Rhinos
Traveling with grown children doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game.
The playbook: Parents book a fabulous adventure; in this case, a river safari exploring the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Kids discover a cool vacation that fits into PTO.
The goal: Together-time.
The icebreaker at our safari group meetup in Johannesburg is ‘What animal are you most hoping to see’? “Lions,” we roar. A French speaker calls out “Simba!”
Our son says, “Rhinos.” Silence.
Doesn’t he know the rhino is almost extinct in southern Africa due to poaching? Rhinoceros horn, made of keratin like cows’ hooves, sells on the open market for as much as US$90,000 per kilogram. Today’s poaching trade, however, has slowed for several reasons:
Science has cast doubts on the health and virility benefits of powdered horn. Entrepreneurs are making controversial efforts to bio-engineer and farm rhino horns. Parks are removing remaining rhinos’ horns, leaving them vulnerable to predators but saving lives. Most efficiently, guards and guides who see poachers have shoot-to-kill orders.
But I digress.
Our 10-person jeep rattles over sand and dried riverbeds. This is what’s known as an African Massage. The first game drive in Botswana’s Chobe National Park infects us all with animal lust.
Binoculars and cellphones are poised to capture the parade: impala, kudu, spiral-horned elands, cape buffalo, warthogs, zebra. We snap two prides of lions napping. Giraffes, nibbling at treetops, stand behind. Chobe has 170,000+ African elephants, more than anywhere else on earth. They tower over us 10 feet or more from shoulder to toe, giant ears flapping, ivory tusks scraping, devouring the acacia trees.
Our guide Mike gifts us a sleepy leopard, tucked in a tree above a baby elephant carcass consumed a few days before. We return to our luxurious refuge, Kaza Safari Lodge on Namibia’s remote Impalila Island, exhausted from the suspense and excitement of the hunt.
Days flow in a torrent of wonders. We have taken a bush flight to our eight-cabin river cruiser Zimbabwean Dream. Wherever we moor the ship, bellowing hippos and stealthy crocodiles wait as crew members disembark to thank God for safe passage.
Jeep adventures, bird watching, water safaris by tender; our convivial group marvels that each day is better than the last. We are overwhelmed by nature’s natural generosity and the respect between species. Each animal has its place in the Animal Kingdom.
Our son, meanwhile, has discovered an optional excursion, a Black Rhino Safari at a Zimbabwean game reserve. Because it is a privately owned conservation area, management has more flexibility than the national parks.
Our last day, an open-sided 4WD labeled Stanley & Livingstone Safari Reserve pulls up at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.
The posh wellness resort group Anantara runs this 11,500-acre reserve just outside town – a miniature animal kingdom with its own security force and veterinarians. They have 11 black rhinoceroses – all dehorned except for the eldest female who was thought to be too old to survive tranquilization.
Nixon, our excellent guide from Harare, makes it clear it’s not his first rodeo. He asks how many of the Big Five we have seen, have we checked off Cape Buffalo, Elephants, Leopards and Lions from our list? Seeing our nods, he drives off, leaning precariously out the righthand door to follow tracks.
Suddenly he stops, raising his hand for silence. To our left, a small rhino is chomping on a helpless bush. We stay still and watch through the trees, even as watery eyes watch us. Up close, the young male’s intensity and body armor evoke Darth Vader.
We back away and head to a clearing where two giraffes stand cross-legged, dining on mimosa. Another young male rhino -- locals call them Dugga Boys -- is wading into a puddle. Like a chubby Snoopy, he rolls back and forth in the dugga (Zulu for mud), legs flapping in the air. The scene is equally charming and silly.
Silently, the matriarch appears with two young, blocking our route, her priceless horns held high in a regal salute. We are in awe.
It's time for a Sundowner. Old safari hands will order a gin and tonic, the cocktail invented during Britain’s colonial period to mask the taste of quinine, the only known anti-malarial at the time.
Nixon’s tailgate, of course, has all the G&T fixings. Instead, we choose a tasty South African Chenin Blanc to wash down our biltong -- smoked, air-dried beef prepared by the hotel.
It is after hours in a private reserve. We are watching the sun set over Africa! The moment is very much ours, the family together in our own exclusive corner of the world.
But of course, it’s not ours, it is theirs. Although Disney has cleverly convinced us we’re among friends, these rhinoceroses disagree. Just ask Nixon, who devotes his life to protecting wildlife from, well… us.
Fortunately, this isn’t a zero-sum game. I look around. We are all winners.
Kyle McCarthy and her family traveled with the France-based river cruise company, CroisiEurope, on their 9-day Southern Africa Safari Cruise.