Vegans Love Carnivores

Last weekend I drove to Windhoek (the capital city of Namibia) with the CCF genetics technician, Janine, to run a promotion at Spar supermarket to advertise for our goat cheese (yes, I still find it ironic that I am somehow involved in cheese here being that I’m a vegan).  Now, for those of you who have been reading my blog from the start, you may remember me reversing a brand new Land Cruiser car into a ditch whilst I was in Zimbabwe.  Suffice to say, I’m not the best of drivers, and have had barely any experience a) driving off-road, b) driving four-wheel-drives, or c) driving anything larger than a Ford Fiesta.  The vehicle we were driving was a Toyota Quantum, which is an 11-person minibus.  Now, I have mentioned repeatedly to staff here that I’m not comfortable driving here, especially not in large cars or through bad weather conditions, because I don’t want to be responsible for crashing, especially with volunteers in the car.  However, alas no one has...

After being noticeably ill for a week because of my spider bite, my manager decided that I needed a break from CCF.  As a couple of staff members were going to Erindi Private Nature Reserve for a weekend anyway to collect two radio collars for two cheetahs we are giving them, he thought it’d be nice for me to go along too.  What a great suggestion! We left last Friday morning and set off for a 3-hour journey to the reserve.  The place used to be a private hunting lodge until, 5 years ago, they decided to turn it into a nature viewing destination instead.  It’s home to the Global Leopard Project run by a lovely lady called Natasha, who knows more about leopards than anyone I have ever met before.   I’d heard of Erindi a couple of years ago from an ITV documentary with Steve Leonard (from Vet School/Vets in Practice) and had wanted to visit ever since – especially to see Natasha and her leopards! Upon arriving, we were escorted to a delightful bu...