After leaving Naukluft Mountain Zebra National Park, we headed north a short way to the famous crossroads of Solitaire, where every tourist en route to Sossusvlei stops for a visit to the German bakery, at a minimum.
We, of course, paid a visit to the German Bakery for some delicious baked goods, but our real purpose in stopping in Solitaire was to visit the local Cheetah Sanctuary. The sanctuary was established in 2017 when a female cheetah was captured by Namibian Wildlife after she killed some local livestock and was found to be pregnant. She immediately gave birth to 6 cubs, but only 4 survived, including 2 males and 2 females. The mom was quite old and died soon after giving birth to the litter, so there was no other option but to place the young cubs into captivity. The Sanctuary was created by the Solitaire Lodge owner to preserve the lives of the cubs, and to allow tourists to see these beautiful creatures and learn about their life history and conservation. Here are a few photos of these beautiful animals – my favorite of all African wildlife, along with Elephants:
Our visit to the Cheetah Sanctuary was en route to our one-night stand at Bushman’s Desert Camp, where Kevin and Nancy recreated Steve and Ki’s grilled cheese and onion with chutney sandwiches cooked over coals at the exact same spot as last year (thanks, Steve and Ki, for introducing us to this delicious sandwich), and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and sunrise from our lounge chairs.
OK, that’s all for this brief but very pleasant stopover at Bushman’s Desert camp en route to Walvis Bay on the coast for some fun in the dunes and in the Bay. See you there!