UGANDA 2025: A LONG DRIVE AND THE ZIWA RHINO SANCTUARY

 July 20, 2025

We had told the camp folks that we would be leaving at 9:00 a.m., but for some reason they saw fit to wake us up at 7:00 a.m. when we were all still asleep. We grumpily got out of bed, packed, and mad our way to breakfast where we met William, our guide for the next six days.

After our rude awakening, breakfast was maddingly slow, but there were a bunch of vervet monkeys on the grounds outside that entertained us. These are Ella's photos:

We finally got on the road at 9:30, which was what we had planned, so why get up at 7:00? The roads were ridiculously bad--mostly ungraded dirt roads full of potholes and gullies. It was very hot, and our 4-wheel-drive vehicle did not have AC.  My nemesis, motion sickness, hit me hard around 11:30 a.m. when I lost my breakfast. The irony is that just two blocks later we finally merged with a paved highway that took us the rest of the way.

After we had been on the road for four or five hours, we stopped for box lunches that William had called ahead to order. Bob and Ella had goat and rice; I had mashed potatoes and could only eat about half. An hour-and-a-half later, we arrived at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary where we were welcomed by this statue.

Based on the order of my photos, this school must have been in the sanctuary:

The 27-square-mile sanctuary was established in 2005 to re-introduce Southern White Rhinos into the wild. It is a Near Threatened species due to habitat loss and poaching for rhino horn used in traditional Chinese medicine. When we were there, we were told that the sanctuary had 48 white rhinos, and that they are called "white" not because of their color, but because the Dutch called them wijd rhinos, which means "wide," but the word was misinterpreted as "white." This theory has been discredited, however, so who knows how the gray beast got its name!

Our first sighting was not rhinos but warthogs, although in some ways the warthog looks like a mini and hairier version of a rhino:

We parked the vehicle and started out on a on-foot rhino trekking adventure, led by a local park ranger and a guide.  On foot? Really?!! White rhinos are the largest of the five living species of rhinos--only elephants are bigger. A male can weight as much as 8,000 pounds and can run up to 40 mph. 

According to Wikipedia, a team of about 78 park rangers and security guards keep watch on the rhinos 24/7, and every time we saw a rhino, we also saw some gun-toting men nearby.

We noticed this weird tent-like things hanging from trees in multiple places. The guide said they are traps for tse-tse flies. Time for a second application of Ben's Insect Repellant with Deet!

Wahoo! There is our first rhino! Can you believe we are THIS CLOSE? I'm looking around for trees to climb in case he spots us.

Um, whoa there! Not too close, buddy!

We kept on trekking and discovered that there was no shortage of rhinos in this reserve!

Ella and Bob hard at work.

Ella's photos include what Bob says is a piapiac riding on the rhino's spine . . .

. . . and a nice profile shot that shows the rhino's two horns, both made of the same stuff as human fingernails.

This beautiful photo of a Northern bushbuck is also Ella's:

Yeah, those are rhinos not that far behind us. They just didn't seem to care much that we were there. I attribute that to their poor eyesight, or maybe to the fact that they don't have any predators in this sanctuary.

Aw, is that a baby rhino? I'm sure the mama would let us come pet it, right? 

It was really hard to get a photo of a rhino's face.  They always had their heads down and swaying from side to side, chomping in the grass.

We saw at least six different rhinos, getting within about ten feet of one. We trusted the ranger and his guide to know what they were doing. (Famous last words.)

A herd of cows share the grazing land with the rhinos, and the rhinos don't seem to mind them, so why should we be a problem?

On our way out, I noticed a large stack of fresh pineapples piled outside a building marked "No entry. Staff only."

Time to head out (in our non-air conditioned vehicle) for the last four hours of our drive to our next beds in Murchison Falls National Park.

We passed this police vehicle doubling as a "Funeral Van."  Is it a hearse? Does it escort the mourners? Maybe it provides security? Maybe remove the bodies of the tourists gored by rhinos?