Elephant Sands

An unexpected (but not unwelcome) detour in our plans sent us to a lodge called Elephant Sands instead of our regularly scheduled stop in Nata or something. We were supposed to go to some town, and tour an elementary school (empty), have a cooking competition (?), etc. Instead, we went to a beautiful lodge in the middle of nowhere, where elephants come to drink from the swimming pool. Thank goodness Nata was overbooked, right?

Getting there was a little interesting in our Avis bus on sandy roads, but Jimmy is the man.

Made us get out and walk though, it was that sketchy.

Ahhh, the adventures of a Gap tour

While we waited for elephants, we watched the wonderful birds.

This tree had the nests of a weaver (a specific kind, but Jan said it so many times, I apparently didn't write it down, ha). They interestingly always build their nests on the west side. The large nest on top of the tree is unknown, as Jan had to repeat over and over as new people trickled down to our sitting spot.
This is the bird responsible for the bush compass
Glossy Starlings are very pretty. Much better than our invasive European ones
Jimmy the driver, taking a well deserved break after the crazy trek in
So, just beyond this sign is the watering hole. We sat around waiting all afternoon, for the elephants Jan promised us. There were bush fires all around us and things weren't looking so good.
When it started to get dark, we eventually gave up, convinced ourselves that it was still a spectacular place (and it was), and settled in with our beers to wait for dinner. I brought out my flutes and amusingly, within 20 minutes of me twiddling, here comes an elephant. Some idiot ran around and talked too loud, scaring it off though.
So, we settled in again, this time happy that we at least saw an elephant at Elephant Sands, and I pulled my flutes out again. And lo and behold, 20 or so minutes later, here come more elephants. (Thoroughly cementing my reputation as an elephant whisperer, ha) This time they stayed. The momma and baby went to the slightly more distant watering hole due to the mass of people, but two younglings decided the draw of clean water was worth the danger and came to drink out of the swimming pool.
Imagine, standing 20-30 feet from an elephant, with nothing between you and them. and no tame little indian elephants (not knocking the indian elephants, but there is an appreciable size difference, no?), or zoo buddies, but wild african elephants. These guys are BIG! The most amazing thing about them is how quiet they are. You couldn't even hear them as they moved around.
Some idiot still managed to scare them off, this one running around to get a picture (with no flash allowed and moving animals, in the dark. yeah, thanks buddy for ruining it for us and getting nothing yourself) For these reasons, I didn't even try to take a picture, but it was a spectacular experience.

So, Elephant Sands was a wonderful place, one of the highlights of the tour