On a trip to the Masai Mara, Darren found himself in the middle of a family of elephants – quite literally.
“One of the best things about a safari is that every day is different, and you never know what you’re likely to encounter. I spent one night at the Governors Camp on the Masai Mara, and did two game drives in to the local area. This area of the western Masai Mara is really rich in wildlife, and is particularly well know for its cats – so much so that the BBC film the ‘Big Cat Diaries’ in this area. However, on this particular trip it was the local elephant population that caught my attention.
On the first afternoon of my stay our driver had spotted a herd of elephants in the distance – I still don’t know how he’d seen them as they were well out of my view, and even when they were pointed out to me they still looked like dots on the horizon! As we drew closer, the driver stopped our vehicle and turned the engine off, right in the path of these amazing creatures. They continued with their walk across the plains, barely pausing to pay us any attention, yet they were so close to us – some were merely metres away. I counted 25 animals in the herd – a family unit, our driver told us. There were a few younger animals in the group, including one that the driver estimated to be just a few weeks old, trying hard to keep up with everyone else by holding on to his mother’s tail with his trunk! One elephant paused by our vehicle and checked us out with his trunk, passing over the bonnet to investigate what we were – presumably we were neither food nor threat, so the herd passed us by, heading for a wooded area on the horizon.
Next morning we had a typically early start, and headed off from the camp to a similar area we’d been in during the previous afternoon. Again, our driver spotted something in the distance – and it turned out to be the same family of elephants that we’d been mesmerised by yesterday! Our driver explained that they would have headed to the wooded area to spend the night, and were now heading back to the open plains for feeding. There was one notable difference though – today, there were around 30 animals in the herd, more than the previous day! Clearly, the family unit had met up with others, perhaps more from the same unit that had gone their separate way beforehand, or perhaps they’d adopted other animals that may have been abandoned by their own family group - I’ll never know!”
View our elephant photo gallery: http://www.farawayescapes.co.uk/gallery/Escape%20Worldwide%20Elephants%20Photo%20Gallery/ For holidays to Kenya visit http://www.safariescapes.co.uk/
“One of the best things about a safari is that every day is different, and you never know what you’re likely to encounter. I spent one night at the Governors Camp on the Masai Mara, and did two game drives in to the local area. This area of the western Masai Mara is really rich in wildlife, and is particularly well know for its cats – so much so that the BBC film the ‘Big Cat Diaries’ in this area. However, on this particular trip it was the local elephant population that caught my attention.
On the first afternoon of my stay our driver had spotted a herd of elephants in the distance – I still don’t know how he’d seen them as they were well out of my view, and even when they were pointed out to me they still looked like dots on the horizon! As we drew closer, the driver stopped our vehicle and turned the engine off, right in the path of these amazing creatures. They continued with their walk across the plains, barely pausing to pay us any attention, yet they were so close to us – some were merely metres away. I counted 25 animals in the herd – a family unit, our driver told us. There were a few younger animals in the group, including one that the driver estimated to be just a few weeks old, trying hard to keep up with everyone else by holding on to his mother’s tail with his trunk! One elephant paused by our vehicle and checked us out with his trunk, passing over the bonnet to investigate what we were – presumably we were neither food nor threat, so the herd passed us by, heading for a wooded area on the horizon.
Next morning we had a typically early start, and headed off from the camp to a similar area we’d been in during the previous afternoon. Again, our driver spotted something in the distance – and it turned out to be the same family of elephants that we’d been mesmerised by yesterday! Our driver explained that they would have headed to the wooded area to spend the night, and were now heading back to the open plains for feeding. There was one notable difference though – today, there were around 30 animals in the herd, more than the previous day! Clearly, the family unit had met up with others, perhaps more from the same unit that had gone their separate way beforehand, or perhaps they’d adopted other animals that may have been abandoned by their own family group - I’ll never know!”
View our elephant photo gallery: http://www.farawayescapes.co.uk/gallery/Escape%20Worldwide%20Elephants%20Photo%20Gallery/ For holidays to Kenya visit http://www.safariescapes.co.uk/
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