Less Rhinos

My mineral water has run out and I have to drink the water from the tap. Its drinkable and clean but tastes awful.

I have now visited all 5 waterholes on the reserve, including Elandpos which is over an hour’s drive on the far southern boundary, and Graham hates to drive there as the roads are terribly rocky and youre constantly being battered by acacia branches. Graham drove myself and Tim, I took my laptop and we checked all the photos taken on the previous night. Unfortunately, only the one camera down by Wildebeest Plain had any pictures of a rhino, but luckily it was Roberta (one we hadn’t got before) accompanied by an unidentified other rhino. It must have been a calf as the ears weren’t notched, but appeared too big to be the calf we were looking for. It could have been Odetta as mother and daughter may still associate after maturity, its difficult to tell – but if it is Odetta, then we have to ask; where is the other calf? We left the camera down at the plain hoping they would return tonight and answer our questions. The camera at the house only showed a lot of antelope and even a porcupine, but no Rhino so we moved it to the waterhole at the bush camp. There were once again rhino tracks moving towards the water there, so Tim hammered a pole into the ground for us to tie the camera on to as the nearest trees were too far. The camera we placed at Hyena dam didn’t manage to get anything as it was placed badly, and, unsure where best to leave it, we took it with us to Elandpos. All along the way Graham and Tim stopped to check various engines which pumped water, and twice stopped to fill in huge aardvark holes dug in the road. At the Elandpos engine I climbed onto a high metal tower and could see the southern boundary and the farmland beyond, to the north I could see the big Otavi mountain range with small ridges of hills extending into the land here. The Tafelberg is a big singular hill shaped almost like a perfect semi-circular table, quite a beautiful feature, and I know Bruno takes guests up; I myself have been up twice now – dad has been 3 times. As Tim couldn’t spot any rhino tracks at Elandpos we took the camera back up to Hyena dam and hammered another pole there.

One of the camera remotes didn’t work properly, so upon returning to the farmhouse I asked Graham for a tiny screwdriver and we opened it. It turned on and appeared to be functioning right, but the navigation buttons weren’t responding so I was looking for a physical problem blocking the buttons. Unfortunately everything looked fine, so Ill have to wait till we return to the camera tomorrow to see if it works now.

It was now early afternoon and there wasn’t much else to do. I admired the amazing view from the front of the house; you can see the road stretch for miles until it goes over a ridge and disappears from sight, winding towards the gate. Wildebeest plains are clearly visible as a yellow scar in the valley below, but too far to spot any animals. Later in the evening I just turned on my shower when a huge herd of about 50 eland descended from the hills to drink at the waterhole, clearly visible from the window.

Im still using the little dongle for internet access, the connection here is really good as Bruno has a booster antenna inside the house.

Just want to say - it is very unlikely that I will see a Pangolin. Know that.