And there they were!

Backblip #7

Today we set off on elephant patrol! We packed up two cruisers full of supplies for camping out under the stars and following the elephants for the next four days. The anticipation of finding the desert elephants today had everybody sitting on the edge of their seats! Or swags (if you were on top of the car!).

We were lucky enough to find a lone female named Medusa (a member of Mama Africa's herd) by mid morning, but we couldn't find the rest of her family amongst the dense riverside vegetation so stopped off for lunch first before setting out again at 2:30.

I decided to climb up on the roof of the car with another volunteer Maureen for a better view. After about 45 mins of bumpy driving through the riverbed we rounded a sharp corner and were greeted with this wonderful sight! 17 grey bums looming off in the distance! It was Mama Africa's herd, the largest in the area, plus the dominant male named Voortrekker. What a feeling to finally witness my first wild herd of elephants!

We detoured around them and parked the vehicles a couple of hundred metres past the herd and waited for them to come past. Before too long they started to walk by... cows, calfs, young bulls, the matriarch and a couple of adult bulls. They were not the least bit worried by us and carried on eating and behaving as if we weren't even there. Just amazing!