Other places in Tanzania

Zanzibar

Walking with elephants

From The Daily Mail
We are walking through a spectacular valley in Tanzania's Selous game reserve. Batelour eagles, the acrobats of the air, are spinning high above us.
A small herd of impalas has spotted us and are dancing away in mild alarm. Unconcerned, a family group of giraffes, the telegraph poles of the game world, continue to graze on trees.
Suddenly an angry trumpeting splits the air and two elephants appear from behind trees a few hundred yards distant.
'One of the older elephants just told a youngster to stop grazing on her tree,' says our guide, Dean McGregor.
Two adult females with young walk into view. One has a tiny baby sheltered between her legs. 'It's probably about months old.
Now look at the others a matriarchal cow is leading the group and that's a teenage bull following her.'
More elephants stride out, walking parallel to where we have settled in the shade of a tree.
The wind has been favouring us. But suddenly the lead elephant stops and delicately lifts her trunk, tasting the air to determine who is out there.
Dean explains that elephants have bad eyesight and indifferent hearing, but they have a tremendous sense of smell.
On foot you are simply another animal in the African bush. You have a different perception of the landscape and the animals from the usual driving safari, when noise and petrol fumes mask the breaking twigs, wind and birdsong.

Read more in our destination guide to Tanzania.