I am such a Bush Baby

It’s official now … I’m not yet bush approved! My first night out alone in the bush was a personal disaster.

All started so great. On my way to my campsite at the Waterberg Plateau, I nearly overlooked a rhino that was just about to cross the road. It was on it’s way towards the waterhole on the other side of the road. When I saw it, I immediately turned off the car. The rhino stopped on the road, sprayed its urine (males do this to show dominance and mark their territory, which did not make me feel very comfortable at that point) and then turned towards me. Not the best position on that sandy road with only a VW Polo … I reversed slowly and luckily the rhino was obviously rather thirsty than in a confrontation mood.

After checking in, I got to know that I am the only guest at the Waterberg Plateau, which sounded great! I drove to my campsite, put up my tiny tent, and settled down.

I made myself a nice meal, had a wine, a visit from a very habituated genet, and went to sleep.

Until now, all was perfect! But then it became dark. Couldn’t sleep for the first 20 minutes cause two leopards were growling and I tried to figure out if they come closer. Then I got highly alert by a loud rustling next to me. Something came out of the thicket! I could literally hear my heart bumping! I froze in my tent and made me as small as possible but that thing wouldn’t leave. So I decided to rather make a loud noise and slapped on my backpack which caused an angry growl from the outside before it went silent again. I’m not proud that I went into the car for the rest of the night 😦 saw the honeybadger tracks this morning just outside the tent. It sounded a bit bigger … 😀