Sunday 14 Aug
Meru NP seems very… quiet. We’ve been for a morning game drive, and an afternoon game drive, and really haven’t seen a lot of game. If we hadn’t seen a striped ground squirrel we might have gone a whole day with no new mammals.
We’ve been exploring the third of Meru NP that is a dedicated rhino reserve and I just don’t think it has a very good environment for wildlife watching. There is a lot of scrubby forest and you’d think game animals would like that for hiding. But predators can also hide in scrub, so your survival becomes a matter of luck. On open grasslands, you and your mates can see for miles and no predator can get near you. So most prey species prefer open country. So most predators have to hang around the open country. That’s how it goes. But this rhino reserve side of Meru National Park is all scrubby forest, and Rhino River Camp is on the very edge of this side, which means it would take 1+ hours just to drive into the main part of Meru. This is Shem’s plan for tomorrow; take a picnic lunch and spend the whole day out so we can get further into the park.
It’s a disappointing day of wildlife watching when your highlight is a ground squirrel.
The chef at Rhino River cooks a mean piece of pork. And we saw a firefly (singular). And that’s all, folks.
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