Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

The day before we planned to head out on our first adventure outside of Kampala we realized that our spare tire had a nail in it and the tread was destroyed. We debated leaving town without one, but then imagined sitting on the side of the road in the hot equatorial sun with a flat tire and no spare to replace it with. We quickly made a call to a local friend to see if they could advise us on where to find a good quality spare tire at a decent price, and fast! He called us back and told us to meet an old man at the Shell Station near our house the next morning. He would be there waiting with a spare tire. And this is how things generally work in Africa.

We left on a Friday, with a new spare tire, on what happened to be Uganda's Independence Day. We were told that traffic in Kampala may be lighter due to the holiday. We learned the hard way, and the trip ended up taking us five hours instead of the three we planned because of the two extra hours it took us to just leave the city. We have quickly learned that the only predictable thing about traffic in Kampala is that there is going to be chaos and traffic jams.

We arrived at our lodge, which is located within the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, happy to have the trip behind us. Rhinos became extinct in Uganda due to poaching and civil unrest in the early 1980s. Rhino Fund Uganda has worked with the Uganda Wildlife Authority to reintroduce these magnificent creatures inside the sanctuary, and plans to eventually relocate them to national parks within the country. Although rhinos can show up at the lodge to graze, the only thing we saw within close proximity was a nightmare inducing spider in our bathroom, some vervet monkeys in the trees, and warthogs searching for grubs.

During our stay we went on a nature walk, woke up at sunrise to try and spot the elusive Shoebill Stork in a nearby swamp (we didn't have such luck), swam in the pool and of course went rhino trekking. This involves following a ranger on a motorbike (called a boda boda in Uganda) on dusty and bumpy roads, then exiting your vehicle and walking through the brush to find the rhinos. It didn't take long until we spotted these massive animals grazing in a small herd. We were fairly close, but kept our distance and continually and silently backed away as they forged their path. We were also lucky enough to spot a solitary mother and her baby drinking from a water hole. The new baby brings the count to 31 rhinos at the sanctuary.

At dusk, we followed a man named Felix back to the lodge who led the way in his truck. As we passed a clearing we noticed that there were many animals grazing, and then spotted a gigantic solitary rhino. Of course we had to stop to admire the scene! As we watched (from a very far distance), the rhino turned his body toward us and stared us down. We decided it was time to continue on, and just as we started we saw Felix hightailing it in reverse once he realized we were no longer right behind him! 

Back at the lodge, we had the pleasure of speaking with Felix and learned that he is the lead rhino expert/ecologist for the sanctuary, Dr. Felix Patton. He told us that the rhino we had seen in the clearing was Taleo, the largest male rhino, who has a reputation for charging cars. He was a fascinating man and I could have spent all evening chatting with him if it wasn't almost bedtime for my three sleepy children. He told us he is from the U.K. and went on safari in Kenya about 30 years ago where at the end of a long day he had the rare fortune of observing a rhino in the wild. Since that moment he became fascinated with this endangered species and changed his life trajectory to become an expert on the rhinoceros. Due to COVID-19 he had been unable to travel for about six months, and said that was the longest he had gone in 25 years without seeing a rhino in person. 

Other than a rhino considering whether or not he should be threatened by our car, we only had one minor mishap when our car got stuck in the mud on the way back from our bird-watching and Shoebill Stork search. We thought we would be stuck for a while, but people from the nearby village along with a ranger arrived to assist us with our predicament. A lot of mud, pushing and maneuvering later, we were able to successfully free our Land Cruiser and safely return to the lodge. 

Until next time, Taleo.