We had a great morning of rhino tracking, with a little added excitement. Our goal was to check up on a female with her calf, and after an hour of searching through the bush we heard a loud rustling through the bushes. Usually, if anything, the rhinos will run away from the vehicle, so it is unusual to hear a rustling sound – meaning the rhino is nearby and scraping his feat on the ground to mark its territory. As we slowly made our way around the bush, we found our girl with her calf. But to our surprise, she was with Sargent, the large, cheeky male from last weeks post. Rarely do we find the female rhinos spending time with the males (they meet once a month or so, and finding them together is a rare sight). As if Sargent didn’t have enough testosterone on his own, let alone when he was with a female, he could think of only one thing to do: charge the vehicle. He made it pretty obvious that he didn't want us hanging around his woman...It’s a bit nerve-wracking being on the receiving end of a charging rhino, but its all in a days work I suppose. Anyways, it added some definite excitement to the day, and on top of that we stumbled upon three different prides of lions, got nice and stuck in a giant mud hole, snuck up on a massive herd of buffalo, and managed to track another four rhino. Quite a day!
Just another day tracking rhino. Behind me is Bogale and her calf
A nice place to rest
Giraffes on the move
Desperate in a land with no rocks
Stuck in the mud, using sticks to get us out
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