Hwange National Park: Elephants at Watering Hole

We drove up to a herd of elephants who had assembled at a watering hole in the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. The herd consisted of adult, juvenile, and baby male and female elephants.
The younger elephants were playful while the more mature elephants were focused on drinking from the watering hole and giving themselves dust baths. Elephants throw dust on their skin to help protect it from being damaged by the sun.
One of the male elephants walked around the watering hole, faced off with our safari vehicle momentarily, and then moved on to get his drink from the hole.
During the dry season, this watering hole is fed from a freshwater source by a pump powered by solar panels. A small fountain providing freshwater can be seen in the center of the pool. Some of the elephants preferred placing their trunks directly over the fountain to take their drink. The fountain became a point of contention as more dominant elephants shooed off less mature elephants to get their drinks.
This experience was part of The Great Southern African Safari organized by G Adventures working in partnership with National Geographic Expeditions.
You can read about the technical aspects of this trip in the 'Tech on Travel - The Africa Edition' blog post by Allison Sheridan at
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