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Bear with me? It will be worth it... First you need to understand the layout at Mfuwe Lodge. Then the elephants- at- mango- tree story makes sense.
"A" (top center) is the Lodge's central building. It was a vast "cahtedral ceiling" thatched structure, with sundry attached "bits".
The main entrance was at "G" (top left). You proceeded past a reception desk in the "A" complex, usually being greeted by hot washcloths and cold juice."Behind", i.e. to the east, of the main lodge was the river bed, "H", containing just a token trickle when we were there. The dotted orange line behind the lodge ("A"), and around the pool, "E", indicates the large deck overlooking the riverbed. The parallel lines of brown dashes, "F", indicate the steep, high banks of the riverbed. The riverbed's cross-section was a "U", not a "V".... i.e. when we were there, it was a wide flat expanse of grassy dried mud, with steep banks at the sides.
The lines of orange circles, "C" and "D" are the chalets which were our "rooms". There are photos of the view of them on my main Mfuwe page. The "C" chalets are shown as seen from the Lodge and looking east from between the chalets, and the "D" chalets are shown as seen looking east across the hippo pond, which is the blue oval, lower left, on the map.
Nearly there!
"B" is the mango tree! It is "trapped" between, clockwise from the south:
So now the scene is set.
When the mango tree (perhaps 30 feet high) is dropping fruit, as it was when we were there, one small band of elephants in particular made regular visits during the day to harvest the latest crop. (and, as in this picture, to suckle the milk made by mum from the mangos!). This picture is from the main lodge area, looking north. The trunk at the left (the brown, vegetable, on. Neither of the grey, animal ones) is the mango. The structure behind the ellies is the confernce room/ library forming the north barrier.
The last thing to explain on the map is the dotted grey lines. They are the three routes the ellies used to get to and from the mangos.
The elephants in the photo to the left have just come though the lodge's main entrance. The one in the foreground is is heading east, just about to go down the steps into the courtyard when the mangos are. The one in the background looks like he is going to proceed north up the walkway to the library. (He turned right a moment later.)
The ellie on the right is coming away from the tree, going west, is passing out of the lodge's rather splendid covered "front door". Those pillars are massive, by the way. Don't underestimate the elephant's size. The top of my head would fall somewhere between the top of her tusk and her eye. This is the group's matriarch.
... and this ellie (left), again heading west, "connects" the previous two photos. She's about to go down the steps leading to where the previous ellie was photographed.
The lodge management struggle with significant turn-over in the floor polisher's position at the lodge.
When the elephants were going back and forth through the lobby, or were in the courtyard with the mangos, some heavy chains were put up, blocking their access to the main lodge area to the south of the lobby passageway. They also kept the visiting tourists out of the elephant's hair, thus avoiding any misunderstandings... misunderstandings in which the tourist would likely be the losing participant.
One memorable afternoon, the ellies turned up, in force, and stayed longer than usual, just as we were about to move from the main lodge area, after lunch, to the library for our daily lecture. The lecture started late, and had to be re-located and re-planned (no projected images available), but it was worth it for some time with the elephants. Not only did they scarf up the most recently fallen mangos, but several lay down for a little nap, etc.
During nap time, the "baby" ("3 year old", in human terms?) went down first, and a little later, an older youngster, "8"-ish, went over and seemed to want to snuggle against the baby.
Turning to a different story.... At Chitabe, there was a similar tree, but the elephants had easier access, and didn't come through the lobby to get to it. One afternoon one came up from the river, freshly annointed with mud, and spent over twenty minutes very carefully grinding lice, etc between tree and skin, aided by the mud. The meticulous progress through what seemed like every single square inch of his body was fascinating to watch.
It was delightful watching the various ways the elephants used their remarkable trunks. When one came to the river, the first thing it usually did was to draw water into its trunk, and then with remarkable deftness, accuracy, spray the water onto just the right spots. The one that seemed to give the most pleasure was along the chest and belly.
I liked elephants in a general sort of way even before my first trip to Botswana. But after spending time close to them, watching them go about their day, watching them watching us, I came away with a fondness for them, and a deep sense of their sentient nature.
While they generally came and went through the main lobby, they also sometimes negotiated raised the pathway from the north....
Now think about this. Pretend you weight about 4 tons. (A modest adult. A big bull might be over 6 tons). And all of that is supported by just four legs. Wouldn't you be quite careful not to "twist an ankle?" It was a delight to watch how carefully the elephants manoeuvered, when on uneven ground, as when negotiating the big step down from the walkway....
... or when going down the tricky bank to the river bed. Note the delicately raised rear foot in the last image. It was held thus in a balancing act, you aren't just seeing a frozen transition.
The ellies didn't seem inclined to share their mangos with the baboons. The swept forward ears on the elephant in the photo below is a warning.
... but then again, we weren't sharing our sugar, etc, which was usually on a table by the courtyard, but hastily relocated when the elephants arrived. One of the babies decided he liked sugar, and if getting the last cube from the bowl was a problem, he just stepped in it... then that last cube was easy to get. Does that help you see how dexterous those incredible trunks are?
It wasn't just the afternoon lecture that got delayed, nor was the courtyard the only place the elephants went. Sometimes you couldn't go to your chalet exactly when you'd planned to....
And to finish this page....
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© TK Boyd 11/08. Click here to contact him.