Desert Wonderers

Elephant Song – Hoanib – Elephant Song

This was the third or fourth time we said farewell to Magnus – loosing count!

The pressure was off as we now had two full fuel tanks. So we could slowly return through the Palmweg Concession Area, taking as long as we needed (well as long as we were back in Windhoek for our flight in 9 days time).

Although we hadn’t spent time with the Ellie’s yesterday, we had heard them and seen them in the distance at Elephant Song. So we hoped to find them this morning. I wanted to say a last goodbye to them, before we finally left the Hoanib for this year. 

 It was clear from last night that they were heading into the plains, and so if they kept to their usual elephant schedule, that would mean they would be returning to the Hoanib today.

We said goodbye to Magnus, and sadly left Elephant Song which we had become very fond of. We headed off into the plains in front of Elephant Song to see if we could find the ellies. We found their tracks from overnight. Apparently elephants do most of their walking overnight. They seemed to be heading down to the river bed underneath Elephant Song. It was where we had first seen them over a week ago. 

Eventually, we saw very fresh tracks, and drove back to the bottom of the campsite which seemed to be where they were headed. On the way we found a rather wrecked bakkie full of tatty camping gear, with an old (but I guess younger than us) couple. We asked if they were looking for the elephant, and told them where we thought they were going.

Sure enough, we saw the elephants, but realised they would be coming very close to us. The other couple had come up behind us. Nigel started the engine to get out of the elephants way, and drove up a steep sandy bank. He had no trouble with that kind of bank before, but now he did. He made several attempts, and the ellie’s were getting closer. Eventually he managed and we breathed a sigh of relief. 

The ellie’s passed, but one was missing. Then we saw it had taken a different route, and it walked right past the front of our vehicle. It didn’t seem bothered by us, but a large vehicle with staff from a lodge had just pitched up, it made a noise. The elephant turned towards them, and for a moment I thought there was a problem, but they remained quiet and the elephant walked on. It seems to me that elephants are OK for us to be seen, but not heard. My theory was further supported later on when Stompie charged us! But more of that later.

We moved further onto the river bank and the other couple joined us. It turned out they were from Namibia, and had spent years tracking and logging the elephant in the Hoanib. They had come for two weeks this time, and were just going back when we saw them. They said the baby was only five or six weeks old, and the matriarch was around 35 or 40 years old.

As we were talking to them he shushed us, and pointed. There was a caracal cat opposite, heading towards a small pool of water.

Something made it jump, just like our siamese cats do when surprised. The caracal was very nervous. 

Unfortunately, it was at this point that two large flies (I think they were tse flies which don’t carry disease in these parts) decided to feast on my legs. They hurt, and I tried to brush them away. This was not good when we were trying to be still for the caracal. I was bleeding and the man said they were biting because I was in the shade. I moved to the sun. The caracal had a drink and moved into some bushes. It is unusual to see them during day time, and the man said he’d never seen one. What a privilege for us.

By this time, the ellie’s had moved on, and it took us a while to find them. Over the years Nigel’s four-wheel driving skills have got better and better. This trip they have  been fantastic, he’s driven up sand dunes, down steep inclines and over rocky river beds. BUT….as a paragliding instructor friend says, if you keep pushing boundaries you get to one that can’t be pushed. 

We had difficulty finding where the ellie’s had gone. We knew there was some water a little way down because we had seen it a few days ago. We drove towards the water,  but still couldn’t find them or their tracks. We drove on into a sandy river bed and then up the other side. We hadn’t found them, but now couldn’t find a way off the river bank without going back.

We thought the ellies were going to come through this river bed, as they had little choice if they were heading back down the Hoanib. Eventually we found a way down from the river bank, and in the distance saw the elephants. By this time it was lunchtime and hot. Ellies, like most creatures in this part of the world, including humans, don’t usually do much in the heat of the day. They usually find a group of trees and the adults graze on the leaves while the calves sleep in its shade.

Nigel thought he would drive closer to them, as they were some distance away. There was a little water in a small  stream, but he could see elephant footprints going across it. He reasoned that if an elephant could walk through it, then the Land Cruiser would not have a problem. So  Nigel went to cross it without walking it first. This was something he never usually did, and shouldn’t have on this occasion, either!

It was such a small innocuous little stream, on the bottom of a wide sandy river bed we had been driving on. We drove across the stream, and got stuck. Initially I wasn’t worried because Nigel has got us out of these little situations without much problem in the past. However, this time he tried all his usual techniques, but nothing worked. Instead we were getting deeper into the mud. 

Nigel put the land cruiser into front and rear diff lock (he asked me to mention this as apparently it gives him bragging rights on various Africa 4 wheel drive forums). However, the effect was just to make us go down rather than forward.

Nigel got the winch out of the land cruiser. Initially it didn’t seem to want to pay out very far. He attached some straps to the winch rope, and connected them to a small tree. He pulled the winch in, but the straps snapped – something we were aware might happen so we had stood well clear of them. He then realised there was a kink in the winch rope, and it could pay out more. He attached that to the tree, went back to the car and tried to start it, but the freshly washed key fob now failed. We couldn’t start the car.

Nigel got out the satellite phone and called the car hire people giving our coordinates. He asked if they could contact a lodge vehicle to come pull us out – the humiliation.

He dismantled the key fob again to try and dry it. He also got the shovel out and dug around the wheels, placing the two sand boards which came with the vehicle (because the hire company knows what idiots hirees are). But, none of this was any use, as the car didn’t start.

There were storm clouds all around, and then I heard a thunder clap.

Nigel put the key fob together and tried again. It started. The winch together with the sand boards worked and we were free.

You might wonder what help I was all this time. Well I was, of course, giving Nigel advice! I was also supposed to be keeping an eye on the distant elephants to make sure they weren’t getting closer. In fact, they remained in the distance laughing at us. 

It was the hottest part of the day. We were less than one km from Elephant Song. We returned to the Magnus and the campsite we had, for the third time, ‘finally’ left for that year. Nigel confessed to Magnus what had happened.

We washed the mud off ourselves, and our clothes, and sat watching the magnificent view over the plains to the distant mountains. This time we could see clouds and occasional lightning in the distance. Magnus said that the clouds and rain would increasingly develop over next week, until it rained for them. It was very atmospheric watching the distant storms develop.