INVERDOORN GAME RESERVE AND SAFARI LODGE
I am not entirely sure I want to abandon the comfort of my chalet to investigate the claim.Even if the famed Ferraris of the wild are the only big cats not interested in consuming human flesh, I wouldn’t really want to stand in the path of one on its 110km/hr evening jog. Besides, this is a garden we’re talking about. I shrug it off as a city slicker’s hallucination and roll over.
LUXURY GAME RESERVE
AND SAFARI LODGE
‘Cheetah! There’s a cheetah in the garden!’ Minutes later, there is a knock at the door.
‘Ma’am – we have a certain Izzie who would like to meet you.’ This Izzie has a nerve sending someone to disturb me in my cosy abode. Nonetheless, I venture out in true investigative journalist style in my fluffy gown and slippers to see what’s going on. As it turns out, Izzie certainly does have a nerve, and is forcing everybody to vacate the biggest pink couch so that she can sprawl herself across it. She also has a tail, 450 spots and a purr to put the Aristocats to shame.
Although I am mesmerised by the glorious being a few feet ahead of me, I instinctually begin to worry about the situation. Why is this wild animal on a couch in the lodge’s garden – has she been removed from her family and natural habitat to be domesticated for the purposes of human entertainment? Why is there a handler with a long leash standing just behind her? The handler picks up my evident concern and begins to tell me the story of Izzie’s journey into her care.
Although the sale of African wildlife as pets is illegal, a few unfortunate cases are still brought to light from time to time. Izzie’s was such a case. Upon realizing the real implications of keeping a fast-growing cheetah in their household, Izzie’s owners handed her over to the Cape Cheetah Conservation Foundation, which operates on the reserve. Although still young, Izzie needs to be trained to survive in the wild. Part of this process involves daily walks through the reserve, and Izzie has chosen the couch as a rest stop between the reserve-proper and the rehabilitation camp, displaying a glorious sense of entitlement not unlike that of a pampered domestic cat. This is however not indulged for too long, as Izzie has come to the reserve to be re-introduced to the wild, and too much human pampering poses the obvious problems.
The next morning, I am fortunate enough to accompany Velvet, a slightly older member of Inverdoorn’s cheetah rehabilitation camp, on her daily reserve walk. I learn from her handler that she arrived at the reserve after a tip-off alerted the team to the fact that she and her brother had been bred in captivity and were spending the first part of their lives in somebody’s bathroom. Although she is energetic and incredibly alert (cheetahs can spot prey up to 3km away and Velvet is particularly fond of passing bicycles), a neglected broken tail in her early life has left her with a deformity that could hinder her ability to hunt successfully. She is nonetheless undergoing rigorous training in the hope that she will one day be able to fend for herself.
Inverdoorn is also home to eight wild cheetahs involved in a natural breeding project - a more complex undertaking than one would expect. An integral part of the process involves the daily operation of a lure in the form of an electric pulley that entices the cheetahs to run like kitties after a string, helping the females to reach a high enough body temperature to facilitate ovulation.Watching the magnificent creatures accelerate from 0 to 110km in under three seconds is an experience that alone would have made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Cape Town more than worthwhile, but there were still so many more spectacles hiding further in the reserve.
Inverdoorn is also home to eight wild cheetahs involved in a natural breeding project - a more complex undertaking than one would expect. An integral part of the process involves the daily operation of a lure in the form of an electric pulley that entices the cheetahs to run like kitties after a string, helping the females to reach a high enough body temperature to facilitate ovulation.Watching the magnificent creatures accelerate from 0 to 110km in under three seconds is an experience that alone would have made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Cape Town more than worthwhile, but there were still so many more spectacles hiding further in the reserve.
Inverdoorn is one of the few places where you are almost guaranteed to experience everything presented in the promotional material. Two game drives (one at sunset and one at sunrise) presented nothing less than sightings of lions, rhinos, hippo, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, buffalo, ostrich and a variety of antelope over the short period of a day and a half.
The lion and his two lionesses were rescued from an illegal canned hunting farm, on which animals are either caged or sedated and presented as guaranteed trophies to international hunters. The horns of the rhinos on the reserve have been injected with a coloured, poisonous substance in an attempt to make them both difficult to smuggle out of the country and detrimental to the consumer (although ingestion is not fatal, it does lead to illness). Inverdoorn’s Rhino Protect program goes a step further by helping other reserves to implement similar anti-poaching methods.
Although saying goodbye to Ngoni (our highly knowledgeable yet quietly entertaining guide) was harder after each adventure together, it was always wonderful to return to the comfort of a warm fire and a delicious meal at the end of a long day out in the bush, with a highly comfortable night’s rest in a luxury suite, family house or chalet to look forward to after all the excitement.
For more information or to make a reservation, call Inverdoorn on +27 21 434 4639, e-mail them at info@inverdoorn.com or visit www.inverdoorn.com
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