Attack of the Elephants

The highlight in Zambia was in South Lwangwa National Park. First I have to explain that I was travelling on a huge truck (more like a lorry) with about 20 other tourists, staying in campsites. The campsite in South Lwangwa was quite special - in that it was right next to the river used by lots of animals, so elephants and monkeys were a regular sight in and around the campsite, and hippos could be heard wandering through at night, honking (if you see Jenny ask her to do an impression).

We had to take a few precautions - not getting too close to the elephants, being careful wandering around at night, and not keeping food in the tents otherwise they'd get ripped open. Of course, I got a bit eager taking a photo of a big elephant, and it made a move to charge me. Luckily it changed its mind, otherwise I could be sporting a pair of lovely tusk holes.

That evening, the campsite was pretty deserted - most people were on a night safari and the monkeys had moved in to eat any rubbish lying around. I was sitting by the truck reading, while a few of the others were making dinner. Suddenly I heard the tour guide going "Move away! Move away!' and turned around to see a HUGE elephant, which had snuck round the truck in silence, and was right behind the others. We backed off and made loads of noise to scare it, but it ignored us and went straight for the open food locker on the side of the truck. It had smelled something it wanted, and dragged out big crates of food onto the ground with its trunk, until it got to its target - a huge watermelon at the back of the locker which it stuffed in its gob and swallowed whole, with some difficulty.

It finally ran off when the guide bravely crept round and started the engine. There was only one photo of the episode, on my camera. Unfortunately, I no longer have it - read on...