In Which Andrew Meets Many Heffalumps

With our search for elephants still not fully resolved, and Frances confirming she wants me to come back with evidence of at least one baby elephant, we give Tyrone a fairly straightforward directive for the morning game drive: "find us some more elephants". We set out towards the south-west of the reserve, where the elephants are known to congregate, cross the river and drive to a reservoir in that corner.

A road runs along the top of the dam which forms the reservoir, providing views of both the far shore, and the scrubland below the dam. The shore is bathed in wonderful warm early morning light, and I abandon my long lenses to make a panorama, "Absence of Elephant". (Although, as any scientist or detective knows, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence…)

So far we have little evidence of elephants, although there is some activity hidden in the scrub below the dam, with an occasional trumpet or fleeting glimpse of a trunk reaching up through the trees, but not what we came for. However a couple of giraffes wander along the shore, reflected in the water, providing an unexpectedly graceful subject.

An eagle-eyed member of my group spots some elephantine movement on the far hillside, followed quickly by confirmation from another vehicle which has a different angle. A group of elephants are headed down the hill. We quickly move back up the track and get some shots of the group moving along the path, followed by them crossing the track just in front of our vehicles.

The group consists of about three older females, a juvenile, and a baby estimated to be about 4 months old. As our drivers carefully manoeuvre the vehicles to extend the interaction the baby expresses his puzzlement by giving one of the jeeps a playful nudge. Anyone old enough to remember the famous "Blue Peter" scene with John Noakes and a baby elephant will know how firm such a nudge can be!

The guides need to train the elephants out of such behaviour, so baby is recipient of a series of "bad dog" shouts and gestures. These in turn upset Mum, who approaches our jeep, but when the appropriate gesture is made she immediately calms down, so clearly the training sticks fairly readily.

The group moves away, but not before I’ve managed to get a couple of nice portraits of mother and baby. On our way back up the hill we watch a large bull who have also emerged from the scrub and is happily engaged eating a large, spiky bush.

Elephants done. Tick.

For our afternoon drive we fancy something a bit different, and set out towards the main lake to do some hippo spotting. On the way we encounter a group of zebras who almost seem to be taking direction:

Our first encounter at the lake, ironically, is with the same bull elephant we observed in the morning, standing quietly on the road in front of us, plus we get occasional views of a mother and older juvenile below the track. Like buses, elephants. Grr.

At the lake we spend a bit of time observing the hippos. Although Zaminga has a substantial number of them the challenge, which I had not appreciated, is that hippos are actually more closely related to whales than the other pachyderms, and spend a lot of time not just in but also under the water. This helps protect their skin, which burns easily, and allows them to graze on underwater plants as well as those along the water’s edge, but it does make photography more tricky. However we do get shots of one having a splendid yawn.

Our drive back is slightly hair-raising, as Tyrone’s usual route back from that side of the lake is waterlogged thanks to the recent rains, and the jeep loses traction. As he tries to work it free the vehicle starts to cant sideways at an alarming angle. In an enclosed SUV, or even one of Zaminga’s regular vehicles, this would be less of an issue but we are in the "photo vehicle" designed to enable lower-level shots, and you sit "on" rather than "in" it, with little to hold on to. Eventually we manage to reverse out and take the long way round, but not without a bit of drama.

We’re not expecting much from the remainder of the drive, but the best has arguably been left for last. As we’re driving past the cheetahs’ domain Ty spots a serval, a small but long-bodied wildcat about the same as a smaller domestic one. These animals are solitary, usually nocturnal, and actively avoid interaction with larger ones, so it’s extremely unusual to see one. We get a couple of shots of the serval moving, and then follow it to where it’s hiding from us.

We get a few more photos, but it’s evident that the animal knows it’s being hunted, doesn’t understand it’s just for images, and is finding it all quite stressful, so we leave it be and head back to the lodge, with an unexpected encounter under the belt.