We are at Elephant Sands, just north of Nata in Botswana. I’m skipping over our nighttime donkey and the stay at Boteti River Camp for now to bring you up to date with our current location and more water hole drama with the eles… well, with me observing the eles.
Richard read that Botswana has officially declared a drought. This is not surprising at all to us. There has been little water in the watering holes and no rain at all. The temperature is running 15-20 degrees above the average and I’m dousing myself with cups of water on the deck as we watch the elephants. Richard finally relented and has a wet towel on his shoulders. The heat is hard to endure today, as it was yesterday. The elephants are grumpy. Actually, I think everyone’s grumpy given the incredible discomfort of the heat. I can’t believe I have my computer out and I’m writing. Where are my sense?!
Elephants Sands is an interesting place. We opted for a safari-type tent with mosquito netting and a nice bathroom/shower. The camping here has absolutely no shade. We would have been miserable, so we upgraded. The main attraction here are the wild elephants. There is a watering hole with some campsites and chalet/safari tents at the perimeter, as well as a small complex with reception and an open-air restaurant/bar/swimming pool. It is a small place, which is nice. There were only two other people here yesterday, but it looks like we might have six or eight other people tonight.
The small restaurant/bar area has a boma and they light a fire each night around 7pm or so. You can sit and watch the eles. They are directly in front of you, separated by a small electrical fence, maybe 2ft high, which they could easily step over if they felt so inclined. The remainder of the camp/chalet area is unfenced. The only bit of other electrical fencing is around the bathroom area of each tent/chalet to protect the water pipes.
As I write, there are about ten elephants at the watering hole and one elephant eating grass about 50 feet away from the deck of our tent. The area here is a conservation area and the water hole provides some relief for the elephants here. The flip side is that you have a wild/not wild experience. There’s the bar about 100 ft away from the boma, which is itself only about twenty feet from the elephants. I love that we can charge our devices at the bar, but I hate that someone could sit and watch TV there. It just seems wrong somehow. Overall, the experience is pretty incredible though. Seeing wild elephants doing there thing so close up is amazing. It is a shame that there is so little water ultimately, especially with the drought. You can really see the toll it takes on the elephants. There’s not a lot of apparent affection. It seems to be a location with more strife and competition for a limited resource.
I am fascinated by and fear these amazing creatures, as you’ll see in the video from last night. I’ll post it below. We sat at the edge of the boma, nearest the watering hole. I don’t know that I could do it again, but it was amazing.
Richard just said that the solar panel on our rig is 45 degrees Celsius. It’s hot!