Life with Desert-Adapted Elephants

This blog update is dedicated to Chris Fitzpatrick, a friend and colleague, who unexpectedly passed away on 18 February 2009. Chris, you touched more lives than you know. I will miss you and your wonderful sense of humour tremendously. I think of you often. RIP.

Talking About Elephants:

“Well”, I hear you say, ”about time too!” Yes, absolutely. I agree. About time I got around to really talking about the elephants.

What can I say? Where do I begin? Yes, I have seen them before on safari in Kenya and, yes, I thought I knew a little bit about them from watching various documentaries on TV. And, yes, the initial induction talk from the EHRA project managers, together with getting numerous, exciting updates from volunteers who had joined the project before me, gave me some idea of what to expect. But nothing, absolutely NOTHING, prepared me for what I was about to experience regarding these majestic, graceful, wise, silent, beautiful, desert-adapted creatures during my two months in Damaraland, Namibia!

As many of my friends know, my ideal alternative life/job (if I could do it over again) would be that of David Attenborough’s! So, being on the EHRA project, gave me a minuscule insight into what it might be like to be HIM (yes, I know, not really, but humour me on this). Oh, just to clarify, this is the part of the EHRA project that involved tracking and collating information on the desert-adapted elephants….and not the wall-building part! I’m sure David hasn’t built any rock walls in his life, although I need to read his autobiography (which I do posses) to be sure.

I digress….waffle, waffle! So, back to the elephants. I am not going to recount in chronological sequence, our experience with tracking these elephants, but more, just the things that stand out in my memory from 3 months ago.

Preparing:
The tracking part of the project started in earnest by packing for the week ahead. We packed everything we would need to eat, drink, sleep in, wash with, fix things with (punctures) etc. For the patrol we would be taking 2 vehicles to ensure we had sufficient seating space (as we would be spending a lot of time off road) and also so that one vehicle could act as backup for the other should one break down in the middle of nowhere. We needed to ensure we took sufficient petrol and water for a week out in the desert. We would be setting up camp at a different place every night and we would be in remote locations. We would not know where or how far we would need to travel during the day as it all depended on if, when and where we found the elephants. The only thing we had to go on was a debrief we received on Sunday evening at base camp from Dave and Hendrick (the patrol project managers) on our objectives. These objectives would be related to which herd(s) we would be looking for and what we were trying to find out about them.
(Dave giving us the low down on a herd; charismatic Hendrick)

Setting the Scene(ry):
We would set off on patrol on Tuesday morning at 8am and get back to base camp on Thursday late afternoon. From Tuesday to Thursday, we would break camp at 7am latest after a porridge breakfast at 6:15am. The morning routine was precise and there was no time to waste.

I loved patrol week. It was an adventure - the heading out into the African bush each morning, into the unknown! The anticipation of whether and when and where we would find the herds and what experiences lay ahead for us, together with discovering yet some other unseen parts of the Namibian desert (unseen by me, that is), was just pure magic. The route out of base camp was amazing and then everything else from then on just got better.

We normally did our patrol and tracking between the Ugab and Uhab rivers in Damaraland, north of Swakupmund. The elephants would be somewhere in the 200 square kilometres of arid desert containing the Brandberg mountain, many others mountains, as well as vast plains. The scenery was inevitably amber, sandy, and desolate. We were off-road from beginning to end and would not normally come across other traffic or tourists. Yes, we would meet with the local subsistence farmers en route, either at their farms or, whilst they were herding their goats across the land. There were trees only on, near, or surrounding the dry riverbeds of the Ugab and Uhab rivers or their smaller tributaries. Otherwise, there was just barren desert and dried grasslands. The only time we saw water on the ground was in the wetlands – a small oasis in the desert, where the underground rivers were close enough to the earth’s surface to seep through. The lush green grass and trees growing in the wetlands, and the abundant wildlife supported within such a small area, was really remarkable and a stark contrast to the desert surrounding it.

Searching For Those Big, Grey Things:
How and where the hell do you search for herds of desert-adapted elephants in this vastness? By talking to the herdsmen and following tracks. Depending on which herd(s) we were looking to track, we would normally head towards where they were last spotted. We would stop and talk to the farmers we came across. They sometimes would have heard (through the grapevine) of where the elephants were last seen. We were truly off road and the land and drive was rough, very bumpy and often very long. There was not much shade in the vehicles as they had open sides and tops – very exposed to the elements. Our driving speed was slow. This was to ensure that we did not scare off any elephants that may be near by and also because it was impossible to go too fast through that terrain. Often, we would drive through the dry, sandy riverbeds. The driving skills possessed by Dave and Hendrick are something to write home about. Any person less experienced would have had the land cruisers sunk in the desert sands a million times a day. Dave and Hendrick were impressive, not just at driving, but also tracking down the elusive elephants. We learnt how to read the elephant tracks and to determine whether the tracks were fresh or old, to identify which way the elephants were heading as well as working out how many were in the herd. Oh yes, and we also learnt a thing or two about elephant pooh!

Patience is a Virtue:
You need a hell of a lot of patience when looking for/tracking/observing any wildlife (especially endangered wildlife). Needless to say, after 2 months, I had lots of patience! Not as much as some of you would want me to have, but certainly more that I had before I left London. There were LONG drives off-road that had your bum numb after half an hour. Some of our journeys north to the Uhab River were 2 hours long and very tiring. There was many an hour sitting and waiting ahead of a herd of elephants only to see them take another route through the forest where we could not easily see them. Oh, and did I mention the hours sitting under the scorching sun, high up on coppice hills hoping to determine the way the herd was heading. All this sitting and waiting and watching in 40 C heat with mopani bees driving you insane: trying to get in your ears and eyes and mouth. If the elephants were close to us, we had to be as still as possible so as not to spook them and cause them to charge or stampede. This would mean being still even if mopani bees were getting into your eyes and ears. We were not allowed to move. As Hendrick told us…”If the elephants are close and mopani bees are trying to get up your nose, just enjoy them”!!! Yes, he had a sense of humour. But put up with the mopani bees we did. It was either that, or spooking the elephants….uuuummmhhhh! Not much of a choice. Oh, and once you have tracked and found the elephants, you sit in your vehicle quietly and observe them (sometimes for hours). If they are just there, munching away at the Ana trees, taking their time, then you took your time too. We would count the members in the herds, work our who was who, try and find identifying features so we would recognise each elephant again(….and yes, they all look the same in the beginning)! And of course, in the heat of the day, the elephants slept (standing up)…not exactly exciting viewing! So, when the elephants took a siesta, so did we! If you can’t beat them, join them! Once, we were sat high on a coppice hill watching the elephants below (oh, so close below) until dusk, at which point the mosquitoes decided it was their turn to munch (on us). We couldn’t do a thing about it. We were not expecting to be there that long and hadn’t gone prepared with repellent…..so, we just “enjoyed” the mosquitoes. The photo above is one of Maarten having had enough of those mopani bees. The photo speaks volumes of the sheer frustration we all faced with these bees.

Was it all worth the pain and the patience? Take a look at some of the photos below and judge for yourself.

First Encounters:
After all the waiting and suffering, we were rewarded with our first encounters. These will stay with us forever:
- The first encounter of 3 bull elephants walking past our tree-house in base camp (after I had been called out from my shower if u recall)
- the first encounter with Voortrekker, the huge old bull elephant that had been saved from a hunter’s bullet (more about that later);
- the first encounter with Mama Africa (the elephant cow) and her herd just meters away from our vehicle;

(above and around: Voortreckker; the look of sheer joy on Tineke's face on the very first encounter up close with the elephants; Mama Africa oh so close)

- the first close encounter - being rocked in your vehicle by Mama Africa’s juvenile son. That little thing was bloody strong and managed to bump the car with a big thump(just to show us who’s boss)! Cheeky!
- the first encounter with curious teenage elephants touching the land-cruisers’ bumper and bonnet;
- the first time seeing elephants at night, by moonlight, oh, just sooo close;
- the first encounter of a herd running past in a near-stampede because it was spooked by the sound of a farmer's wheelbarrow in the distance;
- the first encounter of watching elephants run with joy as they came across water in the wetlands;
- the first encounter of seeing the 4-week-old baby elephant trying desperately to keep up with its mother;
- the first encounter with adolescent elephants playing doctors and nurses and flirting (and sometimes more than flirting)!
- the first encounter of an elephant trumpeting in fear;
- the first encounter of an elephant having a spa treatment: mud bath, followed by a dusting off, followed by some scratching by rubbing itself against a rock (what a sound it made);
- the first encounter of baby elephants playing with each other or chasing birds away;
- the first encounter with watching elephants play-flight;
- the fist encounter of watching elephants get into the defensive position to protect their young;
- the first encounter of being mock-charged by an elephant that was only 6 meters away from where we STOOD (very scarey);
- seeing different herds greet each other when their paths crossed in that vastness (wow). One elephants would put the tip of it’s trunk into the mouth of the elephant it was greeting – very tender.
- the first encounter of 2 bull elephants fighting and then seeing Voortrekker running over to break up the fight (fascinating that elephants are actually pacifists)
- seeing a mothers separate baby elephants that have taken the play-fighting too far;
- watching a very tired baby elephant just slump to the ground and go to sleep in it’s mother’s shadow.
- watching elephants communicating with other elephants from the same herd or with other herds that were possibly miles away (it has been proven that elephants communicate through the ground). When you see an elephant communicating/listening, it will have its trunk to the ground and it will be standing perfectly still for many seconds/minutes. It is amazing to watch;
- seeing elephants kneeling down to get lower and closer to the water in a deep well;
- seeing elephants standing on just their hind legs as they reach up to eat tender leaves high on a tree or reach over the wall of a water dam. I mean, that must take sheer muscle power to lift it’s body weight onto just the hind legs and hold that position for a minute or so - amazing;

- seeing elephants rest one or other of their legs. Very chilled!
- encountering elephants just meters away from you and being as still as you possibly can be! Talk about being up close and personal;
- watching a whole herd of elephants walk past us without making a sound (still don’t understand how such gigantic creatures can be so silent);
- the first encounter with the bones of a dead elephant strewn on that desert floor. Eerie.

- sitting in the tree-house, with an elephant’s trunk just 2 meters away from you searching for juicy, tasty leaves to munch on (boy were we still). This happened at base camp at around midnight on a night of a full moon. The elephant in question took it’s time having it’s midnight snack from our treehouse! We just sat and watched in awe! If it moved in closer by just 2 meters, he would have been munching on us (huddled there in our sleeping bags, frozen from the chill of the night).
- On the same moonlit night, on our last weekend at base camp, we had our first visit from one of the herds, 3 bull elephants and Voortrekker!!!!! We didn’t hear the elephants until they were pretty close. The only reason we knew was because someone went to the toilet and heard some twigs cracking across the riverbed. We were all just sat around the fire around 11pm ish enjoying a few beers and banter. Boy, did we move quickly to get ourselves into a safe area. That night was adrenaline-filled and pretty scarey as the elephants were in camp and they had no plans to leave anytime soon. They walked into the washing line bringing things crashing down, drank from the nearby dam and generally got themselves intimately acquainted with our dining area (whilst we were either on the tree-house platform, or on the lower rocks of the coppice hill at the back of camp, crouching, huddling, trying not to move or make a sound and shivering all the while in the falling night temperatures). The elephants stayed for about 2 hours!

I will never forget that night or any of the other moments above, together with a million other first encounters. Exceptional memories were created, etched onto our brains, over those very special 2 months (more photo memories below).

Sigh! Hope the words and photos provide an insight into “Life with Desert-Adapted Elephants”.

Hugs from a wanna-be David Attenborough xxxxx

Etched:

xxx

Another Rock in the Wall

Project Structure
Just to jog your memory, the volunteer project work in Namibia was structured in 2-week cycles and I was working on it for 2 months. So, for those of you who are not good at maths, I worked through 4 cycles.

Weekend – in Swakopmund to chill out, get supplies, drop off/pick up volunteers
Week 1 – building walls
Weekend – at base camp
Week 2 – going on patrol to track/monitor elephant behaviour
Weekend – back to Swakopmund etc.
No points for guessing the contents of this blog! Yes, it’s all about building walls. Four weeks worth of building walls. EHRA walls, around water pumps, in the middle of the Namibian Desert. The whole thing can be summed in a few words: ”bloody hard work”. If you want more elaboration on that, read on….

Balls Chutney
Building week starts once a fortnight at noon (ish) on Monday with a 180km journey from Swakupmund to our base camp in Damaraland. Our specially-adapted “landcruiser” is filled with volunteers and the building project manager. The trailer is filled with 2-weeks’ worth of food supplies and our backpacks.

We usually arrived at base camp around 4:30pm ish on Monday after making a pit stop at the petrol station and the “OK Value” supermarket for some snacks. Once we arrived at base camp, the general routine was:
-- Ben, the Build Manager, would set up the duty roster for the next 2 weeks. I.e 2 volunteers per day were “on duty” starting with washing up after dinner on day 1 and then cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner on day 2. The next pair of volunteers would then take over duty with the washing up after dinner. On average there were 14 people to cater for.
-- New volunteers were shown around camp and given a 2 hour induction on health/safety, camp rules, elephants, building week etc.
-- Everyone would pack their day-packs for the week ahead: a couple of changes of clothes, washing kit (i.e. wet wipes – NO, there were no showers once we left base camp) and snacks (yes, we used to be ravenous after all that manual labour and needed to snack a lot…well, that was our excuse anyway)!
-- The non-new volunteers unloaded the trailer and prepared for the week ahead. All items to be taken on building week would be packed into crates: food, cleaning items, plates, cutlery, pots/pans, bin bags. The cool box would be packed with the week’s supply of meat, veg, milk etc. The packing for the week ahead was a precision exercise. Forgetting something was not an option as we would normally be building/camping miles away from anywhere and couldn’t just pop down to the local shops for anything missed! Usually, things went to plan, but once, we forgot the washing up liquid! That was not a good week! Washing up after 14 people, 3 times per day, without detergent and a limited supply of water is gross!! Oh, and once, I forgot the Balls Chutney (think what u will!). What a disaster!!! I was in the dog-house for that! It was Mrs Balls’ Extra Hot Chilli Chutney to be precise. We were all addicted to it and needed (yes, NEEDED) it in our sandwiches at lunchtime. Lunch was just not the same that week without Balls Chutney!!!!!

The Night Before The Morning After: After dinner (9pm ish) at base camp, we would normally sit and chat around the camp fire before heading to bed in the tree-house around 10ish.
(wonderful view looking up through the Ana Trees under which we usually camped)

Sleeping in that tree house, under that star-filled African sky, with a soft night breeze blowing, was pretty amazing. Sometimes there was no breeze (which made the night too warm) and sometimes it was too breezy (which just took a little getting used to). But, when the breeze was just right, it felt like cool silk softly brushing against your skin – just heavenly – sigh! I used to stare a while at the stars before drifting off to sleep in my cosy sleeping bag. V. cool! Damn, I wish I hadn’t reminded myself of that gorgeous tree-house and Mrs Balls’ Extra Hot Chilli Chutney!!! I am craving both right now.

Building Week…yes, let me tell you what hard work it was! That should keep my mind off the chutney at least.

The Morning Cuppa:
Each morning, we would be woken up at 6am with a mug of tea/coffee bought to our sleeping place by the volunteers on duty that day. What a very civilised way to wake up in the morning….with a cup of tea in “bed” under the blue/pink morning sky. This wake-up ritual was part of daily camp life and I found it a wonderful treat (except when I was on duty of course which meant waking up at 5:20am to get the camp fire going for the water)!!!

Needless to say, there was no time for snoozing, especially for the people on duty. By 6:30am, porridge would be ready and by 7am latest, we would be packed and, if onsite, ready to start work. If at base camp, we would start loading the land cruiser and trailer with our gear including wheelbarrows, spades, shovels, cement etc. The base camp manager and staff would ensure the vehicle was serviced and we had enough petrol and water for the week ahead. During building week, we had the option of getting water from the water pumps for cooking. However, during patrol week (when we tracked the elephants), we took all our water for the full week as there was no opportunity to refill. Wasting water was an offence deserving of a severe beating!
(left - loading and packing up the landcruiser with our roll mats; below, the stunning scenery)

Building Walls, Muscles and Relationships:
We always had two project staff with us during building week. Ben, the building project manager, and Gersen, the strongest man on earth.

My first building week on site was at some middle-of-nowhere farm, surrounded by funny hills. It took us roughly 2-3 hours to get there from base camp and the scenery along the way was stunning.

(farmhouse belong to the 1st family we built for; Katy tying up the tarp when setting up camp; camp site after set up)

Once we reached the site, it was all hands to the pump to offload, set up camp, and get ready for work.

Wall building has 5 main activities: digging the foundations, rocking (rock collecting), sanding (sand collecting), mixing the cement and building. Easy right? Not! The hardest of all was rock collecting. Rocks for the wall were from nearby coppice hills. Large rocks were required and they were HEAVY. I could barely carry any of the large rocks so kept to the medium and small rocks needed for filling the gaps. Not a great feeling when you don’t have the strength to be able to lift those larger rocks! I have to take my hat off to the other volunteers who did manage to lift them, especially the girls….their strength was impressive! Too many names to mention, but Tineke really stood out for sheer muscle and will power (superwoman herself). All the other activities were do-able and I actually enjoyed them: the sand-collecting, mixing the cement, building and even digging the foundations!

Building work started at 7am and finished at 5pm. We would stop for a 10-minute fruit/snack break at 10am ish (picture to the right) and a sandwich-lunch and siesta from noon to 2pm. With the 40C heat and hardly any shade, it was tough but extremely rewarding. And yes, I had muscles and a tan after 2 months of it!

At the end of our working day, we would clean all the equipment and ourselves. Unfortunately, this did not mean a shower (which is something we all needed! This meant a quick wash with water from the pump (oh what sheer luxury)!!! Then, it was a short walk back to the campsite where we would all just collapse….well, after a cool drink and some snacks!!! The volunteers on duty would then start their cooking for the evening meal. The rest of us would have time to write diaries/listen to our ipods/read/chat/watch the sunset/hike up the funny hills/play cricket/exercise or whatever else took our fancy. We ate at 8pm and would, inevitably, be in bed by 9:30pm. The next pair of volunteers would wash up after the evening meal and any left over food would be taken to the family (subsistence farmers) for whom we were building the wall.

What you’ve always wanted to know ….but wouldn’t dare ask:
Toilets? - Bet you are just a little curious….admit it! Yes, it was back to basics – dig yourself a hole in the ground….cover it back up afterwards. Burn the toilet paper in a well-cleared space, away from all the very dry grass (to avoid starting a serious bush fire – no joke), stroll back to camp, the end! Yes, and take a head torch with you if at night….just so you can see the scorpions, snakes and possibly elephants, and can avoid them! Go far enough away from camp to get some privacy, but not too far, just in case! Well, you wanted to know!

Staying clean – wet wipes. The girls all had a cleaning ritual that took place soon after the day’s work was over. The wet wipes would come out and faces, necks, arms and legs would be cleaned. The boys wouldn’t bother. Too macho for wet wipes!!! Did we smell??? NO, surprisingly. I think all that sweat just evaporated in that dry desert heat. Can’t think of any other reason we didn’t smell!
Injuries – as careful as you try to be, it is impossible not to get some sort of building injury. Mostly these were bruises and scratches from lifting rocks. However, occasionally, there were slightly more serious injuries: scorpion stings, deep cuts, squashed fingers between rocks, pulled muscles etc. Most people just braved it and got on with the job at hand. Nobody wanted to let the team down.

Cooking – again, back to basics. ALL cooking was done on the camp fire, for which we collected dead wood from around our camp site. No stoves/hobs or cookers. The menu for each evening meal was scripted and all measurements for cooking were precise to 2 decimal places (I kid you not!) and based on the number of volunteers/staff scheduled for the week!. Every recipe was scrumptious, varied, tried and tested over the years to perfection. Veggies were well catered for! Did we put on weight? Ummh, we may have!

Rubbish – food items were buried in a compost hole dug just a little away from the “kitchen” - a plastic foldable table set up next to the camp fire. All other rubbish was taken back to base camp for tipping at the rubbish tip in Swakupmund or for burning.

Sleeping – no tents (the ones shown in the picture were for our kit and food) . You just slept out under the stars, in your sleeping bag, on your roll mat, on the ground. I absolutely loved it – way, way more than I imagined I would. Were there dangers about? For sure: snakes, scorpions, spiders, elephants, leopards, etc. Most wildlife will leave you alone if you leave it alone. The scorpions always preferred a dark, cosy place to rest and you just had to hope that the place they chose was not in your sleeping bag (or in your day pack!!!!!). Most of the scorpions we came across were in the dead wood we collected for cooking or under the rocks we collected for building the walls or in the sand on the riverbeds we camped on. Yes, we were scared! However, we just dealt with it in the usual way…DENIAL! Our plan with the elephants (if they were in the vicinity), was to sleep everyone between the parked land cruiser, a tree/coppice face and the camp fire. It offered some protection! Would I swap sleeping out under the Namibian stars for the safety of a tent? Not in a million years …not unless there were lions about of course! And, there were no lions where we were. So, all in all, a pretty cool “bedroom” with a view!! I loved it every single night. I don’t think I will ever tire of sleeping out under the Namibian night sky.

The Rewards:
-- Knowing that you were protecting the water points not just for the farmers, but also the wildlife. Massive amounts of wildlife depended on the water that was pumped into the troughs for the farm animals. We saw baboons, bird life, insects all around. The baboons would watch us all day from up high on the hillsides and come down to drink their fill as soon as we left the building site. There were other wild creatures such as jackals that we didn’t see but certainly heard. These would also be relying on this water for survival. Just to be clear, although the walls we built protected the water pumps, the water was always pumped into troughs/wells placed outside of the walled area. This ensured the wildlife, including the elephants, also had access to the water.
-- Meeting the local subsistence farmers and their families. Such a proud (even if financially poor) and graceful people with great dignity. Some of my most precious memories are spending evenings around the camp fire talking with members of one family or playing with the young children of another farming family whilst having a sign-language conversation with the mother, grandmother and great grandmother! We didn’t speak each other’s languages but managed to communicate somehow (right abd above, members of the 2nd family we built for).
-- Being part of a documentary filmed by an ind

ependent, South African, cameraman called Tremaine. The documentary was about NGOs working with local communities to resolve human/wildlife conflicts. Tremaine was great fun to have around for 2 weeks!
-- Seeing an elephant on our 2nd building site. This bull elephant walked past our campsite, straight to the water pump and troughs, whilst we were eating our porridge!! Yikes and wow at the same times!!!! I don’t think I will forget that morning in a hurry! Luckily, he didn’t destroy our half built wall!
-- Finishing a wall – a very rewarding experience! What a sense of achievement after all our blood, sweat and tears. The walls were just over 5 feet tall and usually about 30 feet in diameter.

During my time there, we completed 2 walls. The farmers that benefited from these walls were always so grateful. One family actually gave us one of their goats as a thank you! Now, THAT is a BIG DEAL. It was meant to be for us to eat….but we couldn’t eat him (Well, I certainly couldn’t as I’m vegetarian)! We took him because it would be considered offensive to say no. We named him Roger just so we could say “Welease Woger” (Life of Brian fans will know what I’m talking about)! Woger wan away – Woger was accidently weleased at base camp when we weturned. It was hilarious. It took Hendrick, Dave and Ben a good 45 minutes to catch him again. Being a goat, Woger was pretty nifty at getting up the coppice hill opposite base camp! Anyway, we watched and laughed a lot as the very athletic Hendrick, Dave and Ben ran around in all directions trying to surround poor Woger! Gersen laughed the loudest with his most unique and infectious laugh. Anyway, we didn’t kill Woger, but gave him to the farmer who neighbours our base camp to look after.
-- Seeing some of the other walls built by EHRA volunteers over the last 5 years. It was good to know that these walls were still standing and doing their job of protecting the water pumps. The last wall we completed when I was there was the 61st EHRA wall to be built in Damaraland. How cool is that!

I could go on but I think I’ve gone on long enough! OK, no need to agree so quickly! If you made it this far, I’m impressed. Thanks.

Catch up again soon. Next update will cover the patrol weeks tracking the elephants.

(below: team that completed the 1st wall at the farm with the funny hills; Ben chilling out after a hard day.s work; Eli, Tineke and I feeling very pleased with ourselves after building the 2nd wall; Gersen - looking as cool as ever)

Priti xxxx