Day Twelve: Gloom

To finish up last night's tale, I will just say that I have invented a new type of s'more called the ZA'more. This special South African s'more has pink marshmallows and shortbread cookies instead of graham crackers. It was definitely NOT an old-fashioned American s'more, but it was still pretty tasty. I didn't stay up much later than 10, though. You all know what a big partier I am. But I am happy to say that everyone else was up and functional this morning for morning chores and for our morning cheetah run.

So now we've caught up to this morning. For the first time since I have been here in South Africa, I woke up to clouds in the sky. It was so strange to see clouds and mist when I was so used to seeing sun coming in my window so consistently every morning. I think it was cloudy because Tone, Zelia, and Mia left South Africa to go back home today. Anyways, without the sun, the morning was much chillier than normal. Despite the chill and gloom, we took Nala out to run. We walked her down to the end of the running ground, only to discover that she was much more interested in the sheep on the other side of the fence. I can't really blame her...sheep probably are a bunch more tasty than a rope lure. But we did eventually get Nala to trot after the lure and trip over it occasionally. There were no records broken this morning, that much is for certain.

Leante tries to catch Nala's interest

While I was there, Nala and Nakita posed for some pretty nice photos...to make up for her lackluster run, I suppose.

Nala is on the left, Nakita on the right

After the run, we had breakfast and then had to prepare for the morning task, which was slaughter. This did not significantly improve the atmosphere. At least Mia, Tone, and Zelia escaped this lovely chore because it was their last day. So Paul, Dane, Leante and I spent the morning elbow-deep in raw meet and blood until about 1. When that was finally over, we came back for lunch and good-byes. It was sad to see them go, and I know it will be a lot quieter around here without those crazy Norwegians to spice things up...
The cheetahs and cubs must have been affected by the morning's gloomy start, because Jemima had no desire to be stroked today and the cubs moved maybe a total of 3 feet the entire time we were in their enclosure. So there is not much more to report. Tonight is going to be a quiet night. Tomorrow, Paul and I are going to some sort of caves that claim to be the cradle of human kind. I will sound much more educated about it tomorrow, I promise.
That's all folks!
Taylor