This past weekend we went back up to the Chobe National Park (north of Moremi) and camped out. We headed to the Linyanti (I know these names probably mean absolutely nothing but for what it’s worth…) to do some practice ecological transects from a river bed back into a more forested region. To get to the selected location we had to drive on one of the sandiest roads EVER. On the map it just says “very sandy road.” However, along this tract of road my truck rolled up behind another truck that had stopped next to a pond. Everyone from our car piled out and walked over to where the others were standing – looking across the body of water we saw an elephant ramble out of the bush and head to the water…then we saw a couple more…the next thing we know 30-40 elephants magically appear from out of the bush and are milling around this pond. It was unbelievable…people were taking pictures but everyone was trying to stay quiet…it can be quite nerve racking in such close proximity of such large mammals…at one point I backtracked all the way to the truck (100 yds away) just to make sure I had a head start if necessary (not that it meant anything mind you). The elephants did notice us…but not by sight. Instead, you saw the bull elephant lift his trunk and then give the signal to retreat. The wind had shifted slightly and the elephants had smelled the crazy, curious humans on the other side of the water and decided this is not the watering hole for them. And, just like that, they disappeared.

The ease in which the wildlife (especially elephants) fade into the vegetation constantly astounds me. You can drive along and completely miss an elephant that is ten meters away just because you don’t see it…on the back roads we constantly are having to stop to allow elephants to cross…and giraffes. When we get to the tarmac (blacktop) the animals we slow down for are the cattle and donkeys. And on it goes…

The transects we wound up doing up in Linyanti were very useful in term of learning the vegetation of the area – I’ll probably know better the names of Southern African trees and shrubs than anywhere in the States. I think a lot of the names for vegetation would be great for pet names…just a thought.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Africa 06, travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.