6pm Villa Wiese Swakop on September 27 – this was our first meeting with our fellow volunteers and the EHRA crew. We did not really know what to expect, except that we were going to be working for or with elephants. We left the meeting 2 hours later safe in the knowledge that, over the next week, we would become very dirty and smelly, dehydrated and achy from building a drinking dam for rhinos! What happened to the elephants! Well we were promised those the following week.
Our companions and team for the next two weeks were as follows:
Manager: Hendrick – native Namibian from up north
Permanent staff volunteer – Rob – a native Geordie
Volunteers: James - a spritely 22 year old between jobs, Sam – a gainfully employed 25 year old on holiday (!?), Annika – my age between jobs and just back from Bermuda (lucky thing) and Nick and I. We were a small group which brought with it all the benefits of camaraderie but also meant that we were almost always on cooking/cleaning duty or the like.
The following morning (day 1) we hurried around town buying snacks and beer for the next 2 weeks and at lunchtime we were off on our way to Base Camp which was n Damaraland around 400kms away on the banks of the Ugab River to the east of Brandberg, Namibia’s highest point. Base Camp was eco-luxury (relatively speaking) – outdoor kitchen, showers (with solar powered hot water), decomposing toilets and a little privacy in the form of a platform in a large tree partially covered with a canopy to stop the fruit (favoured by the elephants) falling on our heads– we shared this with various dormice, multi-coloured lizards, a very noisy bumblebee and a hornbill. Beds were bedrolls on the platform and our sleeping bags/blankets – it was great. Nick and I cooked spag bol that night while we had our safety briefing (watch for big tailed, small clawed scorpions!) and it was off to sleep early ready for our first day of hard manual labour.
Day 2 – we packed up camp after our supply audit and were off, heading 2 hours north west (I think) into the heart of Damaraland into a newly appointed conservancy area (near Sorris Sorris) where there were meant to be black rhino. This used to be farmland now reclaimed by the government, on which there was a bore hole. Our job, together with 2 local conservancy guys Irvin and Helmut was to ensure that this borehole not only provided water for any inhabitants but also a nearby dam (as yet unbuilt) for rhinos. The bore hole needed protecting from large game as well, who can smell water and basically break down anything in their way when they want to get to it.
We arrived and set up camp (well – one tent for provisions only – the remainder was a tarpaulin sheet on the ground around 5m by 5m and a kitchen table) in a partially shaded area near the work site. After lunch and siesta we started work at 3pm. The heat over siesta time was incredible, the flies were irritating and the shade was partial – no matter where you sat near the tree. Nick whispered the unutterable words “and why exactly are we doing this?” to me.
The format for the next few days would be as follows:
5.30am –wake up to make tea/coffee/breakfast
7.30m – start work
11.30am - break for lunch and siesta (it was too hot to work any later or start any earlier!)
2.30pm – back to work
5.00pm – finish for the day
There were 2 people on duty every day ad these were responsible for all meals, washing up, starting the fire etc.
And here is a breakdown of our labour tasks:
1st afternoon – build a platform out of rocks and gravel on a small hill and transport (well – drag!) a 200kg water tank onto it.
2nd day – dig a 300m long and 1 ft deep trench
3rd day – complete digging the trench , lay the plastic water pipe into it and start building a solid rockwall (3ft high) around the bore hole, start digging dam 10m in diameter and 1 meter deep.
4th day – finish the wall and continue digging dam (if time allows – luckily it did not!))
That first night we were proud: in our first afternoon we learnt how to transport wheel barrows laden with rocks uphill efficiently, build a level platform with them, and move a 200kg water tank up 10 ms without any machinery etc. And we did it in 35 degree heat (albeit we were doubtful about the tank). We were exhausted after only 2 hours hard work, and dying for a shower to clean up (no such
luxury).....After a delicious dinner cooked over the fire we fell into our bedrolls.
Our second day of work was the most exhausting and Nick and I barely stopped thinking about the construction workers in Dubai – we spent all morning and afternoon digging a trench 1 ft deep and 300m long......It was dull, very hot and quite painful at times, but we became very efficient diggers. Nick’s retrenchment took on a whole new meaning. That night we got to take a bore hole shower, so we would only be dirty and salty but at least not smelly for the week. Spirits were high until we found a deadly scorpion scuttling out of the brush onto our tarpaulin - where we were to sleep......to add to the snake at lunchtime...and still no rhinos.
Highlights of the week – in no specific order:
- Learning to differentiate a shovel from a spade
- Learning how to make concrete and build a natural stone wall
- Apart from cement, only using the natural materials around you to build – e.g. sand, rocks, gravel
- Sleeping under the stars ad being miles from anywhere
- No mobile phones
All the obvious challenges were there – the heat, the flies, no personal space, no free flowing water, bush business.....
By the end of the week we had completed all our tasks (not bad for 9 of us) but did not finish the rhino water dam – something we did not regret too much as that would have been 3 days of hard digging. Saturday morning it was back to Base Camp and a weekend of relaxing (apart from washing ourselves which took at least 3 showers, our clothes and the food boxes) until we set off for our elephant treks on Monday. We were merrily entertained by hornbills, lizards, bumble bees and of course screaming baboons on the high rocks above us. After camping at our work site, Base Camp seemed like the Ritz, mainly as there was enough shade and even at midday a cool breeze would be blowing through.
Monday arrived and we packed up camp again to spend 3 days trekking elephants. Nick and I were slightly worried that we might be bored.....there was little chance of that. EHRA treks and identifies all of the elephant herds in the area and if a new herd arrives then it needs to be identified – no of elephants, cows, bulls and little ones etc, but distinguishing features. We had heard that a new herd had entered the area and were hopeful that we would find them so we could learn more.
We headed east along the banks of the Ugab River and Hendrick (our guide) followed elephant tracks and spoke to the locals to get an idea of where the herds had recently ventured. Finally at around lunch time we found 3 herds....Mama Africa, 3 and a Half and New Herd - all drinking at the White Lady Lodge Camp Site near the Brandberg Mountain.
It sounds as if they were having a party Nikki! New author now here.. While watching each herd politely taking their turn at the waterhole we began to realize how the social interaction worked amongst the herds.
Elephants are run under a matriarchal system with the grandmothers ruling the roost. Babies are protected by all the females and once old enough the males go off on their own. We witnessed the classic confrontation between the Old Bull (called Voor Trekker) and a young bull (Bennie) who was seen off in no uncertain terms – everytime!
That evening we camped in the river bed with the fire going all night for protection on one side and the vehicle protecting another flank...2 unprotected flanks I have never slept so soundly with vivid dreams and a sky full of stars.
The next day we again found the elephants. One might think that given their size and numbers this would be an easy task... ‘look for big grey moving things’ Hendrick said. Not only do the elephants move softly (in fact they could be wearing bedroom slippers) but they keep to the shadows and being the colour of shadows they are difficult to see/spot. Given away only by the flicking of their funny little tails, and the occasional ‘crack’ of a splintering branch. They are fairly destructive in their eating habits but never seemed to completely destroy or strip a tree.
The highlight of the day was watching 3 baby elephants play together - they could well have been human children. The older sister went down on her knees so the tiny baby could run at her and butt her, there were games of tag all being carefully watched by the mother and aunts. It was a very special sight and one that neither Nikki nor I will forget.
We were sitting in the vehicle the following day awaiting the elephants when something spooked them and led by a couple of small ones a herd of approx 14 came racing across the river bed straight at our truck, they came so close we could count their eyelashes and look into their lovely brown eyes, it was a little bit frightening as there was no reason for the charge they came to within 2 m of the truck, running at speeds of 15k to 20k per hour veering off at the last moment. Their eye sight is not good but they have unsurprisingly....good hearing and sense of smell.
The final evening of the trek was highlighted by having 47 elephants walk past our little campsite within 20 m of us while we were cooking dinner. By this time we had all got to recognize the different herds and much to our delight we had discovered 2 new herds..... now handing back to Nikki....
Our second to last day and it was an early morning run back to Base Camp – more washing and lazing around and waiting for the elephants to reach us as we had left tem maybe 2 kms downstream heading our direction. Believe it or not we had to wait all day and it was not until 4pm that the first bull emerged, had a drink at a nearby waterhole before leaning against the rock face for about an hour and having a snooze.
The excitement really got going at around 6.30pm just after Nick and I got our lamb stew on the fire, and 3 herds came into Base Camp for a drink and a play at the waterhole. We hid ourselves in the nearby so-called Pleasure Dome where we watched them drink no more than 10 metres away with a beer in hand. Then Voor Trekker – the biggest bull – decided to check out the garage and also the kitchen – at which pointed we started worrying about our dinner – especially Hendrick who needed to be fed on a regular basis. Hidden in our dome all we could hear was crashing around.
As it started getting dark and cold we moved to the truck...no sign of the elephants moving...Hendrick started to panic and decided to continue cooking dinner, the noise of which did get some of the cows and Voor Trekker moving out of the camp. With a few ellies still at the back of the camp but a good 100m away we decided to have dinner, with the occasional waft of an elephant passing through coming under our noses. It was apparent to us that the elephants knew Base Camp well, especially Voor Trekker, happy in the knowledge that they were safe with us, so they were not frightened away easily and just munched away not too far from us.
At about midnight we thought they were all gone and so we climbed up into our tree house to bed. At 1am the fun started all over again and a totally new herd that had headed in from the East stopped at Base Camp for an hour, munching and tearing away at our tree where we were asleep. Needless to say you could not sleep through that racket ad so we watched the silhouettes having their feast – oh except for Nick who was happily snoring away at one with the world and the elephants. Of course in the darkness every noise is amplified so it sounded as though the herd was tearing the camp and our tree apart......at daybreak you could barely tell that they had been there! One grunt later, the command to leave, and the herd marched out of the camp. Two minutes later two more elephants passed through like ghosts – you could barely hear their footsteps.
Our final day was all about packing up, heading back to Swakop and a farewell dinner with the team – 3 were leaving and two were staying on for another 2 weeks. What an experience...we do hope that our new bull was named Casanova as we named him, and that Theresa and Dorothy, now identified as 2 of the 3 and Half herd have been christened as such but who knows.....
