We wait until the tour group's minibus has disappeared and then have breakfast in peace. Our journey today is only about 3 hours long, so we are not in a hurry. We also want to find the geocache on the farm grounds and Lukas is brave enough to pull it out of the large pool. In the cool morning temperatures.

After saying goodbye to Silvia, Stefan and their two daughters and dogs, we set off. The landscape changes and we come to hilly terrain. The traffic increases, which may also be due to the Namibians' Sunday excursion behavior. However, there are fewer cattle on the road than before and so we quickly reach the gate of Okonjima, where the AfriCat Foundation is based.

From the gate it is another 24 km along a sandy track to the reception and as usual this drive turns into our first game drive: warthogs, oryxes, impalas, ibexes (not to be confused with those from the Alps) and even a jackal greet us on the premises. As always, we can only guess what we are missing in the bush and are looking forward to the next two days.

The accommodation is pure luxury: the huge reception hall has numerous information stands, the reception treats us to homemade iced tea and explains all the options for the coming days. As we later find out, we even have a guide exclusively for us and it will be the same guide for our entire stay. So we decide to take part in the afternoon tracking tour, where they look for cheetahs.

The AfriCat Foundation takes care of predators that would otherwise be hunted due to regular conflicts with farmers and their livestock or that have lost parents. These animals first come to the site and are given medical care if necessary. Then they go to the so-called Lifeline, where the animals have to hunt their own prey and, if successful, are released into protected areas. There is a strict principle that direct contact with people should not be established if possible, and so the Lifeline takes up most of the 20,000 hectare area.

Many of the predators are given radio collars so that they can be found in the huge area and their behavior can be analyzed. This technology is also used on our tracking tour and after a few failures we get a cheetah's signal on the receiver. After a few more kilometers in the open jeep, we have to get out and continue the rest of the pursuit on foot - following clear behavioral guidelines from our guide, because after all, we are now traveling as two-legged creatures and no longer in the car.

After a few hundred meters we spot the cheetah, a female of around 9 years old, dozing under a tree. She has obviously filled her belly in the morning and is lazily watching us. We are allowed to get within a few meters of the beautiful animal and outside of a car it is an adventurous experience.

Then we drive on and after we of course spot a few warthogs, lots of birds and another jackal, our tracker gets the tracking of a particularly endangered species in the ether. We had been hoping to see this animal, but it is extremely shy and threatened with extinction: the African wild dog. Full of anticipation, we drive on and hope that the animals are not hiding in the bush. We would not be able to follow them on foot, as they have already shown aggressive behavior towards two-legged creatures.

Finally, the only two specimens of this species lie before us. They too have obviously had good hunting luck and are enjoying the last rays of sunshine of the day. After this discovery, we look for a nice spot for the sundowner above the plain, which we can see wonderfully from there.