My South African Travels, Day Three

Day 3

Like I said in closing the last post, my group all woke up between 1 and 2 AM the first night at camp. I was fortunate enough to be on the later side of that. I wish I had known that everyone was awake, because I probably would have gone outside and partied with them. And by that, I mean lamented the fact that I was not still asleep.

It was a horrible feeling, watching the hours tick away and knowing that I had to get up at 4:45. I begged myself to go back to sleep, but it just did not happen. Around 3 AM I received a text from my roommate back home, letting me know that Chica, Sienna, and Ramses were all doing well. I texted with her for a little while (nevermind the $0.50/text thing), because it was nice to know that I wasn't the only one awake (even though it was only 8 PM her time).

At 4:45, I heard Rebecca get up, so I climbed out of bed as well. I then discovered that she had also been awake for the last several hours. We did the obligatory complaining about it being so early, but we gamely got ready, even did our make up, and went out to meet the group for breakfast at 5:30. We got to know another participant that came for the course separate from our group- Kim, from Denmark. He is the veterinarian at the Knuthenborg Safari Park, and he was a fun guy to hang out with.

Around 6 AM, we were loading up on the bus to head to the game park where the injured rhino had been sighted. We arrived much earlier than Cobus and Derik, so we got out of the bus at the entrance to the park (which is very restricted on who can enter) and walked around, taking pictures of things to keep ourselves entertained. We could see some zebras way down the road in the park, so I played with the zoom on my camera to see how the pictures would turn out:

Just out for a stroll.

The vets arrived, and we all climbed back into the van and set off down the road, pausing as we passed the same group of zebras:

Bonus wildebeest in the background.

We reached a meet-up point, where we met a bunch of guys, and a bunch of dogs. One of the groups of guys and dogs was led by Conrad, a super awesome James Bond-esque guy. Basically, he patrols for poachers, and he takes care of them when he finds them. His dog teams are trained for poacher hunting.

"Don't put your hands through the bars, they'll bite." Dually noted!

Basically, Conrad has the coolest job ever, and if we had poachers here in the USA, I would definitely want his job. He had two guys training under him (Vincent and Connor), one of which (Vincent) had a dog he was currently training, and the other of which (Connor) was getting two German Shepherd puppies that afternoon. Eeee! He was really excited but really sad because he had just gotten new, fluffy carpet. He knew it was not going to last long with little pups.

I don't know the name of the other guy who had dogs, but his dogs were trained to track wildlife. They were gorgeous, and we were allowed to pet/play with them.

Sup?

In fact, one group of vets got to ride in the back of the truck with them as we careened through the brush, trying not to fall on them.

After Cobus and Derik located the rhino, Rebecca, Kim, Connor, Vincent, Dr. Logan and I loaded up in the back of Conrad's truck, and everyone else loaded up into the pointer's truck, and we took off through the back country to find their coordinates. Eventually Conrad parked and said we would go on foot the rest of the way. At this point we met up with a bunch of other people who came out of nowhere, and I'm still not really sure who they were. One of them was a girl in a skirt and flip-flops who said that this was not part of the plan when she was dressing that morning.

We ended up trekking all through the bush trying to locate the darted and downed rhino. Rebecca and I freaked out the whole time about the ticks that were probably crawling all over us. Never mind the fact that the Black Mamba, one of the most venomous snakes, lives in the vicinity, and also never mind the fact that there were lions, leopards, and other predators out there. My #1 worry was ticks. I'm such a girl.

Some of what we crawled through.

We soon realized that not everybody had to disembark their vehicle to reach the rhino when we were passed by the other truck carrying the rest of our party. I think some fist-shaking was exchanged.

We finally found the rhino:

Conveniently blindfolded

She had been gored in her leg by an overly amorous male rhino (I just typed "whino" and it's probably the truth).

Ouch.

While some of our people cleaned out and packed the wound, I joined Conrad in pouring water on her (safer) back end to keep her cool:

Me: "SO COOL SO COOL!"

While I was minding my own business taking care of that end, Derik walked over to me and handed me a needle, syringe, and bottle of fluid.

Me, in a panic: "What do you want me to do with this?" ~to anybody who would listen~
Derik: "Give her an IM injection right here."
Me: "...um, ok, well I'm not a vet, and I've never given an injection in my life, so..."
Someone (my head was going fuzzy), either Derik, Conrad or Kim: "It's easy! You just have to jab the needle in because their skin is so tough, and then push the syringe really hard to get the contents in."
[Derik demonstrating how to jab the needle in]
Me: "Ok. Ok. Ok. So, just throw the needle in here [does so]..."
[chorus] "Good job! Just like that!"
Me: "...and then push the syringe in... [struggles even while using both hands and all of my body weight]"

Fortunately, they were all super patient with me and then very positive about my work. And the rhino didn't die, so I guess it was a success. Annnnd Conrad had me give another injection later, which was super kind of him.

Not to brag, but my first injection was on a rhinoceros.

They had to get the rhino turned over shortly afterwards to get to another leg that had an injury, which was a feat in itself. After a lot of huffing and puffing, they finally managed. I mostly stayed back and held a tree out of the way during the straining to get her turned over.

I'm not sure what I missed, but suddenly Cobus announced that he was waking the rhino up and we had 10 seconds to collect all of the equipment and get out of there. I grabbed the nearest box of stuff and ran for the truck... only to find out that I had run to the wrong truck. I then had to run for the other truck, which was in a different direction, and the entire time I ran I imagined I was about to get run over by a dazed and confused rhino, seeking revenge for my needle practice sessions. But, I made it and discovered that the rhino was still in the process of getting to her feet. We stayed and watched her get up, shake herself off, and walk off. It was just awesome.

We got back to our rendezvous point, where I drank ice cold water that was offered to me out of a random plastic bucket, not caring a) where it had come from or b) who had already had a drink of it. It was HOT, and I was dehydrated. I would have gotten a drink from Crocodile River at that point, wildebeest style, I was so thirsty.

As we are standing around talking about our experience, I turned around, and lo and behold, there was an elephant standing a short distance away, drinking from a small pond. We all excitedly loaded up and drove over nearby it so we could take a million pictures.

"What's all this then?"

"Seriously, have you never seen a guy drink?"

The elephant walked off, and we headed back for the road. On the way out, we were treated to the sight of baboons and impalas running through the grass.

 

 

Babies!

And some giraffes in the distance:

Upon our arrival back at home, we were greeted by one of the resident giraffes hanging out by the road.

Follow me to freedom!

Portrait of a Giraffe

Come at me, bro!

We finished the evening with lasagna and a trip to see a rescued baby giraffe currently staying at the camp's facilities, followed by some classroom time for the veterinarians.

I promise that she isn't a stuffed animal.

I'd like to think that she (the giraffe) and I shared a bonding moment at one point that week- she was really scared, and I managed to coax her to walk up to within about 2 feet of me- but it was ruined when I stuck my hand out in an attempt to touch her. COME BACK AND LET ME LOVE YOU!

Day 3 was an exciting start to our course week. I look back and cannot believe how much we packed into the week, let alone the fact that we got to start with a member of the Big Five (aka the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. Other members are the lion, leopard, elephant, and Cape buffalo).

Nets, wrestling, and helicopters. There's lots more to come tomorrow- we're only getting warmed up!