A thirsty elephant caught photographer Carina Blofield and other guests at the Elephant Sands Lodge Botswana by surprise when, out of nowhere, a giant trunk came over the wall to drink the (luckily) clean water from the toilet. According to Blofield, this was a lower ranking elephant who didn’t want to wait her turn on the water line, giving new and literal meaning to the age-olde expression “elephant in the room“.
We were staying at Elephant Sands lodge where the slogan is “where elephants rule” and this is definitely the case. The campsite is not fenced so the elephant like to come to the camp for water that is pumped into the waterhole in front of the restaurant. The water in the area is particularly salty so the lodge provides fresh drinking water for local animals. Elephants compete for water at the lodge with lower ranking ellies often having to wait their turn. And so they made a different plan…
photos by Carina Blofield