Chris one of our Zimbabwean guides just completed a Zimbabwe Botswana ZB16 camping tour and had a great experience at Elephant Sands just outside Nata in Botswana. We just arrived at Elephant Sands for our overnight camping before heading off to Maun and the Okavango Delta. As we started to offload our truck, we saw a big herd of elephants coming down to the water hole for a drink. It was around 14:00pm and the weather was quite warm, probably why these animals came down for the afternoon drink so early.

We headed off to the waterhole to view these interesting animals. We watched these animals drink from a deck next to the water hole which is very close, close enough that you could reach out and  touch the wild. We were like an arm’s length away from the drinking elephants.

The deck gives a perfect sense of security and at the same time feeling so unsecure. We watched the elephants drink for almost 30 minutes spraying themselves, mock charging each other, pushing and shoving each other like small children at school.

When this herd finished and left we thought of going back to continue offloading again but another big herd of mainly females came to visit the water and it was great to watch the young ones with their mothers. All the time up untill the sun set there were various groups of elephants visiting the waterhole. We realised it was almost sunset before we started offloading the truck and we still had to set up camp and cook dinner. Throughout the night the main activity was elephants coming to the water hole. This place is perfect for elephants as it is the source of water in this dry corner of Botswana.