They're everywhere!

We headed north from Nata, and began the long drive to Kasane, the border post with Zimbabwe. The ride was incredibly flat, with straight roads and two-storey high acacia trees covering the plains that flanked us on both sides. It would have been lethally dull, except…

Elephants!!!!

About an hour north of tiny Nata, we non-driving passengers were staring at a huge eagle on a roadside tree, when our esteemed chauffeur Kathryn blurted “Other side! Other side!” Like puppets we jerked around to catch an enormous bull elephant emerging from the thick brush twenty meters to the left of the road. He was massive and, I think, very old. His skin was wrinkled with age, and his left tusk was broken halfway. He glanced passively at us as we sped by.

Shrieking with glee at our first sighting of a wild elephant, we launched into a group hug and then set about looking for more. We saw a dozen or so in the next two hours, before the brush became too thick to see anything. They were grouped by twos and threes, some idly chewing foliage, others crossing the road, and several who ambled away into the trees with studied indifference as we approached.

No giraffes did I see, though Nathalie and Kathryn claim to have glimpsed one. Eventually the ride became as dull as we’d initially feared, though only for the final two hours. We still never stopped intensely starting at the trees, though, ready to shout hectically about another pachyderm sighting.