Botswana's Amazing Elephants

There are over 100,000 elephants in northern Botswana and from August to December, as the dry season advances, they gather in vast herds near permanent water sources. At this time the Chobe and Linyanti Rivers can be besieged with elephants drinking hundreds of gallons of water, cavorting and rolling in the refreshing rivers, hosing themselves down. In this area you can enjoy a luxury safari at Chobe Chilwero lodge, or for a more “authentic” bush safari, choose Linyanti Bush Camp in the private Chobe Enclave.

Elephants in northern Botswana move long distances, migrating across 5,000 sq kilometers or more during the wetter summer months and communicate over long distances using infrasound inaudible to the human ear. Easier to hear are the low rumbles as you sit in your open vehicle among a gathering herd. As the huge males move closer their slow silent tread belies their awesome power. You don’t know whether to keep taking amazing photos or simply to sit and savour the moment.

If you want to get really close, take an elephant back safari at Abu’s Camp on a huge private reserve in the heart of the Okavango Delta. Over three days you ride your elephant across golden savannah plains, woodland and shimmering lagoons. Back in the intimate luxurious lodge you can spend time developing an understanding of their behaviour and character. Baines Camp is 20 minutes away by light aircraft, and here you can enjoy a luxury Botswana safari watching elephants and other creatures from the raised deck of your bush suite. They’ll even move your bed out on the veranda so you can sleep under the stars, woken by the occasional rending crack as an elephant nonchalantly tears a branch from a fig tree. At Baines Camp you can pass an unforgettable few hours with three orphan elephants walking with them through the bush.

These amazing creatures live 60 or 70 years and over that time have six sets of giant molar teeth. All that chewing on branches and consumption of tons of vegetation wears them out, and when elephants die, it’s often just because they’ve worn down their last set of teeth.

If you’d enjoy an unforgettable safari among Botswana’s elephants call us now.