Welcome To The Elephant Superhighway!

See these two Elephants? See the tire tracks in the sand? Guess whose road it is?

Theirs!

The Elephants control all the travel here – in Botswana’s Okavango Delta they call it the “Elephant Superhighway!” Here is why:

One of the many magical moments of our summer African Safari was seeing so many Elephants – all around us – and usually taking over the road when we were trying to drive – watch a bit of the traffic jam we encountered!

We loved it of course, because we got incredible close-up encounters with them!

Elephants in the Okavango Delta are everywhere, including right outside our room at the incredible Wilderness Qorokwe lodge – take a look!

They were literally everywhere in the Delta, and there’s a reason for that!

The Okavango Delta is home to thousands of elephants, which are part of Botswana’s massive elephant population of around 130,000—the largest on the continent.

The delta is a crucial seasonal refuge, especially during the dry season when its waterways and floodplains attract large herds of elephants for water and food. 

I am telling you this because we had a wild encounter with a herd of Elephants: and one in particular!

It all began when our new friends Singeetha and Karthik joined us on a trip to do a “Mokoro” – a Botswana canoe ride. Singeetha’s sister Aravinda took this shot, but you will see her in the videos soon!

We were on our way for a canoe adventure because the Okavango Delta is very very wet: great for traditional “Mokoro” boating, and a bit of an adventure drive through the marshes as well – check this out:

We were on our way to the lagoon where we could canoe, but getting there meant driving through multiple marshes that sent water into the jeep!

There were Elephants everywhere on our drive – and in one case, check out the Baboons who wandered among them!

There are wild animals everywhere in the Okavango Delta, all safe and completely free to go wherever they want…which became clear when we arrived at our Mokoro boats:

Yep, there was an Elephant in front of our boats, and not just any Elephant: he was an Elephant in “MUSTH!”

Here’s that definition you are looking for:

“Elephant in musth” refers to a physiological state in male elephants characterized by extremely high levels of the hormone testosterone, which leads to aggressive behavior and a strong sexual drive.

Yep, that male Elephant was in a mood for love! That meant our Mokoro trip was in doubt! Alex explains:

So we were in a stalemate: for as long as our Elephant in musth was there, we were not safe to go into the water. A musth Elephant always has the “right of way”, and are in a heightened state of aggitation, so you must defer to them – Jacob explains how the musth Elephant is searching for a mate:

The “musth” condition is accompanied by physical signs like secretions from the temporal glands, a continuous dribbling of urine, and a distinctive musky odor, which can be described as a mix of clover and skunk. 

We sat and watched for a half hour, enjoying the large herd that was grazing in the marsh:

We got to see the physical sign of the “musth” – note the greenish color between the legs:

This is potentially a very dangerous situation to be in. I will share a video later that shows you proof. We were lucky that we arrived AFTER this herd, because if they showed up while we were in the water, they might have been very unhappy with us.

So we sat and watched them, and Jacob explained more of what we were seeing with all of us chiming in:

So that was that: our “musth elephant” wasn’t moving, and we weren’t canoeing. We made plans to return the next day – but before you think we were too cautious, here is a video making the rounds on social media – the same lagoon, not sure who was in charge of the mokoro, but the elephants showed up after the group was in the water and this happened:

Now That’s Scary!

They probably were already in the water when the Elephants showed up….luckily, we just waited in our Jeep, realized the boat tour was off, and went back the next day – here’s a look at our experience when we went back:

It’s serene and spiritually uplifting in the best way – and the Elephants even stopped by to say hello – but this time they were a safe distance away:

This Makoro adventure was one of the highlights of our incredible safari – see more of this adventure with lots of video by clicking on my story here:

Thanks for coming along on our safari adventure, which included hanging out with these Hippos:

Yep, this one was excited to see us! Click here for our Hipp encounter:

And one of the most amazing days happened when we ran into 17 Lions!

There were so many we couldn’t get them all in one shot!

Click here for lots of video of the Lions, plus wild dogs too!

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Categories: Africa, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, safari, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir

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