An amazing day

...a number of Sable in the bushes all darting about and then I see motionless and close a young startled one just looking at us.  Only 8 months or so and then like a clumsy foal it piles off in the opposite direction, a while after the others.  We are driving home after a trip to get the rangers and an outdoor emergency meeting at a stunning watering hole studded with insects and bird.  (The meeting was about the whole ranger team bunking off for 2 nights over Ida but collectively covering for each other and making up elaborate patrolling alibi).

Despite the beauty of the watering hole I am now feeling very grumpy as have been painfully flicked in the face and neck by whipping sticks as we drive through areas of undergrowth.  We approach the river near home, a 4x4 spot and the rangers shout ‘elephant,’- I can’t see a thing.  ‘In the river’ says D and pointing at a rock I realise the enormous great mound is in fact alive.  He is startled by us and one or two on the back of the car disembark making as if they were going to run for the hills until D tells them to calm down and behave 'like men not women...' (a turn of phrase which makes me raise an eyebrow!)

The male bull flaps his ears and then retreats enough that he is covered but can look at us.  What a sight this large animals turns out to be quite young and friendly just bemused by all our noise, metal and strange scents.  He calms down and I watch him play with dust, eat, sniff again and again and try to look nonchalant. He seems unsure where to go and tries to hide behind a tree rather unsuccessfully.  We move off slowly and leave him alone to hide more successfully - undisturbed.

Imagines scored deep on my minds eye - a wonderful day in the bush.