Walking on Sunshine

So again, here we are, a total of 12 hours in the park and already we have seen 4 of the Big 5 to see. We have seen other really cool animals too, but really, how lucky were we? Apparently pretty lucky, I guess there were some people on our hike that had been there for a few days, again, without seeing much at all. Jason and I became those people; you know, the ones who don’t know just how lucky they are? We arrived to our hiking spot, the sun finally showing up, and all of us still glowing from our feline encounter, that is, until the guns were loaded. Did I mention that the guides on the hikes are armed?? As we were reminded sternly, we would be hiking through a wilderness in which we were the intruders, so the guides carry armed rifles just in case. If all goes as planned we get to have some close encounters with big animals, so the guns are there in case an animal starts to charge and we can’t hide.
We were given rules and dos and don’ts, walk single file only, no pictures until told safe to do so. This hand means ‘stop’, this hand means ‘quiet’, this hand means ‘get really low and stop.’ And we would use all of them on this hike.
We weren’t ten minutes into our four-hour hike when the guide stopped us and gathered us around a little tiny bush. He said, “a white rhino has just been through here about an hour ago. See this bush, he’s dragging his right leg and marking the territory.” We just looked a bit bewildered. From the foot prints and the dew-looking drops on the leaves of the bush he could tell that a rhino had been there remarking territory since the night’s moisture washed it away. Since territory is a big deal to rhinos, they will be spending most the day remarking what was theirs and perhaps a little more.
So we followed the footsteps, and hoped as the guide instructed, that the winds don’t change. Apparently, rhinos don’t listen much. You can click and clack and make a bunch of noise and they don’t get nervous. However, if the wind carrying our scent changes and heads in the direction of the rhino we are trying to track, it will spook him off.
About an hour into our hike we found him. He was in the distance so we picked up the pace and caught up with him. I’d say we were about 60-70 feet away. We huddled in a bush and watched as he ate and took some pictures. We weren’t too quiet, but he didn’t care. Our guide even pointed out the birdcalls that were going on above us. Apparently the birds see us and try warning the rhino, but he doesn’t care, he doesn’t smell anything funny. Or does he? Shoot, winds changed and now he can smell us. He is alert, alarmed, looking around, and doing a nervous dance. Time to go. Since rhinos don’t have great eyesight we can easily hide behind a bush, however, we can’t make any noise because the noise combined with our smell will certainly set things off. We all carefully tip toe through bush and branches staying as low as possible. We need to get behind this fallen tree to be in a “safe place”. Guide says “stop, don’t move”. I didn’t even want to breathe and I notice my heart pounding a little bit. “Ok, hurry, go, stay low, quiet!” the guide says in a low whisper. One by one we hopped over the fallen tree making as little noise as possible. That is until the last person was stepping on the tree to get over it and it broke and he fell!! Crunch, boom, crack! Oops. The rhino didn’t like it much, but regardless of the noise he couldn’t see us anymore. After a few minutes of still quietness, the rhino went off a little confused, but no longer nervous. Me, on the other hand, whoa….I think I am shaking a little. That was awesome!!! Let’s go find another one!! And that is just what we did. Only this time, this was a big boy Black Rhino; more aggressive than the white one and probably twice the size. The winds are in our favor so we are able to get a little closer this time. The guide informs us that he is eating and when he finds a good piece of grass the rhinos tend to circle that area until all the good grass is gone. We got to watch this habit for a few minutes until the guide said, “he’s not turning, he’s grazing this way. We’ll give it a minute, if he doesn’t turn we have to go.” One minute, we had to go. The rhino wasn’t turning and despite the favorable wind, he’s caught our smell. Like the first rhino he gets alarmed and starts doing the same dance where he looks up, jogs like he is running away, then turns around and faces you. Ok, really time to so. The guide instructed us to stay very low and to stay very quiet as we headed back towards a tree. “Stop, don’t move, stay very still”, the guide shouts in a whisper. Here we go again. In the theater business you have what’s called First Positions where you take a pose so that you are in the right position for when the curtain goes up. Sometimes these poses are awkward and all of us standing still, stopped frozen mid-crawl, I was thinking to myself, feels like someone just called out ‘First Positions!!’, only this was definitely a different kind of theater. We slowly and eventually got to a safe place and once out of sight we had to hike quickly, looking back over your shoulder, in case the rhino was still alarmed and curious. All turns out well in the end, just another day with rhinos.
The rest of our hike in the strong African sun was quite uneventful. We saw some wildebeests and some warthogs, but they are a little skittish, so you don’t get to see them for very long. What an amazing day so far and again we are stunned by how little time we have been here (not even 24 hours) and how we have seen what takes people days or weeks to see. We are certainly trying to appreciate our fortune as best we can.
Since our morning hike ended at 10am we decided to relax, do some laundry, and then head out on more trails to see if we can find some more animals.
We saw giraffes, and Great Kudus, we saw another herd of buffalo and then one buffalo way too uncomfortably close in the road, and came across a whole herd of zebras!!! Zebras are really cool. Apparently they are pretty mean too, but only if you get close. Since you aren’t allowed out of your car while in the park, we weren’t worried. The Zebras we encountered were pretty curious too. They like to look straight at you, which is great for the camera. We even saw two ponies that came a little closer to us to see what we were. Once we have a home to live in, I’m sure you’ll see some zebra pictures around.
Since we had seen so much in the short time we were in Kruger, we decided to check out as planned and head for the coast. It will be a long drive so I am not sure where we are going to camp up for the night. I’ll sure let you know if it is interesting. ;)