| Species | Group Size | Group Structure | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elephant | 1 | Bull | 30m |
| Buffalo | 300 | Breeding Herd | 30m |
I was a participant guide on this walk, which lasted 2 hours.
This afternoon we heard that there was a bull Elephant somewhere near camp! He turned out to be in a nearby spruit, but there were game viewers at the sighting so we headed towards the spruit slowly in order to wait for our lock (our time we could enter the sighting unobstructed). We approached the steep side of the spruit with the wind in our favour. As it became our lock the Elephant (Ezulwini) was walking up our side of the spruit. The bush was dense, we didn’t want to surprise Ezulwini, so we passed down into the spruit so he knew where we were, and we knew where he was. He didn’t appear appreciate us being in the spruit when he picked up on us, so we moved towards the other bank. He was fine with us there and went back to eating. We stayed there in his presence for a while and left.
On our way back to camp there was a Buffalo breeding herd just off the route. We began to trail the herd, and we were led into an area of thick bush. We waited a while to make sure we were behind the herd and hadn’t wandered in front… or worse into the middle of the herd. Once we were sure, we headed into the bush. We couldn’t follow them terribly well, but they were heading towards a spruit so we cut down and sat behind a little cover in the spruit. They began to cross the creek close by, after a few minutes the Alpha female entered the river bed and picked up on us. We soon moved back up onto the bank and sat there. The herd went back to grazing, slowly moving closer to us along the river bed. They were beginning the get incredibly close, unfortunately it was getting late and close to sundown so we had to leave. It was a great end to an amazing sighting and a great day.