Elephants

I'd say one of the most exciting part of our visit to Il Ngwesi and Samburu was the abundant elephant sitings. The elephants were considerably more shy at Il Ngwesi since they aren't exposed to as many cars and people there as in Samburu. But, they were ever present in both places and we never tired of watching them.
In Samburu we were able to get so close to them I felt a bit nervous. You could drive to the front of an elephant precession and they would come straight at you  and then walk a detour around your car. It was a bit nerve-racking and I was always looking at the ears to make sure they were still flapping calmly and weren't standing out straight, a sign that an elephant is not happy. The following are some pictures we took in both places.

First the Il Ngwesi bunch...

And the Samburu crowd...

This was the cutest scene! While Mom was not in the least bothered by our presence and just kept on walking, the little guy got all worked up and puffed himself up clearly preparing to charge at us in our car.

A very old bull with a hole in his ear.

A procession of elephants walked by us as the sun went down.

We weren't the only ones, sadly.

This one stopped right in front of us and started munching grass.