Kaokoland Namibia - Van Zyl's Pass, Marienfluss and desert elephants
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2022
- In this Namibia Kaokoland Desert Rivers trip with Bhejane 4x4 Adventures we visit Epupa Falls in the Kunene River, drive VanZylspas and the Marienfluss and have a very close encounter with a curious desert elephant who uses our vehicle to scratch an itch!
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TO CONQUER VAN ZYL PASS TYRE PRESSURE MUST BE LOWERED FOR MAXIMUM TRACTION AND SUSPENSION MUST BE RAISED OR ELSE YOU WON'T MAKE IT.
Regarding the suspension, l don't think an aftermarket suspension is required. A lot depends on the line chosen and how good your spotter is. Almost all the vehicles in our group had stock suspension, including 2 Ford Rangers, 2 Toyota Hiluxes, Toyota Fortuners and a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. All of them made it.
I really don't understand what the man with the waving fingers is trying to indicate. I've seen many of those Van Zyl's Pass video's and every marshaller uses his own hand 'signs'. Isn't there a set standard for marshalling? I mean, I've worked at an airport fot many years, and marshalling aircraft always went by the book through clear signals, by bats or by hands.
A standard would certainly be preferable...
There have been some discussion in the comments below on whether we acted correctly in allowing the elephants to approach us and whether we should rather have attempted to drive off when they approached.
Over the years I have drawn some conclusions from observed elephant behaviour in proximity to vehicles, encountering elephants on guided walking safaris, discussions with game rangers and trackers, and watching a sprinkling of videos of elephant attacks on vehicles. My conclusions are necessarily limited by the fact that these are not repeatable experiments, e.g. we do not know what would have happened if we attempted to drive off and neither do we know what would have happened in the case of elephant attacks on moving vehicles (in some cases moving AWAY from the elephants) if the vehicles had simply stayed put.
Still, these conclusions now inform the way I personally act around elephants. When I talk about “higher risk” and “lower risk” these are relative terms. In other words I’m not saying that higher risk behaviour will necessarily result in an adverse event, nor that lower risk hehaviour will never result in an adverse event. Also, I must emphasize that what is stated below in simply a personal opinion and that based on your experience you may have drawn different conclusions.
So here are some of my conclusions:
• A moving vehicle is more provocative than a stationary vehicle
• A running engine is more provocative than a switched off engine
• The risk is higher if the vehicle approaches the elephants, than if the elephants approach the vehicle (e.g. the vehicle is already parked when the moved into the area)
• The risk is higher when elephants are stressed (e.g. because of overpopulation, harassment, poaching, bull in musth etc)
• A revving engine is more provocative than an engine running at a constant speed
• Vehicle occupants gesticulating and talking loudly are more provocative than occupants sitting quietly
• The risk is increased if animals are boxed in, i.e. they are unable to move in their direction of choice
• Many people seem to get a false sense of security from leaving their engine running, thinking they will be able to speed off if “a situation develops”. Elephants are incredibly fast (during a charge they can cover 50m in less than 5 seconds) and getting a vehicle up to speed in the right direction takes more time than people think, so the idea that you can escape if the elephants become aggressive is often not realistic.
So where does this leave one? Driving off to avoid the elephants is viable if it is done while the elephants are still FAR off. Once the elephants are close, an approach of sitting quietly with engine switched off may be less risky than an attempt to drive off (provided the elephants are not boxed in).
So what is “far” and “close”? I cannot give any firm guidelines on this, but in my view the distance at which sitting still becomes less risky than attempting to drive off is further than many people think. In any event, in many cases you do not really have a choice, e.g. elephants appearing from thick vegetation unexpectedly, no room to turn around, the road behind you blocked by other vehicles or animals. In these cases stopping, switching off and being still and quiet may be the best move.
So let me give a practical example of my conclusions in action. You are sitting parked at a water hole with your vehicle switched off, when an elephant emerges from the bush 30m away and starts walking in your direction. In my view remaining as you are with occupants sitting still and being quiet is less risky than an attempt to start the vehicle and move off.
I have also spent a lot of time in the bush. It is only those who don't understand wildlife that would suggest driving off etc for an elephant approach. Your observations above are absolutely on the money. I have taken many tours and the first thing I tell people is don't run and just be quiet. Most of my bad experiences have been when we gave elephants a fright. It is sometimes interesting how expert people are after watching videos and 3 days in Africa.
@@hyltonleaf-wright4298 Thanks - I really appreciate your support
Well you where verry lucky, I mean your car was, he didn t have a tusk on his right side :)
Personnally I think that altough there are principler and rules about how to behave when close to elephants, one of them beeing that if you move do it slowly (slow is a show of strengh in the elephant world) you always have to adapt according to the body language of the animal. Here they where clearly relaxed enough to let them approch you. Then something verry exceptional happened after one of them decided to touch your vehicle. As to what to do when this is happening it is dificult to be sure...
@@lezigue1714 Yes, it was indeed lucky that she didn't have a tusk on that side
Lovely video. We encountered Elephants in Marakele coming down the mountain. Can't make a U-turn and go back, can't go forward. Switched off and waited for them to pass.
I would not recommend close contact with wild animals. We need to respect nature and wildlife. Please consult guidelines when encounter wild elephants. Regards
In general I agree with you, but there are situations where it is unavoidable or where an attempt to avoid it yields a worse result. For example, I witnessed an elephant attack a vehicle while the driver was manoeuvring to avoid the encounter. To this day I think that would not have happened if the driver just sat still with the vehicle switched off. In our case I think the guide followed the correct protocol. We stopped several hundred metres away from the elephants and he instructed us to switch off our vehicles. The elephants were not boxed in at all. A portion of the herd then started moving in our direction. As they had ample room to pass and we were already stationary when they started moving, I think that sitting still with engines switched off was the correct and less risky thing to do. Switching on and manoeuvring to get away could easily have provoked an incident.
Couldn't agree more Ben!
We can write volumes about this but the essence is that these are wild animal which are inherently unpredictable. In my opinion, allowing a wild animal to breach the 'safe distance' (between it and yourself) is irresponsible if not downright reckless. The right thing would have been to START your car and move away, maintaining a safe distance!
@@davidvanbreda9056 As you say, one can write volumes and people will always disagree. But I am quite interested in what you would consider to be a "safe distance"? At what distance would you start and drive away?
@@overlandersa the moment you saw that you were in the path of those oncoming elephant's, we could have calculated the intersection with your car and moved it away. Easy.
@@davidvanbreda9056 Relax David. If you feel threatened, then get the hell out of there (and should perhaps not even venture into Kaokoland or the like) but these elephants are used to vehicles traveling through there 24/7/365. And considering what Overlander SA experienced and their instincts, I'd totally support their decisions / actions.
We (humans with rifles and mance to kill) were the ones threatening all wild animals (and we still do) and by doing what Overlander SA did, is they way forward normalizing our relationship. It's not without risks but those (feeling threatened by wild animals) stay at your TV set or do your watching on TH-cam - it's safe there (while aircraft, in the past, also fell from the air and killed people in the safety of their homes right in front of the TV set)
What is more worrying (for me personally) is the fact that we (humans with our technology and all our resources) are "making highways" in the dry riverbeds in the desert
... and in the nothingness of Namibia, man can find his soul ...
My wife always says that from time to time she needs to be able to "see far" and in Namibia you can see VERY far...