Matapos national park

At Matopos we were treated to a day of following rhino on foot! This was completely exhilarating as we all know how dangerous rhino are - they:

-  are the second largest land mammal after the elephant

-  can be between 140 and 172cm's tall (that's my height!)

-  weigh on average 1700kgs (that's not my weight!!!)

-  run at speeds up to 50kms per hour

-  have really terrible eye sight (due to the positioning of the eyes) but excellent sense of smell

-  have two horns which  are worth $750 000. The horn is made of keratin  and if it is removed will re grow (much like our fingernails) within 3 years (therefore there is actually no reason to kill them!)

Our guide was previously a hunter, but now primarily does the rhino tours. He was so knowledgable and took us around stalking these animals for hours in the heat. He was always on the prowl for tracks and also said rhino have a very distinct smell so was sniffing them out too. 

We battled to find the rhino and we actually  stumbled across these bones, which was a rhino that was killed by a poacher a few months ago. It really hit home. 

(Walking thought the national park)

There are some beautiful rock formations in the park, as well as some SAN painting in the caves. The views from up in the caves was incredible! 

And then EVENTUALLY we spotted the rhino! Isn't this incredible! Look how close we got! I must admit I was quite terrified but I got the pics that look like I was so relaxed! That's all that is important ;) 

It was such a fun experience to track these rhino on foot... And even though we did manage to spot so many more on our trip through South Africa it was completely different to do it outside of the vehicle/our comfort zone!

Another awesome experience in zim ;)