Daily Archives: August 30, 2006

Another day we search through thick mopane forests, traversing shady, grass groves, in search of elephants. We find them in the most surprising of places: an isolated bull elephant in a grove of mokolwane palm trees, enjoying a snack of the tree’s shiny brown tennis ball-sized fruit. Further along is a mother and calf washing and drinking in a hippo pool, the hippo’s own bulbous eyes and nostrils surfacing mid-pool to betray his whereabouts.

None of them could care less about our presence, except a bull we find on the edge of a field. We approach slowly to about 20 yards, where we let our horses drop their heads to graze, a universal sign in animal-dom that all is well. This does nothing to assuage the bad temper of our bull. He’s unhappy, perhaps with life in general, perhaps just with us in particular. He spreads his ears wide and fans them, sign number one that he’s displeased.

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