SOUTHERN AFRICA 2023: DAY 46 — SOUTH AFRICA

When You're Spotting Rhinos From the Highway

Then you know, you're in the country home to an abundance of wildlife

The sun is shining. I can't believe it but the sun is really shining. I think it's the first time in a week that I see blue skies.

Yes, I'm still in Africa.

We arrived late last night and the owner of this campsite gave us a bungalow for the price of camping. It was getting dark, it was raining and he didn’t want us to set up camp in the rain.

How nice of him, right? And this is why I love traveling in Africa. Because of the people. They are human. Kind. Always helpful.

I'm sitting now on the veranda of our little home, enjoying the first sunrays of the day while the birds are singing in the trees. Tiny lizards are running across the wooden floor.

Everything is stretched out across the veranda and the garden. After a week of rain, all our bags, towels and just everything was damp, wet and started to smell.

While David was using the sunlight and dry weather to check on our vehicle, I pulled out everything and hung things up for drying. Just for an hour or two but that was enough.

As the rain clouds were building behind us, we knew we can’t stay here another day but needed to drive further West to escape the cyclone rains further.

Soon, we packed up and were back on the road.

We first had to backtrack those 3 kilometers on the dirt road before hitting the highway again. We were somewhat curious, somewhat scared to see how much damage last night's rains had done to the road. And the bridge.

We were passing fancy fruit farms fenced up in barbwire and electric fencing systems. Back to my story about South Africa and its problems with incredibly high crime rates. How bad is it when you have to lock up your fruit trees?

But then again, South Africa is also a country with an abundance of wildlife. And between all those avo and mango farms, antelopes are freely moving around grazing on the lush green grass.

We came around the corner and faced that bridge again. The water had still increased a little more and the water wasn’t far from flooding the bridge again. The owner of the campsite had told us the bridge had been flooded for the previous two weeks straight. We were the first ones to make it over.

And back again.

Then we were back on the highway cruising through the mountains of Mpumalanga. And David was saying how surprised he is at how pretty this area is. It certainly was.

Mountain slopes are covered in forest and valleys are shining green with lush meadows.

We stopped at a farmstall to buy some local produce and a box of mangoes before leaving the region and getting into a flatter landscape.

David was driving something around 120 kph on the highway (yes, South Africa's roads are good enough to drive these speeds again) when he said something I thought he had gone crazy.

"There were 30 rhinos."

Rhinos. The walking African gold is constantly chased and hunted by poachers. There is no way they’ll display rhinos on an open field right next to the highway.

But, I quickly checked on the map for us to find the next exit of the highway, to turn around and find this weird sighting again because this all sounded too unreal not to investigate further.

5 minutes later, we were there. At a rest stop in South Africa where the locals are sitting at Mugg & Bean sipping their coffee and counting rhinos, buffalos and antelopes at the waterhole.

And soon, we were one of them. We found a table in the shade and sat down. I put the camera around my neck and looked through the viewfinder.

Ostriches were walking around with their necks stretched and head high.

Zebras were cuddling next to each other between other groups of animals.

Yes, there were plenty. Animals. Eland and Sable antelopes, springbok, oryx and buffalo.

All of them were peacefully grazing or drinking by the waterhole as the sun was standing high above the horizon.

Did I mention the rhinos? The exact rhinos David had spotted while cruising down the highway. Yes, they were here. With their offspring.

And my guess was right. In times when rhino horns get ripped out of these peaceful animals wherever a poacher locates them, there is no possibility of rhinos living freely next to a populated road.

Unless these horns were removed for their safety. It’s sad to see but apparently the only way to protect the species. But then again, if you, the owner of a farm decide to cut off the horns of your animals, you are not allowed to sell the horn but store them somewhere safe in your home.

Now, when poachers find your animals without the horns, they get upset and break into your property trying to get hold of those packages of African gold. False gold.

It's heart-breaking. It brings my blood to boil. It upsets me. But here you go. That is our human race being the cruelest species on the planet.

Be different.

Save the rhino.

Turn off geo-location when taking pictures of animals in nature parks. Do not share photos of rhinos in national parks or private farms. Poachers use all this information from the net to locate the wanted ones faster.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting here overlooking the flatland soaking in the sight of these peaceful animals. "Chubby unicorns" someone called them. I smiled. With the hopes, it won’t be the last rhinos I’ll ever see.

This is part five of our roadtrip. Watch the full video of our tour through South Africa down below:

We’re currently touring southern Africa and if you’d like to follow, go through this list of stories from our road trip:

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