Elephants

To start off my grand Safari adventure we flew into Johannesburg, South Africa and then over the course of a few days basically drove the entire length (north to south) of Botswana. So that meant a lot of time on our "adventure mobile" 

aka "the duck" 

aka "the tank" 

aka "the bus" 

But more on that in another post! Just trust me, this thing was a beast (we had to climb a ladder to get in) and it got some serious mileage over the course of our two week camping expedition. 

We also didn't have any AC, but with some windows down, hair whipping in the wind and sunshine streaming in, I am pretty sure it was scientifically the perfect temperature for napping. Just the right amount of warmth and cool breeze. It was glorious. 

But my real favorite part of driving? umm ELEPHANTS! In Northern Botswana we only saw a few elephants in game reserves and national parks, yet somehow we saw 50+ elephants on the side of the road as we would be driving down the road! Surreal.

At one point we saw a family of nearly TWNETY elephants, just a few hundred feet away from us!


I don't think anyone actually dislikes elephants, but over the course of this trip I went from liking elephants to elephants-are-the-coolest-creatures-in-the-world! Not only are they beautiful and a lot more graceful than you might expect. But they also pretty much have super sonic hearing, are crazy intelligent, and have strong family bonds. As we were driving in the "adventure mobile" I actually was reading an article about how a study of 300+ elephants demonstrated that they have the ability to distinguish between human languages. Elephants had a defensive reaction to a traditional hunter tribe's language, whereas they had a neutral reaction to a farmer tribe's language.  

Elephants herds are matriarchal and all the adults work together to raise and protect their young. If they sense danger they will circle up, placing the vulnerable baby elephants at the center, to protect them from attacks on all sides. They are one of the few mammals that practice altruism and display a wide range of emotions including: grief, joy, anger, and play. 
Because we came to Botswana at the tail end of the rainy season, it was really hard to spot animals on safaris (tall grasses + plenty of water = animals hiding) BUT the huge up side to visiting during the spring? All the BABY animals!

^^ pretty sure that this little guy is the cutest elephant ever.
more elephant facts: babies gestate for 22 months! and then when they are born they weigh 200-250 lbs! 

 And to wrap it all up: I am seriously digging the Dumbo ears the little guy in the back has going on.

Fun fact: Dumbo was my favorite show when I was toddler and at the tender age of 4 my mother accidentally taped over (back in the days of VHS) my Dumbo show and I told her "you are ruining my life."

and with that fun fact, I'll conclude this post!

elephants are the greatest. that is all.