On the 22nd we had a day of leisure and we just hung out at the hotel relaxing and wandering around to take photos of the beautiful property...
and the lovely ocean views.
In the evening we were joined at dinner by a cat who only vaguely begged for food. Our dinner companion. Every night while at this hotel. Very polite. Doesn’t try to get on the table and only rarely asks for food. But certainly eyes everything we are eating.
On the 23rd we took a drive out into the countryside north of town. Along the way we saw a ton of school children out for the session shift. Half of the children go to school in the morning and at around mid-day they head home as the second shift of children head to school. There were a lot of school uniforms along the streets.
Our destination is Cheetah Rock, a wildlife conservation area. None of their animals are native to Zanzibar. All have been brought in from various countries as part of conservation efforts.
Interesting signs in the lobby.
They severely limit the number of visitors and all visitors go on the one single tour that is offered each day. These tours allow you to feed and pet many of the animals. Soooo...if you like you can get up close and personal with a tiger or a cheetah this is the place to do it.
Many of the animals have been trained to allow human interaction. Even some of the big cats will tolerate being
around and close to people and will allow themselves to be petted. With the cats they usually allow this because
they are being fed during the interaction.
The first animal
taken in was Chaka, a zebra from Germany.
We spent some time in a large enclosure feeding bush babies…they get their name because their cry sounds like a baby. They are very small primates that are adorable and a bit messy. They went from shoulder to shoulder eating whatever struck their fancy as we tourist held out our hands with fruit.
We also spent a bit of time in a monkey cage with vervet...
and Skyes monkeys.
They had a cougar
from North America that they picked up somewhere in Europe.
They also had a very large enclosure cage with lots of ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar.
This is Paul trying to get a photo of a lemur on his shoulder. He had success.
The cage was shared with lots of peacocks
and plowshare tortoises. These tortoises have an interesting bony protuberance right under their head. Looks bit like a plow, hence the name.
There was also a random small turtle that they said just showed up one day and decided to stay.
This enclosure also had some dik diks, the world's smallest antelope.
They also have some stripped hyenas that are very rare. The ones we saw in the wild were spotted hyenas. These stripped ones looked far less scruffy than those we saw in the wild.
They had some white lions (a genetic mutation causes the lions to be very pale in color as opposed to the usual tawny color).
The white lioness.
They also have Golden Tabby Bengal Tigers – also a genetic mutation responsible for the lovely caramel color.
We were allowed to go into the cage while the tiger was being fed. Paul went in, Mary stayed outside and took photos.
One of the best experiences was with the cheetah. They walked her around a bit for petting and photo ops.
Then we all lined up for photos with the cheetah. They had her sit on a stump for more photos...
and then we each got to sit next to her. She was usually good for two or three sittings and then they would walk her a bit before she got back on the rock to let a few more tourists get their picture taken. You are not supposed to look the cheetah in the eyes for longer than just a quick glance.
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Us and a cheetah video
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The funniest
animals we saw were the otters. They
were extreeeeeeemmmmmely loud when they saw the keepers coming. They really wanted to be fed…and even climbed
the door in their effort to hurry up the feeding process. So funny.
Since they have some rare and valuable animals, they have Masai Warriors as guards. Knives, spears, and bow and arrows - the arrows can be dipped in poison. The warriors have permission to use lethal force.
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More Cheetah Rock
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