The Elusive Black Rhino

Last weekend we decided to go to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary for the weekend.  I have been there many times since it is in Serowe (where I used to live), but I had never spent the night.  A group of 12 went up and we stayed at the wonderful chalets that they have.  There was also a great tree for tree climbing (as you can see above ;)

A really pretty ?grasshopper and a Daddy ostrich with babies

We went on a game drive on Saturday afternoon and saw plenty of wildlife.  We told our guide that we really wanted to see a black rhino since none of us had ever seen one.  In the sanctuary there are 35 white rhinos and only 3 black ones.  The black rhinos are also harder to spot as they eat from bushes so stay in the dense parts of the park while the white rhinos are grazers eating grasses in the more open areas.  He was on the look-out and managed to find many other things, but no black rhinos.

A lilac breasted roller in flight.
They have the colors of the Botswana flag under their wings, something I never noticed before

We even saw one of the oldest rhinos in the park.  Apparently, you can tell by the length and the straightness of their horns - the longer and straighter the horn the older the rhino. Above is a mama and her baby.  After 2 hours we returned to our chalets and began to prepare for the brai (South African way of saying barbecue).  I wanted to make roasted potatoes, but realized we had forgotten to bring oil.  So I headed to the restaurant (a few hundred meters from our chalets) to see if we could borrow some.  They were nice enough to let me have a small cup of oil and I started to head back to the brai.  As I stepped out of the restaurant I saw a black rhino staring at me!  I shouted to the others to bring the cameras and watched as the rhino tapped on the edge of the pool which was covered.  He was rescued as a baby, so is more used to humans than the other rhinos in the park and has grown accustomed to drinking from the pool outside the restaurant.   One of the park staff members came to remove a section of the pool covering for him and we watched as he stuck his head in the pool and drank.

I offered him some oil as well, but he was not interested ;)  After he finished drinking he began to walk towards us so we scattered.

We followed behind him for a bit and at one point he turned around looked at us and then sprayed the area around him to mark his territory.  It was quite entertaining.

We returned to our brai and had a great feast which included a nice fire on which to roast s'mores!