I Finally Saw Elephants

So I finally saw some elephants here.  9 of them to be exact.  I was on vacation in Livingstone, Zambia, when I looked out across the river and about 200 meters away were 9 big ol' rock shaped creatures.  Sure enough... elephants.  They were really far away so I wasn't all that excited, but it was good to see them and know that they do exist here (I was beginning to wonder).

The next day I went to Chobe National Park in Botswana (about 1 hour from Livingstone) for a 2-day safari and didn't see just 1, 9, 90, or even 200 elephants.  Nope.  I saw well over 300 elephants in just 48 hours.  For whatever reason, the elephants are like ants in Botswana - they crawl all over the place.

Elephants need to drink water at least once per day, so staying near the river guaranteed an easy sighting of these three.

We (myself and some other PCVs that I was on vacation with) saw elephants in the river, on the hill sides, in the road... you name it and there was an elephant there.  We even saw elephants at our campsite at night as we sat in the middle of the park enjoying the stars and listening to lions call in the distance.

I didn't get to track any elephants on foot, but I did get to juggle some dry elephant poop for a bit (sadly, no picture to show of that) and I practically filled an entire SD card with pictures of these big, gray beasts.  However, we saw much more than just elephants.  We saw huge herds of zebra, cape buffalo, impala, some sable and roan antelope, a lion, and even the always elusive leopard.

The always elusive leopard taking a mid-afternoon nap in a tree near the river.

Overall, Chobe National Park didn't disappoint in terms of being able to see tons of African wildlife.  It did make me sad though that this all lives across the river from Zambia.  I know the Zambian parks have wildlife but Botswana was teeming with it.  As soon as we entered the country, not even the park!, there were elephants crossing the road.  So what's the difference between Zambia and Botswana?  I have no idea, but it's really too bad they aren't in more places.

With that being said, after returning from my vacation to my village I was informed that a herd of 8 elephants were spotted just 4 miles from my house but had been chase away before I could see them.  So maybe I should've tracked them after all.  For me though, at this point, its just enough to know that there are a few left, and maybe they'll come by someday just to say hi to me.

This elephant crossed right in front of our boat.  Hopefully I'll be able to see something close like this in Zambia.