June 4th. This
morning, I had opted not to go on the rhino walk, because I needed some time to
work uninterrupted. I slept in, so wonderful, until 715, and then got up and
got ready. I took in my washing from the line, then later on, realized it was
wet from dew, so I hung it back out again. Fail. Then, I made myself some
delicious oatmeal, on the stovetop of course, cause we don’t have microwaves
here. I had never made stovetop oatmeal, so it was definitely going to be an
adventure. I put some muesli, cinnamon, and sugar in it, and it was really
fantastic! I also made a cup of vanilla tea. Then, in my own special way, I
proceeded to drop my wonderful oatmeal as I tried to open the door to the data
room with the oatmeal and tea in my hands. Fail again. So depressing. Luckily,
oatmeal is very stiff, so 2/3 of it stayed in the bowl. And I still ate it. No
shame :) Of course, it had gotten cold after I cleaned up my mess…. Sad times.
Oh well. I spent the morning in the data room, with Cara and Jamie in the
living room next to me, working on my research. They were doing paperwork, and
we would chat off and on, which was nice. I got all the lions done, and the two
most recent data sets for cheetahs, leopards, and hyaena. I was able to work
for a few hours, which I really needed. The gang got home around 12, after
walking in on a group of 3 rhino! So cool for them, too bad this was the week I
skipped. Lol, oh well. We had some yummy corn fritters for lunch and green
salad. I helped clean up, and since we had lunch so late, we canceled
maintenance for the day. Ooops. ;P We all showered up and prepped for the
drive. We left with Lukas at 330. What was fun was that Cara was driving and
Jamie was navigating. They got a chance to lead the drive, which was very cool.
We originally headed out to find ellies. But we kept getting stopped by lots of
general game. Then, we saw a lone rhino. After getting close and taking some
pics, we left to head on our way. But the rhino got very agitated and decided
to chase us. And trust me, a huge adult rhino chasing down your vehicle is a
sight to behold! We had to stop the car and wait for her to calm down, so she
didn’t decide to charge the vehicle or try to chase us off. It was definitely
intense. She walked in a large circle around the vehicle and wouldn’t take her
eyes off us. Eventually, she moved down the road. Of course, she went in the
direction we needed to take! So we drove slowly that way, hoping she had moved
off into the bush. We had to stop again, as she came back out to watch us. A
Makalali car approached and stopped for its guests to see the rhino. Just then,
a large bull ellie begins lumbering up from directly behind the Makalali truck.
The rhino finally left into the bush, and the ellie calmly lumbered past. We
got moving again, and just a few roads down, there was another lone male
elephant! Silly boys. By this time, it was already starting to get late, and
the sun was setting. We moved to a nearby picturesque lookout spot and watch
the sun set there. Then, we went to Kwatile Dam, where a female lion with cubs
was sighted. It was Bella and her three one-year olds! We haven’t seen them
since I have been here, so it was a great sighting. We watched them interact
and drink and rest from a distance, and as it got darker, it got harder to take
pics. We were about to leave, when we realized they were coming right towards
us. We stayed, and turned on the spotlight, and the cubs moved within 5 meters
of the vehicle! It was so cute to watch them play! Bella was super calm and was
very playful with them as well. They eventually all passed by the car, through
a thicket of bush, and moved up the road. We turned our vehicle and began
following them. We trailed them up the road. It was so cute to see one of the
cubs who would keep lying down, then would have to run down the road to catch
up with the others. The other two cubs kept spontaneously jumping on each other
and on Mom as they traveled. Sooo cute to watch! Very calm and playful, and it
was great to see that they are thriving even though they are not with the big
pride. We followed them until they disappeared into the bush, finally leaving
the road. We had an interesting drive back, letting the new rangers drive and
get a little confused about our location in the dark. But they figured it out,
and we got home successfully around 7. I helped cook dinner, and we made baked
macaroni cheese and peas. The guys built a fire for the first time since Friday
night, so that was nice. Even though it was surprisingly warm tonight, it was
nice to all sit around as a group. We all turned in around 9, and headed off to
bed. It got really windy once I got to my room, and apparently its supposed to
be a cold front rolling in. We will see how it feels tomorrow morning!
Agitated rhino peeking past the bush,
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