Elephant hunting

This morning’s drive was under clear skies and as the sun rose we enjoyed views of the trees in the valley floor shrouded in mist. We were off looking for signs of elephants when Mumps spotted fresh leopard tracks crossing the road. We stopped, Liam loaded his ever-present rifle, and he and Mumps headed out through the bush to see if they could find the leopard. We waited in the Land Cruiser watching birds and listening to the sounds of the African bush. Then we heard several sharp cries from where Liam and Mumps were searching. A few minutes later Liam came back reporting that they had found the leopard and Mumps was following it to guide us to where if was headed. The sounds we heard were a bushbuck (a large antelope) barking at the leopard. Liam drove us across a dried riverbed to a waterhole on the other side where Mumps pointed out the leopard’s path. With Mumps back on board we drove through the bush in front of the leopard and got a few photos as he walked right past the land cruiser. We followed him as walked down the riverbank until he found some shade under a tall tree with a good vantage point and lay down to rest through the heat of the day.

We left him and continued our hunt for the elephants. We checked out another waterhole where we found a herd of a number of female and young elephants. There was a grandmother, her daughters and grandchildren in the group. We watched them by the water’s edge then drove around them and parked by the waterhole. They soon walked over to where we had parked and for a while we were in the midst of them. One walked over with her child and pretended to eat while she got a closer look at us.

While we were part of the elephant herd, we heard splashing in the waterhole. There were hippos there and a pair of them were apparently in mock battle in the waterhole, rising up and opening their jaws wide, splashing and swimming just under the water more quickly that we could believe a hippo could travel! They soon tired of their play and quieted down. The elephants continued their never-ending journey and we returned to the lodge for breakfast.

After breakfast we went on a hike with Liam and Adrian, another guide. We headed over towards another herd of elephants and being downwind from them were able to position ourselves where we could watch them as they crossed a road. We crouched down and were silent as we could be as they passed 50 or so yards from us. We then circled around to see if we could follow them from behind but they had moved on. We startled a bachelor group of impala, listened to the calls of songbirds and climbed a termite mound to study the variety of trees in the area. We returned to the lodge to rest and as we relaxed on our deck we were treated by the arrival at the waterhole by the lodge of the elephants we had tracked on our hike. We watched them enjoy the water and eat some branches in the shade of a tree before they too moved on.