On our first afternoon drive at Amboseli National Park in Kenya, it was obvious that our driver was on a mission. He did not tell us what the mission was, but you tell that he was more or less killing time until something happened, and that he needed to be in right place at the right time for us to see it. As the sun started to set, the CB radio came alive with excited chatter and the final race was on. It is evidently a matter of some pride among the drivers to get their clients as close to the spot where the elephants choose to cross the road on that particular afternoon on their way to the slightly higher ground in the north section of the park to spend the night. There are several trails. As a guide, you can’t afford to guess wrong and have your clients miss the whole thing…and you can’t come late or they will be at the very back of the press of safari vans with not much of a view, and you can’t come early since your vehicle in the path might turn the herd to another trail. Timing is everything. You need among the first to arrive after the herd is committed to a trail. We were one van length from the trail they used that day. A bit crazy perhaps. I had to wonder would happen if one of those huge creatures decided to come through us instead of through the gap…but they all thundered through 20 feet from us. The shot above is of one of the “pioneer” elephants who was already across the road when we arrived, but within the next 10 minutes the heard joined him and they moved off to the north. The link below is to a video slideshow of the experience.

Amboseli Elephants on the move