Walking with Rhinos

One of the great things about working on the road is that we get to participate in amazing things on a 'normal' or everyday basis. Its weird how you can get to be blase about seeing the wonders of the world, though Vic Falls in high water is still one of my favourite sights... even if you do get soaking wet!

One activity I'd never done before was a game walk to view rhinos, and this time 3 pax and I headed off into the bush to do just that.

Mosi-O-Tunya NP has 5 adult and 2 baby resident rhinos, all of which were very active on the day we trekked meaning lots of walking. Our guide, Tony, made the walk so informative with facts not only about the rhino population, but also the other animals present in the park - few of which were in evidence but we learnt a lot about their poo!

After about 2 1/2 hours of walking (apparently unusually long) we found Jessie, an eleven year old female and her 7 month old calf. Despite being in a reasonably built up area, she was pretty relaxed and allowed us to get within 10 metres of her and her baby. It was a massive thrill, though the adrenaline started pumping when Tony explained that rhino can accelerate at speeds of 0-40kph in 4 seconds, and we were definitely in her charge zone (though protected by a tree) should she get grumpy.

(Apparently on patrols in the past Tony has been charged and has got fairly adept at tree jumping to keep out of the way, though a couple of encounters have been somewhat closer than ideal!)

After we had spent about 40 minutes with the rhino, we moved away to give them their privacy - they are after all, wild. Such is the poaching problem - rhino horn sells for more than gold - that 32 people are employed solely to look after the rhino in this park alone.

Our trip was completed with a light snack at the waters edge, keeping a wary eye out for 7 metre crocs, and some viewing of zebra, giraffe, monitor lizards and impala finished the morning off nicely!