Encounter with the Rhino

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated” – Mahatma Ghandi

Its that time of the year where you begin to slow down. With the arrival of December, it was time to start planning my holiday to visit my homeland, Sri Lanka for Christmas of 2018. But before that there was an official visit which I needed to make to the Capital, Nairobi. Since I had a day off, what better way to spend it at the Nairobi National Park (NNP), the park within the city. I had been to NNP before where I saw two Rhino’s for the first time. This time when I entered, it was pouring! I started to regret my decision to visit NNP but decided to motor ahead despite the gloomy weather.

NNP is home to a variety of animals and as we entered the park we saw the usual Impala, Giraffe, Buffalo, etc. As we took a diversion from the main road, motoring through the rain and slippery road conditions, we saw three magnificent rhino grazing on the rainy plains. What a sight it was! It only us and the three rhino’s! I felt so privileged to be amidst these beautiful creations of God and admired them for nearly an hour.

After spending nearly an hour with three rhino’s we moved forward. Next on the agenda was to spot the King of the jungle, the lion. We made our way back to the main road and to our surprise there was a heard of tourist vans coming towards us in a distance. But they were coming really slowly. To my amazement, they were following two male lions who were walking on the main road and the best part was that the lions were walking directly towards our vehicle!!

After our encounter with the king, we moved forward. It was quite a lucky trip I would say. We explored the park to the best of our ability. We saw many other animals who were enjoying the rain and happy to be grazing.

As we came to the end of our safari, we spotted a mother and baby rhino! That was the cherry on the cake. Overall, it was an amazing trip encountering five rhino’s and two male lions!

As my eventful journey to NNP and Nairobi came to an end, I m still in awww being able to witness an animal which is highly endangered and within years could be wiped off the earth. I was truly blessed to witness the rhino roaming the African savanna. Will be son be lucky? Perhaps! By what about the future generations?? Will they be lucky as I was? Only time will tell………….

“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others and if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them” – Dalai Lama