Wildcast

It was a quiet day. Well up until sunset.
Again I started off following lion tracks heading east along the airstrip and north into the hills. That was them done!
The elephants had moved east and were feeding along the Mulovela drainage system. I spent as much time as I could with them but the bush gets out of hand in there. Then they moved closer to the hills.
I went south to the pan expecting to find some elephant there, but that was pretty fruitless. Only Spud was again on the scene. He’s sure moving around the property.

With no accessible elephants around I went and waited at Nduna dam expecting them to arrive there some time it the day. A lone bull was just leaving when I arrived and took off out of there.

The Quelea were also in force at the dam coming in in their tens of thousands. But they were about the only action there for most of the day.
Late afternoon it was time to head out and I ventured via Bandama. A small herd of buffalo were already there and soon left heading south east.

Just as they were leaving this Black Rhino bull came to drink. He was totally oblivious to my presence and went about drinking and wallowing as usual. I was so excited just to see the dude as they are so elusive and generally nocturnal.
Having filmed him drinking and then wallowing he moved a little way off and was rubbing on a tree stump. I desperately wanted photographs of him so snuck along the edge of the pan with my 70-200mm lens, not having time to put my big lens on and knowing I could of course crop the images.

The wind was in my favour and with his bad eyesight, and the fact that he was rubbing on a stump, I got to within about 20m of him without him being aware of me. By now I was one hugely excited kid. A black rhino only 20m away, the light was great and he was covered in mud. Brilliant!
Then he suddenly became aware of me. He wasn’t sure though and stood for some time just watching. I was snapping away, he must surely by now be able to hear the camera shutter going off I thought.
The excitement was overpowering and I was shaking madly. I checked the camera shutter speed to be sure it was fast enough to compensate for my shake. 500th of a second and I was okay.
On my way to following the rhino I had looked for possible escape routes for if he charged. Which of course black rhino tend to do before asking questions. There was a pile of rocks I hoped would be my safety. The biggest being only about 2ft high but the rough assembly of them assured me I’d be safe.
Not happy to just watch this thing clicking away at him, the rhino bull advanced as if not sure that there actually was something there. He just kept coming at a walk. I kept snapping away, by now one exhilarating wreck. I was beside myself with excitement, and still confident I was safe.
Only when he was about 10m away did I decide to move. Slowly backwards of course. My rocks were now only a couple of meters away. Seeing me move the rhino charged! But it was only a few steps. I jumped onto my 2ft high rock. Now not so sure I was the king of the castle.
The extra movement had the bull coming closer and then closer until his feet were against the rock I was standing on. I kept the camera clicking away and he snorted his disapproval at me. He was now no more than 4ft away. I could almost reach out and touch him. No, I wasn’t planning on doing that.
The camera kept clicking and maybe the wind suddenly changed, ‘cos the rhino spun round and took off.
I couldn’t believe what I had just experienced with a wild black rhino. Probably the most aggressive animal in the African bush. And I was on foot.
Thankfully I had my small lens on the camera, as I was even able to get his head full frame even with the 200mm. I suppose if I’d had the 400 lens, on I’d have got an eyeball.

He really didn’t mean any harm and was just curious to see what I was. And I was glad to have my rock. Although it was small, it gave me that little bit of an advantage. I would never have let it go that far if I didn’t have my perch.
That experience is enough to set me on a high for at least a year! What a huge WOW!
Shortly after this Darryl called to say he had 4 lions at Banyini. I joined him there. Unfortunately it wasn’t Manyari.

We headed home only to get a radio call to say that Manyari and some youngsters were near Chivi and she’s totally fine since her implant. More great news!