I highly recommend starting your day with a 1.5 hour mokoro ride through the Okavango Delta, which of course is how we rolled on day 16. 
The ride back was incredibly peaceful in the early morning sunlight and Jane and I took some excellent photos, including some of an adorable little frog that decided to hang out on the reeds right where we were coming by. Once we were back to our original mokoro station, we hopped back in our 4×4 and returned to our camp where Mara was parked, had a SUPER quick lunch and headed off to Maun!
Our drive was relatively uneventful (I slept, as per usual). We reached Maun where we were able to hop out and get stocked up at the supermarket and then were back en route to Elephant Sands, our campground for the night.
When Maja described the campground to us at our briefing the night before, she told us,”well, it’s Elephant Sands. There’s not much there except for…. Elephants and Sand.”
We pulled up at camp pretty early, maybe around 2pm…but it was HELLA hot, so Jane and I beelined for the bar to get a drink. Masai had parked Mara at our campground, which was around the back side of the bar, so we were SHOCKED when we turned the corner to the front and there were just ELEPHANTS.
Like… right there.
Standing essentially as close to the bar as the (sparse) trees around the side would allow them. I would say they were about a meter away from the closest picnic tables.
Sooooo of course, Jane and I grabbed a drink and walked over to the closest possible table and sat down. A guide eventually came over to chat with us about safety rules and whatnot… but the experience was absolutely surreal. The elephants hang out right by the bar because there’s a watering hole there (a baby elephant actually FELL IN while we were watching and two adults had to rescue her with their trunks!), and there actually used to be a swimming pool near the bar but the elephants broke in and drank all the water one night. Whoops.
Eventually the rest of the crew wandered over and we all just reveled in the wonder of it all. We were SO close to them and they were just going about their lives, doing whatever elephants do (hint: eating, drinking, and pooping, mostly) and thinking whatever elephants think. I’d estimate that there were probably 40 of them in the herd that was at the watering hole while we were there. It was *mostly* peaceful between them, but occasionally there would be some kind of battle. And when the babies were drinking, NO ONE was allowed near them. The mothers fiercely protected the calves, which was just a wonder for us to watch. We literally all sat there all afternoon sipping drinks and watching the elephants.
After a while we realized it was about to get dark and no one had showered (and there were no lights in the shower) so we all headed back to camp to figure that out. There were three stalls on the ladies side, so we all walked over together but showered in shifts… and during shift three we almost had an elephant join in! Apparently in addition to drinking the pool, the elephants ALSO enjoy popping over the open-air showers and turning on the water to drink…or just stealing some sips while unsuspecting campers are washing up.
Jane and I finally set up our tent after showertime, and we chose the most excellent spot in the middle of everyone else — and then we all had dinner and campfire bonding time (and a stern talk from Masai about walking around the campsite at night — the elephants dgaf about you, they will trample you in the dark). Jane, Kitty, Amberlee and I ended up drinking and hanging out pretty late and having some excellent bonding chats while also resetting the fire prior to passing out — likely around 1am?
#TIA
