Photo and Travel Tip: Yes, Elephants Can Hide

I recently ran into this ‘fun’ image at Art Wolfe’s blog:

"Vanishing Elephant" - © Art Wolfe

While it wasn’t hard to see this elephant, it brought back a lot of memories from my last safari.  On that trip, my son, Justin Eleazer, wanted to explore more inland and much further west than we had ever traveled before within Chobe NP.  [Mistake 1 ] Reluctantly, I agreed.  Though Justin had never driven from the right side with a stick shift, he wanted to drive on this day. [Mistake 2 ] Reluctantly I agreed.   Some of these roadways were quite narrow, with brush hitting both sides of the Toyota Hi-Lux.  Well, getting to my point – several times on this trip, we ended up driving very close to elephants before either Justin and I spotted them.  Once we ended up in the middle of an entire herd crossing the road.  Justin ‘mastered’ tight turns and riding the clutch as needed that day.

The Tip: Elephants are big.  Real big.  When you first see them along a waterfront or in open grasslands, you will think that they will always be easy to spot.  WRONG.  These things walk quietly and hide very well, so keep your eyes open. ….. Oh, and by the way, if we missed the elephants, just think how much other game we didn’t spot …. so keep your eyes open.  With this reminder, you may want to go back and our article on minimizing the chances with elephants.

Related posts

• Wildlife in Chobe (1)
• Why Chobe? (1)
• Trip Report: The Art of Safari Seduction (1)
• Sunset Elephants of Chobe (0)
• Photo tip: Stand on the shoulders of giants (4)

Tags: Art Wolfe, Art Wolfe blog, camouflage, Chobe National Park, Chobe NP, elephant, hidden, spotting game

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 5:06 am and is filed under Photography Tips, Trip Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.