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I was harassed by elephants just about every time I went for a drive when I stayed at Lower Sabie in January this year so in my mind all ellies have the potential to be aggressive, some just hide it better than others

If I remember correctly, Afsaal also had a rogue that chased a few people at the picnic spot not too long ago. In fact there are pictures on display at Afsaal showing the happenings.

An incredible story and experience vanderw!
Flutters, I really don't think you need to stress, we have been up North many times now and honestly can say, have not had any experiences with the Ellies that we haven't had a time or 2 down South. Just try and keep a safe distance and remember how many visitors there have been there, say in a year and how often does one hear of any real damage having being done.

The ellies up north are certainly bigger and more intimidating than those down south , but as long as you keep your distance ........

We once had an incident at Shingwedzi with one guy , late afternoon on the Kanniedood road , standing right next to the road , refused to budge , and every time you came closer , he advanced , with ears forward and trunk raised It became quite late , with gate-closing time approaching , when suddenly he turned his back on us as if to say " OK , now you can come past " . And thats exactly what we did , waited a few minutes to check him out , then went past him ( at about 6 meters ) , him with his back turned on us and not moving . Scary But I think he just enjoyed terrorising us
And the next day , another one did exactly the same thing , but on the other side of camp

Enjoy it . Last year we saw one with enormous tusks come to drink at Babalala . He was a new one , and Aat gave him a name Mavatsani -

All I'm saying, is only ever near Shing, have I been charged by an elephant that I don't know where it is
I just heard trumpeting and breaking branches and took a guess and drove forwards
If only I had the chance to look at him with hippy eyes

Lovely tusker Okie...and we will just keep our eyes peeled...not hippy eyes....everything would look hazy then!

Wow!!!

Whether relaxed or not the road to Kaniedood Dam can be an elephant gauntlet especially in winter...before you know it there are elephants all around you and only a windy 2 track to negotiate ones way out of backwards and thats if there aren't more elephants behind you!!
Had more hair raising moments there than I can remember and the elephants there have no respect for cars and why should they

You see!!! I don't think I'm going to risk taking that road...my son will be petrified!!!

or alternatively it might cure him, flutterby.

but that kanniedood road definitely can get intense - but the eles there are used to the cars and know that a bit of trumpeting gets the cars to back off. i have never seen real aggression towards cars there.

the only aggressive ones i have encountered in KNP were a few moggy old bulls close to sirheni.

i used to be edgy around eles until i was about 16. completely relaxed around them now. you never know

Im fine around them if I have an escape route. The minute im blocked in by other cars, i get tense

I'll be in Shingwedzi on the 30th and 31st , solo for the second time and I'll be VERY
respectful to those ellies but just a LITTLE adrenalin surge now and again keeps us oldies young!

Sounds like my sister. When you stop to look at an elephant, and you see she's suddenly disapeared, you will find her on the car floor behind the front seat LOL!

We were watching elephants on the Mphongolo road one year when suddenly we realised we were completely surrounded by them, thats how thick the mopani bush was.

My wife is quite cool with eles around and I get lot of flak about it, but then she has not yet been charged.....

Anything interesting seen here?

Yes, Roan Antelope and Eland, though I don't know how things are at the moment with the Anthrax outbreak.