Quiet Day at Thornybush

Flat Tire in the bush

This morning we’re after black rhino. Roland and Anthony have found fresh dung and tracks on the road. But before we started tracking the rhinos, we had to fix a flat tire on our jeep. Anthony walked through the brush, while Roland took the jeep around on the road. No luck, we picked up Anthony as other vehicles joined the hunt. Eventually one of those vehicles found them. By the time we got there they were in a thick set of trees and bushed. They were hard to see, but appeared to be the same set of three we had seen two days earlier.

Rhinos in the bush

We didn’t see much else in the morning. Roland told a story of a Kudo running through breakfast at the camp and jumping in the pool. Eight wild dogs followed and killed the Kudo in the pool, but they couldn’t pull it out of the pool to eat. After the dogs gave up, a lion came, grabbed the carcass, pulled it out of the pool, and began feasting. The master tracker told Roland he was going to chase the lion away from his kill and to watch how it was done. He took a blanket, opened it up and shook it at the lion, apparently, they don’t like square shapes. He continued to shake the blanket and the lion started moving away, with the tracker following until out of the camp.

That afternoon, we flew back to Johannesburg to meet the rest of our tour group for the start of the standard tour.