18 December

18 December

Bush Camping (Bwabwata) – Kongola

54 Miles

Erik:

    So we saw like 20 elephants today. Heard them trumpeting as well. At first we stopped for just one that we saw. He was just eating away like 20 yds from us. Then we slowly looked around and realized there were about 15 all around us.

    I told Steph to get back on her bike, but she just wanted to hug them. :) So we started slowly cycling away from the group and an adolecent male popped up right next to us. We totally spooked him, and there was a definate oh shit moment. He was about 10 yds away, and he saw us, got starteled, and turned right towards us, ears flapping. I thought he was about to charge and we were about to have flat bikes. But instead he did a 180 and ran to his mom on the other side of the road. Young elephants running has to be one of the funniest things to watch.

    A little ways down we heard more. They were deep in the bush and I counted about 5. We just stood and listened to them for a while. They were trumpeting and grunting. It was very cool, and all very surreal.

    An hour later Steph saw butts of something (we thought cows) in the bush. So we stopped and I walked in a bit and after a few meters one whirled around and I learned it was Buffalo. Just then I saw her smell the air and she knew I was there. Then she did a false charge, cutting the distance in half to about 25 yds away from me. I slowly walked backwards, the whole time she was snorting, stamping and going in circles. She escorted us all the way to our bikes. Turns out Buffalo are agressive. Whoops. Steph swears she told me this, but I do not recall her saying these words until afterwords.

We camped at a campsite just outside of Kongola. It was OK, but not great. We were pretty beat, but happy.