Land that was once farmed - and hunted on - has now been turned over to conservation.Africat's raison d'?e is big-cat welfare and rehabilitation; it rescues around 70 cheetahs and leopards each year that have been trapped on farms and releases them back into the wild. In Namibia, big cats still roam across the country and are not just found in game reserves. Man has not yet pushed them into a few fenced-off areas."This is the last place in Africa where you can drive down the road and a cheetah will bound out in front of you," Donna Hanssen, Lise's sister-in-law explains. "In Namibia, the distinction between farmland and bush is blurred." Only around 25 per cent of the country is designated national park - 60 to 70 per cent is farmland - so the aim is to re-introduce the cats here, not in the reserves. "If you remove or shoot a leopard, young males will move into his territory and carve out areas for themselves, which means that the farmer will end up losing, say, 30 cattle instead of five in a given year." Africat's aim is to persuade the farmers to accept the big cats - to let them live on their farms and to understand that by shooting them they are not just upsetting the natural balance, they will lose more cattle in the long run.At Okonjima, visitors help fund the work, by adopting a cheetah or simply by checking in.
It might be worthy (Blue Peter has just been here to film its Christmas special) but it is also fascinating - and luxurious. Our domed rondavel with its thatched roof and rough-hewn adobe walls painted burnt orange - the colour of the sand outside - was like a designer hide, scattered with African artefacts On one side, the walls were canvas Rolling them up, we gazed out at the oryx wandering past. The parched, golden grass swaying in the breeze was punctuated with gnarled thorn trees, the air full of birdsong.After a brief rest, our guide Dean picked us up to go leopard-spotting. The cats are electronically tagged so that they can be monitored.
A 4,000-hectare enclosure has been created as a sort of half-way house. Once the rangers are convinced that they can fend for themselves they will be released back into the wild. The following morning we checked up on the cheetahs before continuing on our whistle-stop tour. As we sped down the sandy runway the cheetahs, which can reach speeds of 115km/h, raced gracefully beside the plane.Our next stop was Etosha, one of Africa's top game reserves along with the Serengeti, Masai Mara and Kruger.