Saving Nellie a Family Elephant Safari in Zambia

Head to the Lower Zambezi to see endangered African elephants in the wild – an exciting family safari destination for older kids.

- Lou Hall

W e’re bumping along a dirttrack in the Lower ZambeziNational Park, following atrail of fresh elephant poo. We’ve been lucky, so far; we’ve seen kudus, baboons,waterbuck, , impalas, zebras,hyenas, buffalos, and lion. But, no elephants – yet. We’re scanning the landscape, eyes peeled, expectant. When, ‘Look!’ whispers our guide, ChrisMusonda, cutting our jeep’s engine, pointing to distant shadows.We look.We look somemore. Then we see.

‘Elephants!’ A herd is lumbering by in the distance, large flanking small, baby trunk wrapped aroundmother’s tail. We count 10. ‘That’s not bad,’ says Chris. Some herds 100-strong have been sighted at the river’s edge here, but not recently, due to poachers. ‘We still have lots of elephants, but it’s hard to keep track of them,’ he explains. ‘They’re rangers, they cover huge distances, for feeding and breeding; they can travel 50miles in a day.’

Later, quenching our thirst at the lodge’s poolside bar overlooking the Zambezi at sundown, Chris explains how unusual elephants are in the animal world, in their ability to show compassion to each other, that they are one of themost emotive and human-like of animals. The irony isn’t lost: they’re endangered because it’s us humans poaching them for parts of their body that have becomemore valuable than life itself.