We went for a weekend breakaway to Khamkirri guest farm next to the Orange River in South Africa. Upon arrival, we checked out the cottage next to the river we were staying in for the weekend. Close by the parking area for our vehicle we heard movement in the branches. First, we thought it was a snake or water monitor lizard, which could be dangerous so we moved away. The next day, my husband fetched something in the vehicle and again heard the scratching sounds under the branches, the same place we heard it the previous day. My husband is an ecologist so he no longer could hold his curiosity and tried to figure out what it was. He then saw it was a big tortoise that got itself stuck underneath a big old broken branch laying on the ground. The tortoise was not able to move forward as the passage was blocked and it dug itself so deep underneath the branch that it was not able to go out backwards, the way it got in. My husband called me out of the cottage to come and see. He slowly removed the branches that were on top of the tortoise. We are not sure how long the tortoise was stuck under the branch but it could already have been a few days. You can see the watery eyes of the tortoise possible due to exhaustion and the constant effort to try and dislodge itself from the branch and the dust it kicked up in the process. We then thought the tortoise would be thirsty and the gave it water in the pink bowl you see in the video. The tortoise was so hungry, possibly due to no food for a few days, it quickly moved onto the grass patch next to the cottage and vehicle and starting eating as if we weren’t even there. It stayed there eating grass for more than 2 hours before moving off. We couldn’t sit and wait the entire time, so you can see in the video that even when we were back in the cottage the tortoise was still in the same area just trying to satisfy its hunger. I am so glad we were there at the right place at the right time to rescue this hungry trapped tortoise. We are not sure what kind of tortoise it is but it could maybe be a Tent tortoise (Psammobates tentorius).