As the afternoon started to cool down elephants literally ran out of the bush between the tents towards the waterhole. They jostled and pushed each other, flapped their ears and trumpeted to let the other elephants know they had arrived.
The bigger older elephants using their tusks and trunks to aggressively move the smaller ones out of the way. I estimate that there were probably between 25 - 30 elephants at the waterhole at any one time.
The elephants are very aggressive because they are so thirsty.
One of the staff talked about having a war with the elephants. Everyday there is repairs and maintenance to be carried out. The elephants rip up the water pipes and smash into some of the chalets in an effort to find water.

My chalet took a bit of a beating this afternoon and I have no water or electricity as it turns out. There are some great clips of elephant sands camp on Youtube. A particularly good one of an elephant coming onto the terrace near the bar and drinking from the pool. Not surprisingly the pool is now empty!

The sun was starting to set so naturally it was time to head to the bar for a well earned G&T. As I was standing waiting to be served I heard the one lady manager of the camp say something about "the waters have just broken".
A gasp of anticipation spread amongst the 20 or so people who were watching the elephants. Unbelievably an elephant was calving right at the waterhole which was extremely unusual.
The other members of the herd were gathered around, temporarily forgetting about the need for water.
It was quite a fall to the ground for the calf and the mother elephant gently rolled the calf around in the dirt in an effort to remove the placental membranes and to encourage it to get up on all fours. I have some amazing pictures of the calf, still wrapped in the placental membranes and pictures of it taking its first steps.

While this was going on, one smaller elephant, the staff estimate that it is about 2 months old, managed to get stuck in the mud in the waterhole. Despite the best efforts of the mother and some of the other herd they could not get the baby elephant out.

Operation Baby Elephant rescue commenced.
After some planning and strategising about 12 camp staff, using a shock and awe approach, swung into action. Some guys were in a ute which roared in from the right hand side, while about 8 guys ran from the terrace to the waterhole shouting, banging tins and swinging logs.
The elephants were completely startled and scattered from the waterhole. Then from the ute out jumps three or four guys, into the mud in the waterhole they go and wrangled the baby elephant out of the mud. It was all over in about 15 seconds. One baby elephant rescued and one mother elephant really, really mad. The staff got out of there quick smart.
What an encounter. I was just happy to see elephants but to actually witness one being born was remarkable.

Christine