We're Going on an Elephant Hunt...

...and we're going to catch a big one!

Well that was the order of the day for Simon's birthday this year, so after cake and presents, we headed north to Hluhluwe for the day. 

Luckily, we were rewarded early with a herd of mothers and babies not far into the park. This was our third visit to Hluhluwe, and our first sighting of elephant, so we were pretty ecstatic. We stuck with them for a while as they foraged, ate and crossed the road. Apparently, elephants eat about 300kg of food a day, so much of their time is spent eating.

Park rules are to keep at least 50m from elephants as they are unpredictable and can be  extremely violent. Apparently 2 Japanese tourists were recently killed in Kruger when they got too close to a grumpy one...

The car in front of us (pictured above) didn't seem too concerned about the 50m rule, but the pictures below explain why caution should be exercised (just google 'elephant car').

And now, back to the photos from the day...

Most of the Mums had cute little babies following behind.

Here's a young male (about 4 years old) venturing away from Mum .

Thinking we had had our share of luck for the day, we carried on into the park, wondering what else we might come across. After spotting a couple of Rhino, zebra and a bunch of antelope, how lucky we were to come across another herd making their way to the river for a drink!

And so...

...what a day! We could watch these amazing pachyderms for hours.  We've now ticked off 3 of the Big 5, with Lion and Leopard (probably the hardest to spot) still to go. Simon went to bed, happy that his birthday wishes had been realised, and we're all hoping the "dry' will set in soon in preparation for our next trip to Hluhluwe.