Day 3 – “Walking with Elephant”

The morning’s game drive was to be a bush walk with Kane.

Very clear rules were explained and, armed with our new found knowledge, the group departed. Walking in the bush gets the adrenaline pumping and focuses the senses!

Kane is a very experienced guide and he quickly generated confidence within the group.
We were soon in contact with a large herd of elephants. Our approach was stealthy and Kane found a good observation post behind an uprooted tree and we began to enjoy the animals’ behaviour.

After 5 minutes, Kane told us that we needed to urgently move to take up a new position behind another uprooted tree, approx 100 metres behind us. Butch led the way and we achieved this sudden retreat in good order.

Kane had heard the approach of a big bull elephant behind our viewing position. The elephant had smelt our scent. He was curious and was coming to investigate. We tried to make ourselves look as small as possible behind our tree as the enormous animal approached.
The elephant was determined to investigate fully and when he was 20 metres away, Kane stood up and banged the log with a big stick. The elephant stopped, waved his head, ears and trunk and snorted. A second bang on the tree trunk and the elephant turned and began to move towards the rest of the herd and away from us. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

We then returned to our original viewing position, with hearts still pounding.
It quickly became apparent that we weren’t the only ones observing animals’ behaviour! We were being watched with huge interest by six giraffe, who had silently approached to a position approx 75 yards behind us and were looking curiously at us with their big soulful eyes. We didn’t move and eventually the giraffe continued their walk with their languid, yet regal, gait.

We carried on tracking the elephant. We followed them down to the Linyati river and watched in awe as over 100 animals crossed safely to the Namibian shore.
A truly amazing sight.