On one of our staff educational trips to South Africa I had one of the best experiences of my life. We were exploring South Africa's beautiful Cape Winelands area located about an hour or so outside Cape Town. We visited the university town of Stellenbosch - looks just like an English university town with all the charm you would expect. Then on to the Spier estate that includes a world class hotel and conference center for an exceptional wine tasting experience and tasty lunch. We selected the wines we would like with our excellent lunch and then after our feast walked over to their small wine store to purchase the vintages that excited our palate... so good! After walking throughout the beautiful Spier grounds I thought we were then going to head back to Cape Town for a little shopping and dinner on the V&A Waterfront.
Well, that would have to wait for a little bit because we were in for a big surprise...
The Spier's family donated land to the Cheetah Outreach Project - a small group of people that volunteer to hand raise baby cheetahs (how's that for a fun job!) to be "ambassadors". The staff shared their extensive knowledge with us and we had an opportunity to see some very young ones up close and personal.Then the surprise... the opportunity to pet one of the amazing cheetahs. Thinking it would be one of the babies... I said sure. Well, we were led over to a large run pen and there was a full grown very large (as compared to the babies) beautiful male cheetah. He was in a good mood (thank goodness) so we were advised to come into the enclosure slowly, get down on our haunches and pet him on his back... NOT the head or feet as we could lose a digit or two! His fur is not soft kitty cat like but rather more rough like a Brillo pad! As I was petting him he turned his head to look at me... yikes, what pretty yellow eyes you have kitty! We were only in the pen for a few minutes but what a thrill... just amazing! This was one of many fantastic experiences on this trip of a lifetime... (Jim Kivlehan, Vice President Sales & Marketing)
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