Tembe Elephant Park: Some Snaps

[Gerrit Loubser]

I am not the world's best photographer and the other members of our family are also happy snappers rather than professionals, but perhaps you would enjoy some pictures from our recent jaunt to Tembe Elephant Park (see this thread):

Our camp at Ponweni





Our first elephant sighting...






which turned out to be just a little scary. The Patrol is big, but not all that big either






It was quite exciting on board the Patrol (hence the shakes):





...
but we made it...



(The pictures showing the Patrol and elephant are courtesy of Peter Gow, an LCCSA member and great guy)



Typical Tembe scenery and sand roads:




We took a trip to the Muzi border post where the park borders the Futhi reserve in Mozambique...




...and drove the cut line on the border between SA and Mozambique:



The Range Rover Vogue belongs to Eben Henning (Fancy finding a Vogue in the bush...).


Along the way there is a market on the Mozambique side of the border (less impressive border fence here ):






Back in Tembe: The first lion that we spotted. There is just something different about the way a lion looks you in the eye...





The elephants that we spotted grew larger and larger:







More lions...







Probably the largest and most majestic elephant that we saw (A typical Tembe elephant stands 50 to 60 cm taller at the shoulder than the average African elephant and they have magnificent tusks):




At the end of a hard day in Africa, one tends to have a king size thirst and a Dos M goes down well:

[KOOS BEST]

Gerrit, pics like this makes me an African, I am in love with this continents fauna and flora, nothing beats it.
The pic with the Eli in the background of your Troll is a great pic,you MUST post it on the Ozzie site , an awesome Patrol photo.
Koos.

[JohnBoyZA]

Man those ellies look too close for comfort, Lekka pics Gerrit!

[Gerrit Loubser]

John, they were close, but the lense makes them appear dangerously close, which I don't think was the case .

[JG Shields]

Great Gerrit! Are you aware of the trans-frontier initiative with the Maputu Elephant Reserve? We often camp at Milibangalala in the reserve and went elephant spotting a few times. Very shy elephants in the reserve but also majestic. Why did you push the one elephant over in the road?

[Gerrit Loubser]

Are you aware of the trans-frontier initiative with the Maputu Elephant Reserve?

Yes, I have heard of it, but the Maputo Elephant Reserve is quite far from Futhi if I am not mistaken, so quite a corridor of land would have to be required on the Mozambique side. I wonder if it will happen.

Why did you push the one elephant over in the road?

Do you mean this one?



The elephant must have been shifting its weight while walking, which creates the impression that it is about to topple. They don't allow anyone to push them around .

[KOOS BEST]

An interesting fact about Kruger Eli's are , that the majority gene pool are from the Maputo Reserve. Stevenson- Hamilton recorded that all Eli's were shot out and by the turn of the 19th century some herds that migrated to the coast made it back after Kruger was proclaimed, hence they were awarded protection.

Also in the late 80's early 90's an American paraplegic guy , was busy in proclaiming the area from Inhaca to the SA border incl Tembe and Ndumo( this Eli's are also ex Moz citizens) as boundaries as one of the biggest game reserves. The area was depleted of humans due to the war , he than suddenly passed away and this initiative died with him. Today it will be difficult because of all the human settlements . That why the Eli's near Mili JG are so shy, they have horrible memories of the Frelimo vs Renamo war.

Koos

[JG Shields]

Koos & Gerrit,

Yes the shy elephants are as a result of the war. On top of that, you have to appreciate the park's geography. The nature of the veldt/forest/wetland combination makes that the elephants graze predominantly in certain areas. These areas are not very well driveable and least visited by tourists.

The corridor Gerrit refers to is big, however it has already being agreed in principle between Moz and SA that the projects will continue. The biggest hurdle is indeed the resistance encountered from the Moz locals in the area. They became subsistance farmers and are of the opinion that they can't make a living together with the elephants on the same land. Ironically, the locals living in the park makes a better living than those outside the park.

Gerrit, I thought that you has so much trust in the Patrol that you took the Elephant on. That would have been my only logic explanation...ha ...ha.

[Jules]

Great Pics Gerrit , the eli just behind the vehicle looks like Bakkies Botha looking for an outside gap but then changing his mind to force through the centre. Those Eli's are really really BIG

gROETE
Jules

[Wheels]

We visisted Tembe over the Herritage day long weekend (self made). You were lucky to see the lions in the park. We saw a croc catching a pigeon at one of the water holes. We stayed at Ndumo over the weekend and did day trips to Tembe and Kosi bay area.