The golden sun was already low over the afternoon horizon and a dark yellow blanket was slowly covering the landscape, touching my back and neck with a pleasant warmth. I pressed my face against the warm, rough wooden posts and looked into the large cage. Five white rhinos were huddled together, snorting quietly in the small enclosure. The dark shadows of the massive wooden bars cast a dark image of the restrictive fence onto the large grey bodies, creating an extremely strong image of bondage.
The caged animals were not in a zoo and were not there for the amusement of humans, but they were orphans. Taken at the Game Capture Center in iMfolozi Park and the result of deadly encounters between their mothers and poachers. Without the support of the Game Capture Center, these rhinos would hardly have a chance of survival here. Nature does not intend for a young rhinoceros to survive alone. It would have been easy prey for lions or hyenas. But here, at the Game Capture Centre, they were given a chance. Here they could grow up big and strong before they were allowed to set foot in the wild again on their own. Man-made suffering was compensated for here, through man-made support. That seemed only fair to me, but it wasn’t a reason for me to celebrate, and a similar mood to that at the dehorning spread in me.
Most of the animals were very peaceful and surprisingly curious. I knelt down in front of a black rhino enclosure and held on to a wooden post while one of the animals came closer and closer to the thick fence. As I felt the warm breath of the animal on my hand and heard the cosy snort, the story of Graham’s encounter with a rhino suddenly came back to my mind. It was almost harmonious between us!
But the situation was quite different at the neighbouring enclosure. The massive head’s atrophied horn stumps crashed loudly into the thick wooden posts. Wood splintered, the wooden fence groaned and I took a step back, while light brown dust slowly obscured my vision. This black rhino was not to be trifled with! Without this massive, thigh-thick fence, I would have been finished. Game over!
But I can understand it. I would also be in a bad mood if someone had killed my family and then, instead of roaming the wild bush, I was trapped in a small enclosure. Somehow I almost liked the ‘Nasty Boy’. Almost.
I took a few steps back and took in the whole scene in a long shot. The terrain was huge. Countless wooden enclosures lined up one after the other, while the wind blew the dust across the open plain. Apart from the sound of the wind, it was very quiet and only occasionally could you hear a dull ‘bounce’ when a rhino ‘butted’ against a wooden post. In the distance, I could see a large yellow crane and under various huge carports were some green lorries with all kinds of superstructures used to transport the animals, which weighed up to 2.5 tonnes each.
The fact that we were allowed to be here was something special, because this place was not open to the public. Our access was only made possible by Joss’s good contacts. Joss, as it turned out, was the son of a family that ran several large lodges in South Africa and was well connected.
One evening, Bhjane’s meal was too monotonous for Joss, and so he came up with the idea of going to one of the lodges with us at the weekend and having a more varied lunch there. So on Saturday we sat at the ‘Rhino Ridge Lodge’ and enjoyed a marvellous view of a valley and a variety of tasty delicacies. The contrast did me good – as did the very tasty coffee. Here I was able to relax a little and recharge my batteries.
The week had been very stressful for me, just like the last week. One item on the programme followed the next. From Monday to Wednesday, we followed the detailed explanations of Andrew Miller. Andrew was a luminary in the ‘Nature Guide cosmos’ in his late fifties or early sixties, and somehow reminded me a little of Al Pacino. He was responsible for the first-aid training, but also didn’t miss the opportunity to give TED-talk-like speeches that were far removed from this topic. All in all, it was very entertaining, but since this was a ‘basic first-aid course’, we practically didn’t get beyond heart-lung massage. At the end, there was of course an exam and a practical exercise – at 37°C.
‘This is Africa, baby,’ Andrew liked to shout in the classroom, and it slowly became clear to me what this meant and how well we have it in Germany in many ways. Here in South Africa, the disposable gloves for training were counted, we trained on 20-year-old ‘dummies’ and SAM splints (mouldable foam strips with an aluminium core) were a ‘novelty’ in 2024. In Germany, these were already fully established in 2011, during my training as an ambulance paramedic.
I had also conducted a few first-aid courses in Germany for the federal police and was about to mock the fact that we were leaving out some topics that I thought were important when Andrew indirectly gave me an ‘explanation’ for this too: “In Germany, anyone who wants to get a driver’s license has to take a first-aid course. That’s innovative! We need something like that here in South Africa, too,’ he shouted to the group, making it clear to me that this was really just about the absolute basics. Some of the participants had never had contact with the subject in their lives. So first of all, start small – and relax: This is Africa, baby.
After that, we dragged a participant with multiple ‘fractures’, a hand amputation and some snakebites through the sweltering heat and dry ‘sauna air’. Someone really had a bad day there! We were then rewarded by a cold shower. Because a power pole had caught fire again during that time and had left us without hot water for almost three days and in the dark in the evenings.
But the power outage also had a positive side. The next ‘Slides and Sound’ exam was actually scheduled for Thursday, but we were only moderately prepared for it due to lack of time. However, since the TV was needed for the exam, the exam was postponed by one day and we were given a little more time to study. By now, however, I had also become accustomed to the artificially produced stress and no longer let it drive me crazy. I was now deeply relaxed and just did what I could in the time I had. Just keep going, step by step, one task after another. A mantra, similar to my training as a bodyguard – just very different.
