Two Weeks at the Rhino Orphan Sanctuary: A Volunteer’s Story
Some trips start with a plan. This one started with a doomscroll.
Our volunteer Boyd came across a video on Instagram of someone bottle-feeding a baby rhino, and that was it.
“I watched. I clicked. I was hooked.”
Next thing he knew, he’d traded museum tours and city walks for two weeks at the Rhino Orphan Sanctuary in South Africa, a program built around a grim reality: wild rhinos are still being killed for their horns, and the orphans left behind need somewhere to go.
Off the Grid, On the Clock
Getting there meant a flight into Kruger Mpumalanga, a security check at a gate manned by staff in fatigues, and a long, bumpy drive down unmarked roads to a location that’s kept deliberately quiet, for good reason. Solar power, river water, no heat, no insulation.
“Two weeks on an uncomfortable bunk bed, no bueno.”
Winter nights dropped into the low 40s, with a lion roaring somewhere nearby to keep things interesting.
Days started at 5:30am with instant coffee and a staff briefing, then it was into the bomas. He learned to mix rhino milk, what teff grass is for, and the very useful fact that white rhinos have no front teeth (black rhinos, on the other hand, he wisely kept his hands away from).
“A novice may not easily distinguish between the two. Luckily, I didn’t make that mistake and ended the trip with all my digits intact.”
The Unglamorous Stuff That Actually Matters
Not every task made it onto a postcard. He learned how orphaned calves get the gut bacteria they’d normally pick up from their mother’s droppings in the wild, mixed into their milk formula by staff. He shoveled donated oranges, scooped boma waste, and helped feed the companion animals kept alongside the rhinos in quarantine.
“It mainly smells like wet grass.”
It’s the kind of work that doesn’t photograph well but keeps the whole operation running.
The afternoons brought health checks and supplemental feeding out where the rest of the rhinos roam.
“It’s amazing to see these enormous animals up close.”
Weekends, Wildlife, and a Very Grumpy Horse
Days off meant a boat trip through Blyde River Canyon, complete with a coffee stop that turned into an impromptu ad for South African coffee.
“You know what? Coffee is fantastic in South Africa!”
There was also a pre-dawn drive into Kruger National Park, where the group caught a rare sable antelope sighting and watched a lioness stalk a herd of impala for the better part of half an hour. Boyd caught it on video, simply captioned:
“How about this???”
On a later trip back to Kruger, most of the group finally spotted a cheetah, a genuinely uncommon sighting he narrowly missed himself.
Back at the sanctuary, quieter evenings meant time with the lending library.
“I highly recommend The Elephant Whisperer and The Last Rhinos.”
And a memorable run-in with a horse named Peggy, who bit him squarely on the back after ten minutes of what he considered very generous grooming.
He also found himself in good company on-site:
“It’s like the United Nations here.”
One close call stuck with him: out among the rhinos, a staff member was applying ointment to an injured rhino when an aggressive male rammed it from behind, knocking the animal into the staff member and nearly injuring them. A reminder that this work isn’t without real risk, for staff and animals alike.
Would He Do It Again?
By his own account, two weeks of shoveling teff grass and mixing milk formula isn’t everyone’s idea of a holiday. But he fed rhinos by hand, watched a lioness hunt from yards away, made friends from half a dozen countries, and came away understanding exactly why programs like this need volunteers in the first place.
If a rhino video has ever stopped your scroll, this is what’s on the other side of it.
