this trip? Oh, then, he is. Well, that’s all for now everyone. Later!
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