The Kingdom of Swaziland is VERY poor - the King isn't - all his wives have enormous houses and his kids go to school all over the word - but the people are, which might explain why our walking safari guide Johannes carried a walking stick instead of a gun as a weapon ...
We were drilled in Safari Etiquette - walk silently in single file, click or clap if you spot an animal, don't run (prey runs) and obey your guide to the letter - so when I spotted a HUGE rhino and baby just to my right I clapped up a storm and mimed a frenetic charade of "hugebloodygreyhornedbeastwithinspittingdistanceohbuggerareyousurewecan'trun?".
Baby rhino was nervous and edgy (he could see us better - older rhinos have terrible vision) - I was similarly nervous and edgy (having just been told the story of a guide who had fled a charging rhino and his two abandoned clients were injured - an exercise which can lead to manslaughter charges interestingly) .
Johannes indicated that we should freeze - really really easy under these circumstances - and we all held our breath until they started to walk away to my right .... suddenly Mum turned and started walking straight towards me ... I'm still frozen (possibly filming a rather grizzly demise) .. and Johannes runs from the front of the line, races between us and chases them away by banging his cane ... apparently these were "White Rhino" - which are much more timid than the identically and confusingly grey coloured "Black Rhino" - which will charge and kill you ... lucky us (though Johannes asked us not to tell his boss what happened!)
We gave him a fairsized "thanks-for-throwing-yourself-in-front-of-a-rhino" tip and went back to camp for a drink ...
No recipes for this post?
ReplyDeleteMichael is wondering how the giraffe steaks were?
Yes we are all working really hard.
I hear Rhino hide makes wonderful boots.!
ReplyDeleteHave some great recipes for later posts - have eaten kudu, ostrich, and some mystery "game" meat biltong so far ... Not sure I would try and skin a rhino - now that I've seen them wearing their own boots ... too cute ...
ReplyDeleteHOLY SHIT! Awesome!!
ReplyDeleteZebras, great swarms of zebras.... all missing, you did see zebras, didn't you... I mean, anyone can get pictures of being charged by 2 tonne of angry rhino.... sheesh, hardly death defying... erm, well, maybe a bit death defying, well, quite a lot death defying, actually... bloody hell, girl, what were you thinking.. "hang on, not done anything lethal today, lets go play chicken with a rhino"... "oh, and pitch a tent on a scorpion nest, gives me that warm fuzzy feeling as i go to sleep at night". ;)
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