It was our first evening at the Karatu Simba Lodge in Tanzania. We used it as our base lodge for the game drives to shores of Lake Manyara in Manyara National Park.
Didn’t know this at the time, but it turned out that we witnessed the largest gathering of elephants at Lake Manyara then in any other game viewing of our entire trip, which included major National Parks in Kenya and Tanzania.
But this picture was taken in late evening at the backyard of the lodge so to speak. The lodge backed into outskirts of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which started few feet after the pool and the barbed fence separating the lodge from the conservation area.
The entire vast Ngorongoro Conservation Area is dotted with ancient volcanos, which effected the soil composition and the color of entire area because of volcanic ash. The soil around the lodge was evidence of that, it had grayish tone to it vs the typical African saturated orange clay color.
It was late evening before the dinner and we had gathered at the observation deck sipping martinis, when a very large herd of elephant approached the small pond to get their evening drinks that was just beyond the fence.
I gulped my almost full martini, rushed down the crooked narrow steps of observation deck, ran to my room and ran back near the limit sign by the fence while mounting the 400mm lens on camera and hooking up the monopod to it.
There were too many mature elephants with long and sometimes asymmetric tusks that were getting in the way of capturing the moment with just few of them. Couple of other herds also came down to watering pond and after their fill, they started socializing with their friends, neighbors, and relatives.
That meant about a dozen mature elephants greeting each other with their trunks reaching out to touch each other in their way of giving a hug. So, when I focused on those gatherings, all I could see was long tusks pointing at each other like spears with curved handles.
It was getting almost dark and I was getting desperate to come up with a shot that would mark that evening. Fortunately, they were slowly ending their evening gossip and had started to leave the watering hole following their matriarch.
The larger elephant in the picture was the matriarch that had started to leave and what presumably must have been his oldest daughter, caught up with her mom in a very respectful and obedient way to lead the herd back to their grounds in the park.
I took few shots of them as they’re leaving as a last resort to make sure I had captured something meaningful, but did not have very hi hopes that I would have anything to show the folks that were getting drunk on the observation deck.
I think spending an hour watching few dozen majestic gentle giants, going through their evening watering hole routines, less than hundred feet away, was worth missing out on few martinis.