Beauties of Botswana

September 21, 2014

Elephant roaming the Savuti region at sunset in northern Botswana.

I have a theory. Well, truth be told, I have a lot of theories, but one in particular regarding people and safaris. The theory is this: while everyone loves to see the big sightings that safaris are famous for, like the lions and the leopards, everyone has one animal that they could watch for hours. And in case their frequent appearance on this blog isn't a stark give-away, that animal for me is the beatiful elephant. 

I could watch these guys for hours on end and never get bored. Every time I see them I insist on stopping and watching. Even after spending an hour watching an entire herd at a watering hole, if I see a lone elephant in the bush two minutes later, I will still want to stop and visit him. Every sighting is different, and I simply cannot get enough of how surreal it is to watch them in their natural environment. 

While Botswana is an incredibly rich safari destination for a ton of different reasons, it is particularly well-known for the enormous herds of elephants that call this part of the world home. On one particular drive in the Moremi region we started counting every elephant we saw, to see how many we would encounter in the short space of a few hours. We lost count after the first couple of hundred elephants...which occurred within the first hour of our drive. 

And so, this post is to feature none other than my favourites, the ellies of Botswana.  

This gorgeous guy was making his way through our camp, so we decided to give him the right-of-way and opted to take his photo instead of attempting to cross his path.

The bird perched on the ellie is an African Fish Eagle- according to our guides they have never seen this happen before. The elephant promptly threw a bit of a fit to tell the eagle to find a new landing strip.

I sat waiting and hoping that this ellie would reach the setting sun before the sun went down, and this is one of those very rare opportunities when nature actually cooperates...

Taking a bit of a mud bath in the afternoon heat.

Ellie precession to the watering hole.

Simultaneous sniffing to check out the onlookers (that's us).

The ellie on the right actually managed to get his trunk wrapped around his tusk somehow...it was entertaining watching him shake around to try and unwrap it. 

Family reflections first thing in the morning.

Youngster kicking up a bit of a fuss.

The elders were crowding the baby ellie to give him some shade for his afternoon nap (I was so worried he was ill- or worse- that we waited to see him get up before we drove away. Sorry for making you stand up, baby ellie). 

Arial view over the Okavango Delta. 

Cooling down in the sweltering afternoon heat. 

If you look closely you can see a very mud-covered baby ellie in the middle of the group- the other elephants immediately crowded around him to protect him when we drove by.  

Baby ellie bum. Cutest.Thing.Ever.

Ellie at sunset.

Ellie at sunset. Take Two.