We had a wonderful Wednesday, Kelly had no school due to exams, her classmates were all taking the Afrikaans language exam (Kelly doesn't take that but continues French instead), we let Katie stay home as well (she impressed her teachers with her performance on her exams over the past few weeks). The kids, Colleen & I headed to our nearest Nature Reserve about ten kilometers from our front door! (Greg missed the fun and headed for another trip to Botswana)
When we arrived (and payed our entrance fee of about $12.00 US for all of us! ) They told us the water buffalo and rhinos were at the coffee shop. So we thanked them for the tip and headed for the coffee shop! On the way (on the road) we saw a herd of water buffalo-very cool! We stopped the car and watched them for a bit. When the road was clear (of buffalo) we continued. Before the shop we saw a Mother and Baby rhino in the grass and we watched the mother nudging the baby and the baby would run along. We thought that was pretty amazing, until we parked at the coffee shop and went behind it to see a father rhino and baby about 5 feet from us!
The rangers throw down hay for the animals to come and eat, they even let the kids throw hay to the rhinos! You may notice that the rhinos have no horns, the ranger answered Katie's question and explained that the horns are removed to protect them from poachers. They tranquilize them and then cut them off with a chainsaw. The horn is made of keratin (like fingernails) so it doesn't hurt them. Then the city of Tshwane (new name for Pretoria) locks the horns into their vault so they can't be stolen & sold. The rhinos need all the help they can get- in today's paper there was an article about another rhino being poached in Kruger Park, which is the big game park everyone puts on their list for South Africa. (you have to be careful in planning your Kruger trip though, it is in a malaria area so you have to take medicine in advance) There have been close to 540 rhinos poached in South Africa this year-381 in Kruger!
We saw a bumper sticker here in our first few weeks and bought it, its been waiting on our fridge for our new car...car is still waiting for us...bank loans take FOREVER! The bumper sticker says, "Save a Rhino, Hunt a Poacher". We are firm believers-who could hurt such an amazing creature?
When we arrived (and payed our entrance fee of about $12.00 US for all of us! ) They told us the water buffalo and rhinos were at the coffee shop. So we thanked them for the tip and headed for the coffee shop! On the way (on the road) we saw a herd of water buffalo-very cool! We stopped the car and watched them for a bit. When the road was clear (of buffalo) we continued. Before the shop we saw a Mother and Baby rhino in the grass and we watched the mother nudging the baby and the baby would run along. We thought that was pretty amazing, until we parked at the coffee shop and went behind it to see a father rhino and baby about 5 feet from us!
The rangers throw down hay for the animals to come and eat, they even let the kids throw hay to the rhinos! You may notice that the rhinos have no horns, the ranger answered Katie's question and explained that the horns are removed to protect them from poachers. They tranquilize them and then cut them off with a chainsaw. The horn is made of keratin (like fingernails) so it doesn't hurt them. Then the city of Tshwane (new name for Pretoria) locks the horns into their vault so they can't be stolen & sold. The rhinos need all the help they can get- in today's paper there was an article about another rhino being poached in Kruger Park, which is the big game park everyone puts on their list for South Africa. (you have to be careful in planning your Kruger trip though, it is in a malaria area so you have to take medicine in advance) There have been close to 540 rhinos poached in South Africa this year-381 in Kruger!
We saw a bumper sticker here in our first few weeks and bought it, its been waiting on our fridge for our new car...car is still waiting for us...bank loans take FOREVER! The bumper sticker says, "Save a Rhino, Hunt a Poacher". We are firm believers-who could hurt such an amazing creature?
Our water buffalo herd.
We stayed at the coffee shop forever drinking tea & hot cocoa and watching the amazing animals. Then we headed for a few bird hides, and tried to find some hippos. However there was a high school bus load of kids at the hippo area and the hippos were nowhere to be found, I guess they find high schoolers to be a scary bunch!
A pretty awesome Wednesday in my book!
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