Day 20 has been most unusual in that I have never been a Rhino before and that no matter how scary I thought the suit looked the children only seemed to burst in to tears when they saw my face!!!
Today has been the first full day in the company of others not known to me. I made it all the way through a working day with a good bike ride in to and back from Blair Drummond Safari Park. Their plan was a brilliant and very generous one. Come and help raise the profile of the Save the Rhino campaign and at the same time the safari park can help raise the profile of the Beat the Beast Challenge. So what? I hear you cry! Well here comes my theory on it because conversation makes me so enormously tired – more so than climbing mountains! I think it is the multi-layered dynamics of conversation, education and social interaction across generational spectrums while being Robert the Rhino trying to engage younger children’s imaginations and older children’s thirst for knowledge and an understanding of social responsibility in order to want to save the Rhino while also occasionally being Archie to encourage parents to look in to supporting the Beat the Beast Challenge once home after the safari park education team had handed them a flyer and on top of all that I wanted to form a great working relationship with the delightful keepers and educational team at the Safari Park…..All at the same time. It was hard work but my goodness it was worth it and hopefully worked my cognitive ability in the left side today.
James and I had a great 4.5 mile bike ride in glorious sunshine through the Blair Drummond Estate in to the Safari Park and Heather was driven in with her broken wrist. Heather and James were fantastic as I threw them in to the midst of it as my keepers for the day. The safari park came up with the brilliant idea and lent them keepers coveralls so they looked the part and therefore acted it with me. They looked after me beautifully. Then the visitors arrived and the park became busier very quickly. So the social interaction at the multitude of layers went on at a pace and with no incident. I found the children and parents to be enormous fun to interact with provided I put the effort in and I hope and am sure that I achieved the aims of engaging, educating and inspiring as stated earlier in this post. I was also impressed on a number of occasions on the level of knowledge that some of the children already had on such issues such as conservation and indeed the very Biology of the Rhino. All was going well until after a while I did start to feel a little wobbly and knew that I needed some exercise. Heather and James took Robert the Rhino (me) for a walk and then I saw the swings!!!!!!
The day continued really well and we were looked after beautifully by Amy and the great education and keeping team of Blair Drummond Safari Park. Thank you for a great opportunity and a great day topped off with some freshly made doughnuts !!!!!!! and the 4.5 mile bike ride back home with James. Hopefully I was useful and it was only 6 children through the day that burst in to tears on seeing my face!!
Have a great rest of the weekend while you digest the challenge in numbers total since the start:
Days completed: 20
Total Miles Cycled: 112
Total Miles Walked: 66
Total Miles covered under own steam: 178
Total Height Gained under own steam: 4,361 feet
Mountains Climbed: 2
Days of Conservation Activity: 21/4
Organ tunes learnt and performed: 5
Salmon Caught: 0!
People Met and Hands Shaken: 87
Pots of tea shared: 3
Pills popped: 76
If you see me around do please give a cheery hello and shake my hand or toot your horn and give a cheery wave to show your support and encourage me on.
Thank you all for your incredible comments and support. Please continue to spread the word.
Thank you
Yours aye
Archie