Follow the Journey

This week was terrible. All I wanted to do was ride a rhino. Not only would they not let me ride one, they wouldn’t even let us pet them. Just kidding! This week went far beyond any of our expectations and believe me, you DO NOT want to get too close to these ginormous majestic beasts. Upon our arrival at the rhino sanctuary we had a brief orientation followed by our first rhino monitoring experience. After having just learned during orientation that the sanctuary is 70 square kilometers we did not expect to find rhinos so quickly but we were very lucky and spotted 5 only a few minutes into our walk. Besides rhino monitoring our week was filled with awesome activities and once in a lifetime experiences. Our visit to the sanctuary happened to coincide with the visit of rhino ecologist Felix Patton. He was there training the new rangers and we were invited to sit in as he taught them about rhino characteristics, behaviors, and conservation. We took advantage of his visit and asked many questions. He was a very knowledgeable and funny man and we all learned a lot from him. Another activity we got to experience as animal tracking and identification which was kind of like a walking safari. We saw bush bucks, dica, monkies, and many others plus we learned to identify the tracks, droppings, and shelters of the animals we saw and more. Another activity, related to conservation, was helping make sure the electric fence was properly maintained and fixing lose and broken areas. Don’t worry we made sure the electricity was off first. We worked on a service project at a nearby resort where they were building a playground for the guests. We hauled trash from the project to a large pit and dirt to cover it up. The staff was impressed by our work ethic and we were rewarded with cold sodas, lunch, and swimming. We wrapped up our week with a night patrol under a full moon. It was a good time to reflect on our week as we walked silently under the African stars.