The morning game drive gave us the usual animal sightings with the addition of our first herd of buffalo. Some in the group opted to do a walking excursion with Mafuka, learning about local herbal remedies, tracking animals, and other interesting things about this ecosystem, including games the kids played with, yes, elephant dung!
Mafuka used to play a game with his children (he has 10, and 3 wifes). I still haven't learned what possessed him to do this, but he, over 3 years, taught himself to do this to entertain the children... he rolled 6 pellets of antelope dung in his hands, then swallowed them one by one... then regurgitated them and spat them out forcefully... or so the walkers told us!
During siesta time, I worked on the blog while Jan took a dip in the splash pool outside the lodge right by the water hole, hoping an elephant would come have a drink from the splash pool while she was in it... this happens, I guess, but she didn't get to experience it first hand. The sun, like Lincoln, is relentless here, the afternoon temp near 100 degrees farenheit and little shade anywhere.
As usual, we stopped for a 'sundowner' by a water hole during our evening game drive, snacks and a drink while we watch the animals at the water hole. This evening we were up close and personal as there was a large herd of elephants using the waterhole and surrounding us and our vehicles as we had our sundowner. We witnessed what I call a 'shunning' as we enjoyed the sunset and the company of these huge beasts.
Female offspring in an elephant herd will stay sometimes for life with the same herd. But, at about 15 years, sexual maturity for an elephant, the mother will kick a young male out of the herd lest he try to breed with his sisters. The elephants were drinking and cooling off at the water hole tonight as usual, but Jan and I noticed that a large female kept running off this young male. The poor thing would try to sneak back into the pack and take a drink, and she kept running him off, either charging at him or simply by looking at him. You could see how crushed he was by his body language, circling around and around, trying to rejoin the pack. It was heartbreaking but the way of the world for elephants. The shunned lad would eventually meet up with other shunned males and form their own herd. As we got back in our vehicles to go in to camp for dinner, the young male was wandering disconaolately away from the herd into the sunset.
Mafuka, our wise and deservedly well respected man of the bush and local cultures...
Warthog... so ugly, they're, well, ugly...
Waiting for transfer to Linkwasha Camp in Hwange, my first Internet access in 10 days... oh yeah...
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