Berg en Dahl Camp

I was up at 4:45am, today was moving day and I wanted an early start so we had a quick cup of coffee and then started loading the car with the food and bedding we had taken out yesterday and trying to avoid the baboons at the same time.
We left Tamboti tented camp at 5:45am and I thought it was around 150km to an unknown camp down in the far south west of the Kruger called Berg en Dahl we had booked into and I thought it would take around 3 hours. Somehow even looking at the map and adding up the distances and doing the speed limit of 50kph this worked out wrong and it was a slow and tedious journey of 6 hours at 50kph ( that’s 30mph). Five and a half hours in we came across 2 prides of lions. We were so tired we didn’t really stop at either.
We checked into Berg en Dahl at midday and luckily being a Sunday lots of people had left and we found a beautiful fence line site overlooking the dry riverbed. We are right on a corner and can see across and down the river it’s one of the best pitches here.
Berg en Dahl is probably the most family friendly of all the camps situated close to the Malalane gate and hosting the biggest swimming pool in the Kruger with a toddler pool off to the side. At reception it has an interpretation centre all about the black and white rhino in this area and it’s one of the only camps that has a dedicated nature trail in it.
The temperature was 35°c whilst pitching and it was hot and humid so as soon as we finished pitching up we went to cool off in the pool. Then we went back to camp and had a nap.
After a quick nap Ellie wanted to go to the rhino centre so we walked back to reception and read all about the rhino it was quite fascinating. Everybody thinks that it’s the Chinese that are after the rhino horn as an affrodisiac but this is only a small part of the problem. The final destination for most rhino horn is actually Yemen where they use it to make handles for there daggers. Since the price of oil has gone up and more yemenese have got wealthier rhino horn daggers have become a booming business. Rhino horn is more valuable than gold.
The rhino horn is not a horn at all but is composed of compressed, fibrous keratin, the same substance that forms hooves, hair, and fingernails. The fibres of the horn are packed together so tightly that the end result is an extremely hard horn that can poke a hole through a car door! Rhino horns do not have a spongy centre like other animal's horns. When horns are broken or torn off they can grow back. Horns are quite heavy and an average black rhino may carry about 3.6kg/ 8 Ibs. of horn on its face!
Rhinos have 24-34 teeth, depending on the species. They have 12-14 pairs of molars and the Asian species also have incisors. Sumatran rhinos are the only rhino species that have a cone-shaped canine tooth on each side of their lower jaw, which are probably used for fighting. The molars are designed for grinding up vegetation. These teeth have folds in the enamel surface. As they wear down they form ridges which help cut tough vegetation.
The horn grows off a large bony mass called a boss. The occipital region towards the back of the skull is long and deep. This area provides a large and firm attachment for the huge neck muscles needed to hold up the heavy head.
All rhinos have three toes on each foot, but most of the weight is born by the large centre toe. The sole of the foot is a hard, rubbery pad. Rhinos can gallop for short distances at speeds of 40-50 km/h.
A rhino's skin is between 12 and 15 cm thick, Different species display different fold patterns. The skin of white and black rhinos looks crinkly and leathery, but feels soft Indian rhinos' skin folds across its shoulders, the top of its rump, and ogain at the base of its tail, There is a partial foid near the neck and knobbly bumps all over its body.
After the interpretation centre we went back to camp eating ice creams and spotting a tiny tortoise and I found the biggest moth we had ever seen, then we sat at the fence line watching impala and bushbuck for the rest of the day.Read more