08 Jun 2018 - Part 1/2
We left Mopani this morning and travelled via H1-6, H1-5, H1-4, S147 loop, H1-4, S127, S39 and H7 to Orpen where we were to spend three nights.
Object of three nights at Orpen was:
1) to see the Orpen pack.
2) to see sable on S140/S145.
The road from Mopani to Letaba is very quiet animal wise.
Just before the Letaba intersection we saw a bunch of cars. On asking one of the drivers he told us that a leopard had been seen near the river bed walking towards the road. We saw there was a culvert so I popped across to the other side of the road and sure enough there he was walking away from us having walked through the culvert under the road. Everybody else was still looking on the river side of the road.
Third leopard of our trip but still no lion.
Just before Olifants camp where the road runs alongside the river we stopped on the river side of the road to watch these elephant crossing the river.
Joan then says, pointing slightly to the front of the car at about 11:00, there is such a tiny elephant with his mom.
While watching Joan hears a very soft (swoosh swoosh) sound coming from her left. She turns to look and sees a pair of tusks coming toward her. I hear her mutter " Oh s***" and when I turn to look at her she has her head under the dash with this mass of grey slowly moving past right by her window. I can hardly breathe as two of the elephant stop and stand right in front of our car and a third stops right at Joans window. She could have put out her hand and touched it. Joan with her head under the dash and praying that the elephant would walk on, but no it just stood there. I was praying that one of them would not place their trunk on the bonnet of the car. Very slowly and hardly breathing I lift the camera up and take a photo of the two in front of the car. I would loved to have turned to my left to get a photo of Joan with her head under the dash with this grey mass behind her but I dared not risk any further movement. Unfortunately the photo does not actually show how close they were to the car.
All three must have stood like that for about four minutes but it seemed to us like four hours.
Eventually the three of them slowly moved off down to the river..
Slowly calmness returned to the car and we managed to move off very slowly but it seemed as if the car was engine was giving trouble as it was very jerky going forward. I then realised that it was my foot on the accelerator that was shaking so badly.
So with nervous laughter we moved on.
On the southern side of the Olifants river we managed to get a quick glimpse of these guys before they disappeared into the bush. There were four in total.
Quite an eventful and exciting morning so far.
afterwards? 
I think the Brat would have crawled through the floor!! 
But keeping quiet and still was the best way to handle it!! 
I'm sure that now you love the fact you've had ellies so close to you!! 
