Lindy overcomes fear of elephants: Video

Another cool day of bliss.

Except my day didn’t start off so blissfully with some vehicle maintenance needing to be taken care of.
With that out the way Barend and I were out filming with the girls all day. And we searched high and low for the elephants. With still no success by midday we took a walk up to the Chimbiya springs. The drainage system that they are found on was flowing as a result of the rains a few days ago, which made for a pleasant barefoot walk all the way.

We were climbing up above the top spring in the rocks when Lindy suddenly exclaimed “Look there are some bushmen painting!” I hadn’t seen these one’s before. I think there are 26 different known sights of paintings on Malilangwe. But I’m not sure if these ones have been discovered before.

With that excitement over we were back on the elephants trail and eventually picked them up in the thick mopanie to the west of Banyini. I was really nervous driving in there expecting to get stuck any minute as this was true clay country. But we managed that without mishap and found Mandlovu and her herd.

They were with a few other elephants and all seemed to be loving the mopanie they were feeding on. These trees have a high tannin content and I was under the impression they only ate these in stressful times. But not at all. With so much other food available they were still choosing the mopanie.

The herds carried on feeding and soon surrounded us. And Lindy, who has up till recently been petrified of elephants, was totally chilled out. She continued to take photos even when a cow approached and touch the bull-bar gently with her tusk. The cow seemed to just want to know what this thing felt like and then carried on feeding. And all this time Lindy continued to do her thing.
(This is truly the most amazing achievement for me as her dad. This turn around in her attitude towards elephant after it was my mistake years ago when an elephant charged us in the vehicle and I drove away slowly. The elephant was right at the back of the vehicle and Lindy was right there. It scared the living daylights out of her and since then she’s been petrified of elephant. So this complete turn around in her attitude towards elephants now makes me so so happy.)
With a storm approaching we made tracks in a hurry to get out of the clay soils and headed back to camp.