Aba-Huab Community Campsite, May 4th - 6th

A great little campsite on the banks of a dry river bed. On the drive there we passed through some amazing scenery, very dry with some awesome rocky outcrops.

At camp a fellow camper told us about the desert elephants that were just a couple of kilometers up the river bed, this we had to see. After 2 unsuccesful drives to try and find them we were almost giving up hope. We had seen their footprints everywhere but just couldn't find them. There were numerous forks in the river so it was hard to know which way to go. Eventually on the last morning we finally found them and what an amazing experience!

As we rounded a corner in the river there was the whole family walking towards us, we quickly stopped and watch but the left the river into the thick trees on the bank, we throught that was all we would see. We turned back toward camp, and were lucky to see them again, they had crossed the river bed and were just leaving it again. We slowly passed them, one still in the river bed and drove up ahead. We stopped where there was a clearing and thought we'd wait to see if they came by, assuming they would walk past on the river bank.

Susan and Dad were on the roof, to take photos, I was sitting of the bonnet of the car and Mum was standing next to the car. Eventually we saw one of the elephants emerge from the bush, right into the middle of the river bed. It stood there for awhile to check us out, while the others waiting amongst the trees on the side. It eventually decided were weren't a threat, so led the way and the rest came out and started to walk towards us in the middle of the river bed. We didn't expect them to come so close to us and at one point Mum turned to me and wispered "are we ok here", I just shrugged my shoulders and wispered back "I hope so..." It was too late to move and get back in the car as it might give them a fright.

Anyway the casually walked past us, with the last one keeping a very good eye on us and the odd trumpet just to make sure we didn't move. The had walked past us only 15 meters away. What a great experience.

We also went and visted some very old rock paintings and engravings which were also great to see and the "petrified forest", which has a huge amount of petrified logs dating back millions of years, very interesting.