World Traveller October 2019

SOUTH AFRICA
s the low winter sun glints on the
bonnet of our Land Rover, there is
a tangible thrill of electricity in the
air. It’s not just because Francoise
Malby-Anthony, the formidable
ex-Parisian now at the helm of the
game reserve, is sitting in front of
us for an on-camera interview. Yes,
the striking blonde is a commanding
presence and a force to be reckoned
with, but something else is afoot.
Indeed, as Francoise regales us with
stories about Thula Thula, which means
“peace and tranquillity,” impetuous
rescue rhino Thabo suddenly appears
and heads towards us. The sturdy
grey tank of a beast means business.
As Thabo – determined to be part
of the action – picks up the pace to
close ranks, the usually unflappable
Francoise appears visibly flustered as
she tells head ranger Siya to “DRIVE!”
Thabo is neither malicious, nor
vicious. He just loves hanging out with
humans. “I think he sometimes believes
he is a person,” Francoise tells us later
in the boma over a braai (barbecued
meats). He may have gotten wind of
the fact that we were filming and was
hellbent on claiming a starring role,
I counter. But Francoise is having
none of it. “If you’ve experienced some
difficult situations in the past you
become more wary,” she reasons.
Which is clearly why my wide-eyed
kids – both safari novices – seem to
handle the situation unfolding before
them with remarkable sangfroid. Then
again, they’d already encountered
Thabo the day before, with my fiveyear-old
daughter nonchalantly
patting his tough, bristly-haired
hide as he inquisitively sidled up to
her as she sat calmly in the 4X4.
“Thabo is still our problem child,”
says Siya. “He has been known to attack
vehicles and turn them upside down,”
he continues, as the colour starts to
drain from my face. In order to make
Thabo feel more settled they’ve been
trying to get him to mate with Ntombi,
one of the other rhino residents,
but Thabo is playing hard to get.
You can’t really blame the “little”
one-tonne guy (fully grown rhinos
can weigh 2,500kg), whose traumatic
introduction to this world saw the
fragile new-born, still with umbilical
cord dragging below him, stumbling
around in confusion after his mother
was tragically shot by poachers.
Having spent the informative stages
of his life around humans, Thabo feels
a kinship with them, but his ambition
to scale the unscalable heights of
humankind are not being indulged;
he is, after all, a wild animal and must
accordingly behave like one. So while
his earlier antics were met with a
benign smile – including the time he
decided to pay a visit to an American
couple’s tent, giving them the fright
of their lives before being chased away
with a hairdryer – now that he is 10, he
is expected to obey the laws of the bush.
Everyone who visits Thula Thula
will be enraptured by stories such as
Thabo’s. Because every animal at Thula
Thula has a name and each named
creature comes with its own personality
and unique tale. There’s Mabula the
show-off pachyderm whose party trick
is performing yoga asanas; Frankie, the
feisty matriarch of the elephant clan;
52 worldtravellermagazine.com