Elephants

After a nightmarish trip from Segou to Hombori, a 10 hour bus ride several volunteers and I finally made it to our destination around 5 am to start our weekend of elephant looking. Lelele, our guide was waiting for us at the side of the road to take us to our “hotel”. Around two o’clock the next afternoon myself and seven other volunteers set off in a 4x4, into the desert on an expedition to find elephants.

The elephants in Mali are migratory, meaning they move from watering hole to watering hole between Mali and Burkina Faso depending on the time of year. Going in May meant that the elephants were about 4 hours outside of Hombori on very bad, unpaved goat path. After being shaken and stirred over the bumps and into the valleys we started to see elephant footprints and droppings. Our driver kept asking random nomad herders we saw if they had seen the elephants recently, giving us minor hope that they were close.



We came upon a massive lake and across the way, ELEPHANTS!!! Herds and herds of elephants right as the sun was going down. A truly breathtaking scene. Once we had finished taking some photos, Lelele wanted to get closer. So we climbed back into the 4x4 and drove closer. We had to jump out at a certain point, not wanting to startle the elephants with the car and proceeded closer on foot. At that point, the car just pulls away, leaving us exposed to the MASIVE elephants, latterly surrounding us. Lelele said the driver was too scared to be that close to the elephants and drove off to seek safer ground.

Us, being the brave (and potentially naive) Americans walked closer. The sun was setting and we needed to set up camp before sun down so we went back to the 4x4 and drove looking for a safe distance place to set up camp in the middle of an elephant breeding zone. We set up camp, Lelele had prepared couscous and chicken for us, so we devoured that and tried to cuddle up in the sand watching the shooting stars overhead.



I fell asleep no problem and woke up with Yik, another volunteer standing over me, nervously looking off into the distance. I sleepily asked what was he doing and he said, “there is something big out there, I think I’m going to wake Lelele.” Lelele was woken and he just told us it was some elephants coming to check out our camp site, no big deal so he relit the fire and said all was fine. I got up and went to the bathroom and when I was coming back there was a HUGE grunt that sounded about four feet away. Knowing my cat like abilities I dove into the 4x4 seeking shelter (along with Molly, another volunteer) at this point Lelele declared this site unsafe and quickly threw everything into the car and said we gots to go. It took us about 30 seconds to tear down our site (grass mats on the ground) and hit the “road” seeking safer land.

At camp site number two the sand was softer, the elephants further away and I fell asleep like a champ. Slept right until sunup. In the morning Lelele told us last night at camp site number 2 we were surrounded by jackals looking for food. Comforting, almost got squished by elephants and eaten by jackals all in one night. After breakfast we loaded up the car with less urgency and drove back to camp site number one to see how far the elephants really were from where we were sleeping. Turns out they were about 50 meters from where we were sleeping. Gulp, a little too close for comfort.




We went back over to the lake to see if the elephants were still there, drinking and bathing for the day but they had wondered into the bush already. Once the elephants enter the bush it is too dangerous for us to enter so we sadly had to call it a day and start our long, bumpy trip back to Hombori.

Overall, seeing the elephants was amazing and sleeping in the desert a once in a life time thing (hopefully), a great vacation I would highly recommend to anyone. Enjoy the photos!