My eyes are full of elephants. Oh, we saw other neat things as well — waterbuck at the first hide, bushbuck at the second, a spotted eagle owl and a genet on the way back — but oh… oh… my eyes are full of elephants.
We spent the day at the Tembe Elephant Park with a different field guide, an older quieter man. I was a bit annoyed during part of the drive because I just couldn’t hear what he was saying. I forgave him everything for what came later.
Five big bulls at the first hide, one big one at the second… The guide kept teasing Gina about the pronunciation of “giraffe” (“There are no giraffes in Africa, only girahffes…”). He also cleared up a misunderstanding as to what a group of giraffes is called. We kept understanding our Afrikaaner guide to say the herd was a “jennie” — turns out what he was saying was “journey.” A journey of giraffes, a dazzle of zebra, a clash of rhino.
 elephant |
 elephant dust bath |
 elephants |
 waterbucks |
The hides were great places to sit and watch the animals; the weather would clear then cloud up then clear and we stayed and watched and watched.
And then, when the skies darkened and threatened rain and it was clearly time to leave, the guide decided to take one last detour onto the East Swamp Road. A family of warthogs ran out from the culvert and we were watching them. That’s when we heard the guide say in a quiet voice: “Look up. Oh, look up, now…” And there, coming towards us, were elephants. Big elephants, small elephants, babies and grizzled elders. A bull. Cows. Elephants… so many elephants. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 18-20 in a breeding herd. We watched and watched as they drank at a waterhole; we watched as they walked off into the forest. Then the guide said, “Let’s see if we can find them on the road.” And he did. They crossed in front of us and behind us… and each of them, big or small, vanished from sight only a few feet into the brush.
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Elephants. Amazing creatures.
On the long ride back to the lodge (in a closed vehicle so not cold this time!), the guide pulled off the road, backed the vehicle up and shined the headlights into the trees so we could see a spotted eagle owl (huge). He also pointed out a genet as it ran across the road and disappeared trailing its long banded tail into the bush.
But, sigh… no warthog at dinner tonight either.