Khama Rhino Sanctuary

After escaping Khubu Island we headed for the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. This is essentially the only place to see Rhino in Botswana. There have been a few released back into the wild, but you would be very lucky indeed to find them. There are in addition to rhino there are various antelope, zebra, wildebeest, and giraffe, among other animals.

After arriving at the campsite, Tana Zane and Nikki went to the pool while Glenn stayed behind. He found some very interesting tracks in the adjacent campsite. The others returned with a report of meeting some folks at the pool who had been in the campsite last evening setting up their tent when the Black Rhino arrived, got tangled up in the tent and headed for the bush. Luckily the tent stayed behind!

We did not have anything that exciting happen during our visit, but we did see several White Rhino, as well as the other animals previously mentioned. While the Rhino were impressively built, nice to see and very strange looking, we all agreed that we prefer the antics of the elephants.

The most exciting thing that happened to us here was when driving around the sanctuary, came around a corner to see nothing but legs in front of the car. Two young Giraffes had been standing in the road, perhaps the rain prevented them from hearing our approach. One scooted off into the bush. The other seemed very curious about the large white thing that nearly ran into it, and approached the car with head down, as if trying to look in the windows.

There was a hornbill nest located in a tree trunk in our campsite. These birds are noteds for their curious habit of sealing the female inside the nest during the incubation period. After the eggs hatch the male lets her out. We watched as the male spent all day foraging for food, returning often with a seed or insect which he passed though a very small hole to the female hidden inside.

We are also noticng the rainy season has definitely arrived. We had rain twice in the first 8 weeks in Africa, now three times in the past week. Trees, shrubs, and grasses are all greening up. Animals are dispersing from the few waterholes that never dry up. Also, we are starting to see very young animals appear. At the sanctuary here we saw tiny Springbok (had its own tiny "spring" jump), Impala, and Warthog babies. Believe it or not even the tiny Warthog babies are very cute!