Black Rhino and the Ngare Ndare Forest

Monday, July 7, 2014  Borana Camp

Up early this morning for a game drive, hoping to find black rhino, so very rare, and leopard, the only one of the “big five” we have not seen yet.  We did find abundant elephant and reticulated giraffe:

And then we had a major sighting—three black rhino all together, extremely unusual as they are generally solitary animals.

Here’s an oxpecker using a rhino as a source of insects:

  

We went back to our lodge for breakfast, and then departed for Ngare Ndare Forest for a canopy walk, swimming in some pools of the river there, and a picnic lunch.  The forest is wonderful, cool and filled with first growth flora.  A canopy walk 60 feet above the forest floor allowed us to see the flora close up, including astonishing lichens:

 We had come in our swimsuits, and went swimming in some beautiful pools in the river, but some of us stayed in the water a very short time as it was quite cold.  There was some jumping from high rocks, mostly the children:

 As our drivers laid out our picnic lunch, the children waited patiently, but they were starving:

Finally, with the three youngest children exhausted (it was now close to 4 PM after a 6 AM start) we drove back to the lodge for dinner and early to bed.