Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Can you have too many elephants?











The day after my birthday Toff drove us to a large grassy area near a section of the Chobe river where two elephants were taking a mud bath, rolling in it, throwing it onto their backs, going into the mud headfirst and butt up, lying on their sides and just swishing a trunk. It made for amazing fun photos. As we watched we became aware that there were other elephants about, lots of other elephants, more than a hundred other elephants. Slowly they passed by us moving on big grey legs without a sound just surrounding us and moving on. There were tiny babies that didn't reach to their mother's bellys and that could walk along right under their moms, there were youngsters running and playing with their tails in the air like wart hogs, there was one enormous male with the biggest tusks I've ever seen. He came in beside a big matriarch but his size made her look small. At one time we had over 125 elephants on all sides of us with more coming on. We had only two incidents that were a bit scary. One of the last families to pass had a matriarch with a floppy ear and a really bad temper. She was not happy with our being there and she hurried her little group in and back out and did not cross over to the grass on the other side as most had done. On the way back she came right at us and made threatening noises and postures. Then she moved her group off but one of her young males, maybe six or seven years old decided to posture to us and that made her think we had done something to him so back she came. We huddled silently in the open land cruiser, not a word, not a movement and finally she moved away behind us. The other incident came after we had driven away and then had to come back that way. Another female decided she was fed up with us being there and gone and then back again so she just plain charged us:ears out, trunk up trumpeting her anger and running. Fortunately we had passed her and were driving away so we were able to step on the gas and leave her. But she surely would have bashed the truck. A conservative guess would be that we have over 200 elephant photos. I'll try to select a few.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Susan, Greetings from Seattle. Really enjoying your blog, especially all the elephant pics! I love to follow friend's travel blogs and you win the prize so far for most prolific! Looks like a great trip and Happy Birthday too.
    Barb

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  2. Amazing!!! Amazing photos and stories. We will have to come back to Botswana with you and spend more time in Chobe. Can't wait to hear your stories in person

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