Rhino Walking Safari, Kruger National Park

CSI Kruger

This post by Characterstays was recently published on Africa Geographic: www.africageographi.com/blog/a-rhino-walking-safari/.

We had a lot of anticipatory anxiety about our Rhino Walking Safari. Every day for several weeks we asked each other a new question, like “When they say Rhino Walking, do you think they actually try to get close to rhinos?” There were a lot of “What if?”s. The night before we depart on our walking safari our fears peak and we secretly hope for torrential rains that we might be spared from this adventure, all the while being able to complain loudly about the unfair weather. Finally dawn breaks crystal clear and a red sun rises over the dewy plain. Douw.

Nothing can quite prepare you for the experience of walking out in the wilds of Africa. Every sense lights up in primal re-awakening. Senses you never even knew you had become foregrounded in puckered awareness. I jump at every whisper and waft. One of the guest’s stomach growls and I almost hit the ground.

Then a funny thing happens and I quite quickly start to relax. A thorough assessment of our guide, Doug, and tracker Amos reassures me of their professionalism and respect for nature. They stay out in open areas and avoid the thickets, such that they may see far into the veld and avoid any potential danger. I start to enjoy the light, sounds and smells of the great outdoors. I use my newfound sensory awareness to appreciate every texture of the bush.

Doug and Amos are passionate about their environment and bring us into their world by creating 4 dimensional reconstructions of the events as told by the living crime scenes of our surrounds. They explain which type of animal left its trail, when it passed by this particular spot, in which direction it was headed, its size and gender. Even the sounds at different heights in the bush take on meaning and can alert one to past, present or future action. I begin to look at animal scat with new appreciation, as Doug seems to have majored in the subject. Both guides are footprints experts and can also point out nests and hollows were different birds and beasties spent the night. It is thoroughly enjoyable and informative and I almost forget I am out on foot in untamed Africa.

Suddenly Amos lifts both his hands, turns and motions in silence towards a quiet sound in the bush. We follow his gaze and see a mother and baby rhino to our right. “Shall we try to get closer?” says Doug. Well, I guess that’s one question answered. As I open my mouth to form a diplomatic reply, another guest nods enthusiastically and I close my mouth thinking “OK I had a whole different answer planned.” If there’s one thing for which I have a healthy respect, it’s for a mother with baby animal in the wild. We creep up downwind towards the mother and baby.

Once again I quickly become more confident and start snapping away happily with my camera. Then the smallest gust of wind swirls in a different direction and four things happen in quick succession. 1 The mother hears my camera shutter snap. Gulp. 2. She turns to look directly at us. Double gulp. 3. Doug holds up his hand, hisses “stop shooting” and 4. we all freeze. Time stands as still as we do, none of us even breathing. But with her phenomenal powers of hearing and smell, she is onto us, fully aware of our presence. With a snort and thrust of her head she moves between the baby and us, and then thankfully, they turn and trot off light footedly (and with surprising speed) into the bush.

No sooner have they turned than we realize that there are four more rhino moving towards us from the left. We have all been unaware of each other’s presence. We crouch down and pray that the winds don’t change. The four rhino move unconcerned past us, munching grass as they go. We slowly let out a long breath.

“Wasn’t that fantastic?!” exclaims elated Doug. “Errrr exhilarating” I reply, walking on wobbly legs until gradually I once again relax and with a spring in my step feel proud that we tracked our quarry so successfully.

To book for a Rhino Walking Safari, visit www.isibindi.co.za. 

Plains Tented Camp, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga

Privilege within a Privilege

As one born of wanderlust, I have been fortunate to travel to many different parts of the world. I have travelled from Scandanavia to Singapore and San Francisco, have bowed my head in cathedrals and temples in Europe, have been up close to calving glaciers in Alaska, caught my breath at the edge of the Grand Canyon, paid homage to the source of the Nile at the border between Uganda and Rwanda, driven through indigenous forest of Sierra Leone during war and walked in peace on the white shores of Zanzibar. But I count this as one of the greatest privileges of a charmed life – sitting here writing these words from the deck of a canvas tent facing onto the Timbitene Plains in the Kruger National Park.

Larger than many countries, the Kruger National Park has been preserved for decades as a wildlife sanctuary, protected by strict conservation laws from incessant human development. From this very deck where I sit I can witness nature interact uninterrupted, often unaware of my presence from this low environmental impact tent. Plains Tented Camp is set within the Timbetene concession, a privilege within a privilege, as the general public do not have access to this quieter area of the park. There are no tarred roads here, no shops, no cell phone towers or wifi. This is as authentic a safari experience as it gets.

The tents are erected on wooden platforms, nestled into the forest at the edge of an open plain which looks out onto a waterhole. They are full canvas, though glamping this is none-the-less, with proper beds and full bathrooms. The towels are thick, white and the size of blankets. A beautiful copper basin is set against a gnarled trunk, and the shower has open netted canvas all around onto bush views. Earlier I watched a Paradise Flycatcher munch his breakfast right next to the tent while I showered.

Now from my nature-hide deck I look up again from my pontificating because of a loud trumpeting. A memory of elephants has just paraded in from the left to the waterhole in front of my tent for their midday drink. There is a small baby elephant, too short to reach the water though he tries to be big. His kindly mother gives him a gentle shower. The teenagers think this is great fun and spray themselves and each other.

I take a mental image of the row of fat elephant bums lined up at the water and store this gifted moment in my travel journal, with a sigh of silent gratitude for all that has been and that has led me here.

Accommodation Experience

In the words of MacBeth, “ ‘Twere a rough night”. At first I fell immediately to sleep after the exhilaration of the game drive and satisfying dinner. The bed here at Plains Tented Camp is so comfortable – the perfect softness, with white cotton linen and the cozy sense of being under canvas under African skies. 

But no sooner had I fallen asleep when I woke with a “What the ….?” to the unmistakable sounds of lions mating right near the tent. Now lion stamina is legendary, so this continued every 20 minutes well into the night. At one point I swear another lion couple started up in tandem further across the plains! 

Just as the lion couples finally finished their show, a particularly musical hyena takes over and enthralls me with his whooping howls. I take inventory of the other sounds, and heard a Night Jar, an owl and a suicidal antelope munching the grass along the side of my tent. Sleep is for the birds, I decide, this is all too exciting.

This is no bland hotel with time-limited experiences of canned game – here you really are on safari in the most authentic way, closely connected to the immediate wilds of Africa 24 hours of the day. I know from here on I will be well disappointed with a good night’s sleep in a concrete box-shaped room.

Towards morning though, sleep finally claims me. I wake again at 5am to the sound of endangered Ground Hornbills’ haunting dawn lament as they move slowly across the plains, foraging for their breakfast. “Doo doo doo-doo” calls one. “Dow dow dow dow-dow,” the other replies. I smile and snooze lightly, appreciating this gentle wake-up call. ‘ “Doo doo doo-doo,”…”Dow dow dow dow-dow” I whisper.

To listen to the recorded sound of Ground Hornbills, click on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDdfIUR0o_M&feature=youtu.be