I was up flying at dawn. Flying into the rising orange ball of the sun is always stunning. We picked up the elephant herds south of Nduna scattered all over. The flew over the management burns checking how successful they had been.
Suddenly I realised I’d been flying for over 2 hours. Time to get my feet back on the ground as temperatures started to soar.
As I came in to land, some of the scouts were training on the airstrip and as disciplined as they are they weren’t going to move until given the command. I didn’t know what was going on on the ground and was sure they’d move out the way. They stood to attention and only at the last second realising they weren’t getting a command AND that I was serious about landing, they fell to the ground. Thankfully their discipline gave in at the last second.
Heading east we searched for the elephant herds but they’d move into the hills. So we took some time out at Nduna dam. I was sure they’d be swimming there some time in today’s heat. But by mid afternoon there was still no sign of them.
It was now time to head to the dogs. Arriving at Lojaan dam there they were. Some 50 elephants loving the water but as soon as they got our scent they stampeded. But almost straight towards us. Even Mandlovu got caught up in the panic and raced past us. It was like what I imagine to happen in a football stadium stampede where everyone suddenly panics and the panic grows until you have a mass stampede.
But how sad to see these huge beasts in such numbers stampeding cos of a tiny little me in my vehicle.
The dogs were still right up in the north west and didn’t look like they had fed this morning. As the sun was setting and it got cooler they tried to move, but it was too much for all of them and not even a 100m away they had all collapsed again.
It had been another extremely hot day and all were feeling rather lethargic. Me included!
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