Namibian family turns farm into sanctuary

updated 6:10 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2006

GOBABIS, Namibia - For a few cents and a piece of bread, Marieta van der Merwe persuaded a man on a dusty Namibian road to give her the thin vervet monkey he held by a rope around its neck.

That was 28 years ago and the start of one of the largest animal rehabilitation farms in southern Africa.

The Harnas Wildlife Foundation, 180 miles east of the capital Windhoek, is home to 310 orphaned animals and offers visitors a unique chance to get close enough to touch, brush or even walk cheetah, leopards and lions.

Namibia, a largely desert country with a population of 2 million, has such an abundance of game and wildlife that often cheetahs and baboons are regarded as nuisances by farmers and shot.

Most of the animals at the Harnas farm, which boasts Angelina Jolie as its patron, were rescued when they were young and hand-reared. They all have names and are treated as family by the van der Merwes. Van der Merwe regularly shares her bed with baby baboons swaddled in diapers.

"That monkey, Adri, was the first wild animal I touched. It sat in my lap. We were friends from the beginning," said van der Merwe.

Over the years van der Merwe and her husband Nick gained a reputation for rescuing animals. They would get calls from across the country asking them to fetch orphaned or injured animals. Some have been caught in traps or their mothers were shot by trophy hunters. Many, in the beginning, were animals South African soldiers had taken as pets during a bush war they fought in the north before Namibian independence in 1990, then abandoned as they withdrew. The van der Merwes also took in a pride of lions left homeless after the closure of a South African zoo.

"I was so in love with animals. Before I knew it we had a lot. I can't say no," said van der Merwe.

If You Go HARNAS WILDLIFE FOUNDATION: Gobabis, Namibia; 011-264-61-235511. The wildlife center hosts day visitors for about $8.50 a day; overnight visitors in cottages for about $194 a night, or at camp sites for $22 a night; and monthlong volunteers for $1,640, including accommodations and meals. The Web site includes an application and information for prospective volunteers. GETTING THERE: Gobabis is 180 miles east of Windhoek, Namibia's capital. Air Namibia offers service to Windhoek from London (Gatwick); Frankfurt, Germany; and Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Soon the couple were spending more time looking after the rescued animals than their cattle farm. They began selling off some of their 100,000 acres of land to fund their growing cause. A trust was started and they also opened up the farm to guests.

Nick van der Merwe died in 2001 of Congo fever, a hemorrhagic fever that can infect people who work closely with animals. His death left the family - and the animals - facing an uncertain future.

"He did everything. I had to learn a lot. We decided to stop the cattle farm and concentrate on the animals. Everyone helped. Guests helped and we survived," van der Merwe said.

Now van der Merwe heads a thriving family business that has turned the bushveld into a sanctuary for people and animals.

The main lodge sits on a green lawn surrounded by 24,710 acres of thick grassland where herds of eland, kudu and springbok roam.

Warthogs rub against the wall of the open bar, tortoises take refuge in the shade of the Koi pond while a miniature dachshund - one of the van der Merwe's many dogs - barks at the lone mountain zebra, Zibi, seeking out company.

Guests can watch baboons cavorting on swings in their large enclosure while at the opposite end of the garden a cheetah, silhouetted in the sunset, hunkers down over a chunk of meat.

An army of volunteers, mostly young foreign women all sun-bleached blonde and brown as syringa tree berries, keep the place abuzz.

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