Elephants Part 3: The Swim

Elephants Part 3 :The swim.

We left Kruger, and flew to Cape Town to board our new ship. After leaving the dock we rounded the southern tip of the African continent heading for Maputo the capital of Mozambique. Mozambique history is tied to colonization by the Portuguese with many revolts and conflicts in its history. It is the only country I know of that has an AK 47 automatic rifle on its flag.

I have many stories to tell about Johannesburg Kruger Maputo Durban and more, but on one of our stops took us to a private game reserve, again extremely large. Again, we mounted our Safari vehicles and began our adventure. Our first stop, about five minutes after we started was to see a large tortoise crossing in front of our vehicle. Our guide stopped the vehicle and proceeded to pick up the tortoise. He wanted to allow us to take some pictures ,but mainly to move it safely out of harms way.

We were appreciative, the tortoise was not. It proceeded to urinate all over the front of our guide’s trousers. It must be unique to be peed upon by an African tortoise.

In any case, off we went, still with his wet pants, to see a male and female lion lying contentedly about a 10 minute drive away. We were just getting into taking more detailed photos, when the guide explained to us we had to move quickly to see what was happening below us, about a kilometre away. He spotted a herd of elephants heading towards a large swimming hole. He explained “you will really enjoy this”. We sped away and parked along the side of very large pond. It was already inhabited by two hippos who bellowed their opposition of this herd elephants heading towards their spot. The elephant walked on by the hippos and began to enter the water. There at least 20 elephants ,who splashed, rolled over and cavorted with each other in the water. They looked like they were enjoying themselves immensely. After 15 to 20 minutes the leader determined it was time to move on. The group followed him up a slippery slope and back onto dryland. They headed up the hill and we could easily see them move away they started showering themselves with dust or dirt just like on National Geographic. Whether this was protection against the sun or protection from bugs, I’m not sure. Back at the swimming hole, remained one younger elephant who was in absolutely no hurry to leave.

He or she would roll around, snort, blow water and was having a wonderful time. Sometimes all you could see was the water surface, followed shortly by a trunk sticking up out of the water. It was like in a movie.

Another elephant was waiting patiently on sure, and it seemed, vocally encouraging his friend that it was time to come out. It seemed to take a lot of coaxing, but finally our swimming elephant got up on all fours and tried to climb up the muddy bank. It shocked us all to see his or her friend extend her trunk and help her buddy out of the water. … off they went to join the rest of the herd. I don’t think you could’ve scripted a better elephant story for us to witness.

We’re not done quite yet. We drove away but after about 10 minutes stopped again. The guide pointed off to her right not far away two elephants were sparring with each other. One was definitely larger than the other and the two of them, kept on sparring with each other coming closer and closer to our vehicle. Wisely, our driver moved us forward and the fighting pair of elephants crossed right over where we were parked. We continued to watch in amazement, until they tired of their play and moved on to other things. The rest of that Safari included many other animals including a large herd of zebras.

Arriving back at the lodge we went for something to eat. However, I had to return to our safari vehicle parked some distance away to retrieve something I had left there. On my return walk to the lodge, I came face-to-face with a large warthog. Heading me no mind, I simply continued on my way.

We saw so many things, but my elephant experiences will stay with me forever. We really did “luck out”.