Colin, the manager of the Thetford Estate kindly took us on a game drive to meet his rhinos. Colin was another ex-farmer who had lost everything during the Mugabe years.

There were 3 families of these rare beasts for us to get close up and personal with. Most of the animals had been sired by an old bull called Chipotle...........although now one of his 7 year old sons was trying to breed with his daughters. Trouble at mill! Consequently Colin was going to move all the males on and restock to prevent further interbreeding and increase genetic variation.

The rhino's were the stars but we also giraffes plus roan and sesame antelopes..........it was a beautiful sight as the sun set.

We learnt that we were looking at white rhinos which in Afrikans means "square lips". They are grazers and tend to live out in the open. The even more endangered black rhinos are browsers and live in the bush. They have poor sight and their first instinct is to attack when disturbed while white rhinos tend to take flight. The white rhinos we were looking at were used to humans and Colin in particular.......even the youngest beasts who were less than a year old seem unperturbed by our presence.