Petting Cheetahs

While in Franschhoek (about 1 hour- 1.5 hr drive from Cape Town) we did a ton of fun stuff.  One thing that was really really cool was going to the Cheetah Outreach center in Stellenbosch at a place called Spier.  Here's how the cheetah petting went down.  We got there and I could feel myself getting super excited. We pay 10 rand each to get in and thought to ourselves, "wow they need to raise their prices that's too cheap" and then we get to the actual cheetah area and there is a sign letting us know that we need to pay 110 rand to pet the adult cheetah and an additional 220 rand to pet the cheetah cubs. So apparently they DON'T need to raise their prices.  I, of course, want to pet BOTH (duh!), but Mike only pets the adult.  In all honesty the cubs were more teenagers than actual cubs. I felt a bit cheated, but I still loved every second of it.  Here are the smiles to prove it:

Petting an adult cheetah

I could have petted this cheetah cub all day long!

Brother and Sister

Brother and Sister

If you'd like to learn more or want to help these guys live a long healthy life please visit the center website at www.cheetah.co.za  or email them at cheetah@intekom.co.za

Fun Facts:

• Cheetah is the world's fastest land animal
• The oldest big cat on earth: 3.5-4 million years old
• Africa's most threatened great cat
• In the wild they are more likely to starve to death than to be killed by a predator
• Acceleration is 0-80 in 3 seconds (equals the Formula 1 Ferrari - 1999)
• An adult cheetah has over 2000 spots
• Top Speed is 110/120 km/h

NEXT UP! Conquering my fear of birds!   

Stay tuned!