#elephanttrekking

Day 148 – Desert-adapted elephant

We headed out on a trek to see a desert-adapted elephant. We drove for quite some time on the dried up riverbed, until Bons saw a series of fresh tracks, including a hyena, small antelopes and an elephant. Shortly thereafter, we ran into two small steenboks, a male and a female. The male had some small antlers. We observed them for a while.

We then headed off to look for the elephant and quickly found a pile of elephant dung, which Bons said was less than a day old. We continued tracking and ran into another steenbok, a lone male, that was even younger than the previous male we had spotted. We then found some more elephant dung, which was very fresh. S could even smell it. As you can imagine, a massive pile of fresh elephant dung does not smell very good. Unlike other animals it only digests 40% of what it eats and 60% comes out undigested. The dung is very distinctive.

At one point, we got stuck in deep sand. Bons had to get out, deflate the tires a bit and shovel us out of the sand. But it was worth it, because shortly after we ran into the elephant. He was a young bull elephant. Bons thought he was an adolescent, plus or minus 10 years old and too young to mate. He completely ignored us and we kept following him as he continued eating bushes. We got within 10 metres of him. He had longer front legs than other elephants we have seen as the desert-adapted elephants have to travel longer distances to find food and water. he was also thinner and had shorter tusks. Bons said desert-adapted elephants don’t have access to the same nutrients and therefore their tusks are stunted and more brittle.

Bons pointed out a very interesting plant, the welwitschia, the national plant of Namibia. It only grows in Namibia and Angola in the Namib desert. It has just two leaves and can live up 2,000 years. In one instance, we saw a male and female plant right next to each other. Think 2,000 years stuck directly next to your significant other.

We then parked and had a nice bush snack. Bons set up a lovely spread of meat, home-made pita crisps and hardboiled eggs.

We then headed back to the lodge for lunch. On the way, we saw the nest of a leopard-headed vulture. J also saw a bee eater, which was a lovely green and yellow bird. It’s so lovely, that it appears on the cover of Bons’ Namibia bird manual. Lunch was tomato soup and vegetables. J wanted a nap. S planned to come back to change and go to the pool and made the fatal mistake of lying down for a few minutes. We ended up napping until 6pm. Apparently, we needed the sleep. Bons took another group out in the afternoon while were dozing.

A few new couples arrived today – one is Flemish from Belgium and the other is German. The German couple have been coming here for 12 years, except last year because of COVID. They even want to move to Swakopmund for their retirement. We asked the Belgians how they escaped the Belgian lockdown. It was pretty much like us – they had a story in case they were stopped but they just left. There were a few jokes about how laws aren’t always enforced in Belgium, but are in Germany. We chatted with the new people around the fire for a little bit. Having chatted with all the other guests, we’ve learned that with the exception of one other couple, all of the couples are self driving. They have rented cars in Windhoek and are driving themselves around the country.

Bons then gave his speech about the rhino trekking to the newbies. As you might expect, S could not remain silent and chipped in here and there with helpful little nuggets based on his lengthy experience of one rhino trek. He even told the group that we were charged by a rhino. Somehow they still managed to go on their trek.

We were then ushered to our tables. They used to do communal seating, but because of COVID, they separate out the tables about 10 metres from each other. As you might expect, they sat us right next to the bar, so Petty didn’t have to walk as far to refill our drinks. Dinner was a carrot soup, which tasted like pumpkin soup, lamb for S and baked eggplant for J, which turned out to be little chunks of eggplant with tomato sauce. J was disappointed that the chef did not make a chicken or beef dish for her. It seems like since the lodge was nearly full (6 rooms), the chef was stretched and couldn’t make the usual accommodations. We had a nightcap and then went to bed. We were surprised to learn that we had finished the lodge’s supply of Amarula. S tried to get a straight Kahlua down. Lesson learned – never again.