Kichaka Game Reserve - Evening Update

We left in the late afternoon in the rain.  Be mindful that our game drives are in Land Rovers, but they are open topped Land Rovers.  We were wearing our safari gear and thick rain ponchos, but pretty quickly the weather gets the best of your gear, despite any preparations.

We were, however, rewarded with two amazing sights.  The first was we happened upon a herd of elephants.  But the better part was that Dad spotted the herd before Chris, our guide, did.  Chris was deep in the middle of explaining the differences between the black and white rhinos when Dad suddenly gave a cry of exclamation. As we began to turn our heads in that direction Caroline gave a squeal of delight. Her greatest desire had finally been realized. The herd of elephants was traveling with a baby calf, only three months old.  We first saw the older buck that leads the herd.  The buck 'leads' from the back, as is the case with most herds.

We then when to the opposite side of the small valley, where the herd was.  As we began to approach the herd they naturally began to encircle the calf, ensuring that at least one of them was between us and the calf the entire time. Despite being three months old the baby elephant already weighed 130 kilos.

From there we went looking for white rhinos.  As we strained our eyes against the horizon Chris began to tell us how the white rhino got it's name. The white rhino was first named by Dutch settlers who called it the wid (Dutch for wide, phonetically vi-d) rhino, after it's large flat brimmed mouth. The incoming English settlers then interpreted the wid as white rhino, and thus the white rhino was born. While we did not see the rhinos, we did get to see the cheetah again.  This time he was not on the bluff, but laying under some trees.  The cheetah was camping under a set of wattle trees to hid e from the lions and nest for the night. We were, at most, ten feet away from the cheetah.

We saw a few other things, and also got even wetter, but by the end of the evening the rain stopped, and we made it back to the game lodge.  We were greeted with a hot towel, a glass of sherry, and a warm shower before heading off to dinner!