Skip to content

Discovering the Gentle Giants with SANParks

This elephant had obviously been a great Manfred Mann supporter as the sixties song came immediately to mind: “There she was just a-walking down the street, singin’ ‘Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do.’”

For there he was just a-walking down the street: a great bull with a reasonable set of tusks, on a mission, his trunk swaying from side to side.  He was quite oblivious to the stream of cars and delivery trucks following him and the expression made it clear he held little regard for those facing him in the opposite direction.  He appeared only concerned with his task, which was to reach the river just below the bridge at Lower Sabie in the south of the Kruger National Park.
It was about three in the afternoon and the road from Lower Sabie to Crocodile Bridge was fairly busy.
Suddenly it felt like a city peak hour traffic jam! Except that the congestion was, indeed, coming towards one and not creeping in the right direction.

We watched as cars and LDVs towing trailers struggled to turn around ahead of us, excited young faces at the rear windows, panic on the face of the driver and clearly a torrent of instructions from the “co-driver”.
Along came a SANParks staff member in the opposite direction.
“Better turn around,” she said.  There is an elephant coming down the road and he won’t move over for anyone.
So turn around we did, along with the rest of the throng, and back towards Lower Sabie we went.
“Does this mean we can have another ice cream?”

The innocence of the younger generation displayed itself in the opportunistic possibility of making the most of this delay.
As Mbiyamiti Bush Camp was our next destination, we gave in, not to the younger generation but to the elephant, and took a detour to reach the main road behind Mr. Do-it-yourself traffic jam.
As we re-joined the tarred road, along came one of the delivery vehicles which had been behind the elephant and should have delivered fresh eggs to the Lower Sabie shop.We stopped the driver and asked him what had happened.

“The elephant is still in the road and would not let us pass.  We had to turn around because we did not have enough time to get back to the gate before it closes.  We will have to try again tomorrow.”

So things like this happen in the Park and there were definitely few eggs to be had in the Lower Sabie shop that evening.
However, one can imagine the sense of smug pride in the great beast as he told all his cronies that evening how he had held up about two hundred vehicles and spoiled a lot of tourists’ breakfasts.

Each time we enter any SANParks wild life or nature reserve we happily muse on the new things we will learn about wild animals and nature, especially our favorite, the elephant.

We have found each trip to be a new Journey of Discovery.

The Kruger National Park elephant population has grown over the last few years to a level bordering on un-sustainability but the bonus is that sightings are now frequent.

There was the time we watched an elephant which had lost at least 30cm bitten or torn off the end of his trunk.  He fed by using what he had left and the tree trunk and his tusks for a bit of extra help.

Speaking of elephant, one afternoon at the Talamati Bush Camp, which borders on a river bed not far from Satara Camp and the Orpen Gate, a large breeding herd of elephant came through.

There were two very young calves whose behavior reminded one of two toddlers dragging behind their mothers at a shopping mall.  At each stop, they looked for a hole in the sand and promptly lay down for a quick snooze.
Like any other mother, this was not going to be allowed to happen, so the next thing was a lesson in feeding oneself.
Discovering that a baby elephant is not born with the dexterous skills of its parents proved to be a hilariously entertaining afternoon.

We could imagine the comments:
“How do I get it into my mouth?”
“Silly, you just pick it up in your trunk and fold your trunk over and uncurl it, open your mouth and in it goes!”
So with attempt number one, the stick which was the intended mouthful ended up perched precariously on the little chap’s head where he could not find it. His friend did no better, as his first attempt ended up behind his ear! And so it went on, lie down, sleep, wake up, try to eat, fail, go after Mummy for a quick drink, get pushed away and start the cycle again.
The herd finally wandered on their way into the sunset and left us with a contented feeling of admiration, perhaps wishing we could raise children so competently.

Journeying on, the Addo Elephant Park is famous for its largely tuskless pachyderm population, the tuskers having been hunted out during the nineteenth century.

These animals are found to be more tolerant than their cousins in the Kruger and will sometimes pass you by crossing a road both in front of your vehicle and behind.

This is where you learn the art of diplomacy as it is not all of us that believe that the best thing to do is sit and wait.
It was in Addo we discovered the ability of the great beasts to communicate.

A water hole at the lower end of the Park is a place which, upon arrival, may be devoid of action, but by sitting in your vehicle and waiting with something well chilled in your hand you are bound to be rewarded with a sighting or two.
There was an incident once after we settled down to wait and noticed, in the distance, three young solitary bull elephants grazing about five hundred meters apart and about a kilometer away.  All three were moving towards us in the direction of the water hole.

Fascinated, we watched as they seemed to be pacing themselves so that no one got to be ahead of the others.
Closer and closer they came until, finally, as if it was pre-planned, simultaneously the three bulls walked out of the bush into the clearing.  If we had had a trumpet we would have played a fanfare!

The three gentlemen greeted one another with a nudge here and there; each had a good drink and a spray of muddy water over their heads and then, with one accord, they wandered back into the bush, each in exactly the same direction from which he had come.

Within minutes they were gone leaving us in awe.
The same water hole produced another entertaining afternoon with a good sized breeding herd.
The little dam was very muddy and the elephants were having a good time rolling around in the clay or spraying their backs with muddy water.

Again it was the little fellows who provided the most entertainment.One, not quite a meter high, waded into the mud pool, splashed and kicked excitedly and, inevitably, soon became stuck in the mud.He wailed at the top of his voice as he struggled to escape, each step pushing him further down into the quagmire.At last one or two of the aunties went to his aid and pushed and pulled with their trunks until he emerged from the hole covered in mud from head to foot but happy.
Then, just like any other pre-schooler would, he turned around, went straight back into the clay and, within seconds, the scene repeated itself.

With tears of mirth and immense respect, we observed, for the first time, a mother reprimand a baby elephant by spanking him on his rear with her trunk.

It became time for the herd to leave, but the baby had the last say!

As the cows and young bulls crossed the road a little way away from where we were parked, the meter high youngster turned around and mock-charged our vehicle, skidding to a stop when he realized the Combi was bigger than he was.
Ears flapping he was dragged off by the aunties leaving us thinking our own offspring are not really much different to those found in nature.

Of course after these occasions we are left with our photographs, each one a pleasant memory of the journeys we have enjoyed in the National Parks.