Today we do road maintenance. By road of course I mean track as nothing on the reserve has any tarmac. Some of the more regularly used tracks get quite rutted and potholed so today we were towing a trailer which we would fill with shale at a small quarry before heading to a particularly poor track that Jamie the ranger had in mind for us to repair. That was the plan. But that plan changed. Before even reaching the quarry the suspension on the trailer collapsed on one side making it immovable. We were forced to abandon it in the reserve and do our best at digging out earth from along the track we were to repair, which would prove much more demanding.
We arrived in the heavily scrubbed area and drove around the various narrow tracks in the immediate vicinity; this was black rhinoceros country and although much smaller than the white rhinoceros that we had seen on the plains to date, they more than made up for that in their aggressive behaviour. We saw none (we never have) but hopefully any around had been warned of our presence and headed away.
Parked up we saw the challenge we faced: a sloping mud track with a deep central ditch scoured out by water and vehicles. We split into two groups and each one set about pick-axing the earth loose and shovelling the earth into the massive rut. It was hard and hot under the morning sun but after over two hours we were I think justifiably proud of what our efforts and organisation had achieved. Not as much as if the original plan had worked out but more than I had anticipated when I first saw the task in hand.
It was then time for lunch. We headed to a high vantage point, enjoyed the views and the lunch that had been prepared for us, and then drove off for the usual afternoon of animal monitoring. We were after elephants and headed off to elephant country but soon came across a group of white rhinoceros on the plain. We stopped and watched them, trying to pick out the notches cut into their ears; not easy when they are not obligingly standing still and facing you directly. It took about twenty minute of scrutiny with binoculars, while those with cameras and long lenses took photos which could be checked more easily, but after this time we had them identified. Moving on we came across another three rhinoceros a few minutes later and once again we identified them all. The identification of rhinoceros helps keep track of numbers and identification with a view to knowing that none have been lost to poachers.
It was then off to the elephants and before long we found a group of eighteen, young and old, and followed them around as they browsed their way through the scrubland. It is so much harder to identify these beasts; while you can get closer you are largely relying on tears and holes in their ears which are not so distinguishable between animals. Only a very few have obvious features like one missing tusk or a tear that is so different from others it is unmistakable. The reserve likes to check the numbers of elephants they have because they can be very destructive in their feeding and too many in a reserve can have a detrimental effect overall. The only answer is to remove them elsewhere (and that means the whole family group), to use some contraceptive methods to reduce birth rate or, in the worst case, to cull them. At Shamwari the numbers fortunately have not got to that point.
Monitoring over, we headed off on the hour long drive to the lodge and I was buoyed up by what had been a very focused afternoon compared with our previous 'animal monitoring' experiences. But it was a cold journey. We arrived to greet the newcomers (I am still the eldest, but not now by over twenty five years!) and then after dinner and a short bit of socialising it was an early night for me.
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