What is a gut feeling and when do you know to trust it?
Heading out in the afternoon I picked up lots of signs of elephant activity east of the airstrip. This immediately suggested to me the herds would be drinking and swimming at Simbiri dam, a favourite place for me.
I had actually turned round to head to Simbiri when I heard on the radio, there was a herd of buffalo at Bandama, where I was initially headed. So I went with the old rule “A bird in the hand….” and took off to Bandama. No buffalo when I arrived, they’d moved off. I waited till after sunset and still the pan remained quiet.
After sunset Darryl had the herd of elephant to the west of Simbiri. They had already drunk and swum at the dam and I’d missed it. But would have been spot on target if I’d headed there immediately.
We stayed with the herds feeding in the relative open just south of the hills near Simbiri dam. Slowly they moved south and onto the open areas of Banyini. What a stunning sight! Elephants in the open grassland with only the ¾ moon to illuminate them.
There’s something about the moon and moonlight that bring on a whole new dimension to experiencing elephant at night. Those huge silhouetted hulks against the grass moving in single file as they head to Banyini to drink.
A young bull moved ahead of the herd to be first at the clean water coming into the pan. But he seemed to have difficulty in drinking and most of the water was pouring out his mouth. It’s not unusual for them to waste water like that but usually it’s only a couple of mouthfuls. It was pouring out of this guy’s mouth as if giving himself a mouth wash. He seemed to satisfy his thirst and moved on leaving the pan to the rest of the herd.
Again about 80 elephant must have come to drink before heading east into the mopanie.
Darryl stayed at the pan and I headed south looking for any possible lion activity before getting some rest at Hwata.
It was a misty dawn and as usual the panic to find something to film in the mist proved fruitless.
Only some time after the mist had lifted did the giraffe and zebra pop out the woodlands. Time to go home.
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