10 Daily Things

An old guy tries to take a close up picture with a baby elephant. The elephant seems pretty friendly until the guy grabs his trunk.

It’s not everyday that you see a wild elephant standing next to you at the reception of a hotel.

But in the Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, the sight of one or even ten elephants strolling around the lobby is a regular occurrence.

Unwittingly built on the elephant’s traditional path in 1998, the Mfuwe Lodge stands directly en-route to this elephant herd’s favourite food - wild mangoes.

Andy Hogg, 44, Director at the Bushcamp Company that runs the Mfuwe Lodge, has lived in the South Luangwa national park since 1982.

But in his 26 years of dealing with wild animals in the Zambian national park, Andy has never seen such intimate interaction between man and beast.

“This is the only place in the world where elephants freely get so close to humans,” says the 44-year-old.

“The elephants start coming through base camp in late November of each year to eat the mangoes from our trees.

“When they are ripe they come through and they stand about for four to six weeks coming back each day or second day to eat the mangoes.”

Living in the 9, 500 square kilometre national park, the ten strong elephant herd are led to the lodge each day by the matriarchal of the herd, Wonky Tusk.

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This probably happens all the time… but trust me, you DON’T want to see it with your own eyes.