3. a rhino, a donkey and a sexual muddle

When Ken and I bought Milimani last year, we recognised that one of the priorities would be investing in wildlife. Having come from Kenya, it was quite a novelty for us to go to a game auction and buy animals. In Kenya all the wildlife belongs to the government, giving the eco-tourism industry little control over one of its essential assets.

Our first purchase was at the Hluhluwe Private Game Auction, where we bought 20 blesbok. We were attracted to these animals by their rather ungainly manner and lopsided structure. We took delivery at the end of May and the whole exercise was painless. Having gained some confidence in this new venture, we approached the annual Hluhluwe 
KZN Wildlife Auction with gusto.

By now we had decided to go for the big stuff. A rhino would do. We’d also decided to name it Peggy, after Ken’s late mother. Our first choice was a 16-month-old male that was still being weaned. Ken has a history of dealing with orphaned animals and this young animal seemed destined to join us. Except that someone outbid us. It went for an unbelievable R120,000. Disappointed, I left the floor to speak to Dr David Cooper. I hadn’t turned my back for more than 30 seconds when Ken, in his willingness to wave his auction card about, bought the next rhino, a five-year-old male. Well, we couldn’t call him Peggy for fear that his friends would laugh at him, and thus he became Rafiki, which means ‘friend’ in Swahili.

As we’d bought a single rhino, Ken decided we should get a donkey to keep him company. Mildly confused and amused by this idea, we went through the motions of ‘interviewing’ the local donkeys on the banks of the Mkuze River. This proved to be a difficult task, and up to the day that Rafiki was due to arrive we still hadn’t found a suitable candidate. We’d built an electric fence around a three-hectare area in front of the restaurant to serve as a boma in which to keep Rafiki for three weeks so that he could become accustomed to us and the grazing in the area. Minutes before Rafiki arrived we managed to find our perfect donkey and it was rushed into the boma. We’d been told it was a female and so we promptly christened her ‘Peggy’.

Peggy stood absolutely unemotional in her new home, as donkeys are inclined to do, and I was sure someone had put her ears on back to front. Rafiki arrived and was literally tipped out of his crate. As he was still mildly drugged he explored the boma with no fuss, but Peggy took one look at him and legged it out of there through the electric fence. Two metres outside the fence she regained her unemotional composure. Fortunately for her, we accepted that this relationship was not going to work and she was taken to live with the horses.

Pleased that Rafiki seemed at ease and had already started to graze, we left him to settle down. The next morning at dawn Ken was up appreciating his new addition. Sensing an audience, Rafiki took one lunge at the fence and bolted his way out. The three days of hard work and great expense in building the boma hadn’t impressed him at all. Even the 5,000 volt electric fence wasn’t enough to keep him inside.


Shortly after our mismatched blind date between Rafiki and Peggy, I was putting the horses to bed. There was Peggy proudly displaying the fact that ‘she’ definitely wasn’t a female. Devastated that we’d got into such a sexual muddle, I prayed that Ken’s mum would at least see the humorous side!

Published in Country Life, March 2002


Other blogs by Lois Kuhle:

SMOKE RINGS IN CUBA. A TWO WEEK JOURNEY FILLED WITH SALSA, SUNSHINE AND SILLY PEOPLE: http://smokeringsincuba.blogspot.com/2013/10/smoke-rings-in-cuba-journey-filled-with.html

COOL THOUGHTS. MUSINGS AND OTHER MAD MOMENTS:  http://loiskuhlethoughts.blogspot.com/2013/12/we-have-pending-nuptials.html