Today at 6:30AM, we began our first official day touring South Africa starting at the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre. Our guided tour gave us an insight to Africa’s conservation efforts towards the cheetah population as well as African wild dogs. This included having an up close encounter with a couple of the ambassador cheetahs, watching them run at full speed.  (The ambassador cheetahs were raised by humans and thus can’t be returned to the wild.) Other events that took place at the Cheetah Centre were seeing other native African wildlife such as vultures, antelope, meerkats, a honey badger, a caracal, a serval, and hyenas.

Next we stopped at Chameleon Village for lunch. Let’s just say, it was a very eye opening experience where some of us learned to barter for the first time. Here we got our own free time to do some personal shopping with the local residents.

Our final stop of the day was at the Lesedi Cultural Village where we learned about multiple African tribes including the Xhosa, Zulu, Pedi, Basotho, and Ndebele. They gave us a tour of what typical villages would look like for each culture and also performed some traditional dances in their culture’s authentic clothing. Finally, we concluded the night with an authentic African meal where we got to try foods such as ostrich and crocodile.

Everyone is very exhausted from a packed full day of new experiences!  More to come tomorrow!  (Written by Katelin and Laura)

One of the cheetahs we saw at the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Sanctuary.

Outside the front entrance to the Lesedi Cultural Village

A wild dog at the Cheetah Center.