Elephant and rhino tracking

It’s just after 6am and the sun is already high in the sky. We probably won’t need the warm jerseys we’ve brought it looks like. The smiling face of black rhino tracker, Zama, greets us. He has agreed to take us out looking for elephant today. The females wearing the new collars we put on just a couple of weeks ago.

We jump into the clapped out Landie and head south, far south. Grass is the ellies’ favourite food and it is thick and lush in the south. They will spend the summer there.

Zama stops suddenly and reverses the vehicle. Big male lion off to our left a couple of hundred metres away. Sharp eyes!

We push further south, duck off east into an area called Harrowgate and stop on a hill. Antenna out he checks the signal. Somewhere down in the bush there one of the collars sends us the constant beep. They are here. Somewhere.

We move on, and into Sutton now, climbing the steep hills up towards the mountains of Nkonka. The bush is thick and green.

A lone female impala darts across the road. And a fresh, new baby follows nimbly behind her, sticking close to mom. The impala have started to drop their young. So special to see the first youngster before we leave for home.

We stop several times, checking the signal. Zama scans the hillside. And finds them. Straining over the distance we can see maybe two or three. With bino’s trained on them many more emerge out of the bush. They are clearly moving east. We skirt around and onto the Sodwana Bay road, hoping that they will cross on their way to Mpafa Dam.

Looking down the hill the ellies are just 100m away. Some have crossed the road. Some browse lazily in the bushes still to the west of the road. Two youngster trot across.

Further up the road two motorbikes have stopped, the ellies between them and the way out of Phinda. More bikes pile up behind them, part of more than 100 BMW bikers, traveling down Africa, who stayed at Bayete Camp. Pretty soon just less than 100 BMW bikers are waiting, trapped by the elephants.

And then two bikes creep forward. A matriarch stands to the side, just on the road. They edge past her slowly and then speed up the hill towards us. The elephant shakes her head, puts her ears back and trumpeting chases after them. Which means after us too. Zama fires up the engine, slams in reverse and races back up the hill. The ellie keeps coming. And coming. I signal the bikers, now behind, to speed up. Eventually we are at a distance deemed satisfactory by the infuriated matriarch. The bikers are now piling up behind each other on the fart side. No one is willing to take a chance. After waiting for ten minutes or so the ellies eventually move off into the bush, and the biker’s engines growl past us, and inside their helmets they all wear excited smiles. What excitement!

Zama is nervous of harassing the ellies further and so the request from ranger Giles to follow up and track down black rhino in Harrowgate gives us something else to do. On either side of the road we are surrounded by a carpet of green grass, in an area burnt some months back. We spy some rhino on the ridge across the way. Three of them. One black and two white. We move in a bit closer and the bino’s bring them closer still. The black rhino is a youngster, probably only four. They are known for being inquisitive and he cannot help going up to the bigger white rhino to have a look. Eventually they are nose to nose. Touching. So special to see them so close together, both to compare them up close and to witness this very special interaction.

Heading home, the clouds have returned and with them a slight drizzle. Passing by Old Main Gate we see the lioness and one of the males, the two we saw mating just the other day no doubt. And closeby a beautiful waterbuck bull stands alone, not more than 100m from the lions. We move closer, off the road in the hopes that something may happen. But the lions seems little interested, occupied by other activities for the moment.

Zama drops us back off at home. Farewells are said and he trundles off to his home. A very special day indeed.