Elephant Suddenly Walks Into Our Camp! Maputo National Park

Añadido: 2026-06-06

[00:00:17][music] >> Hi, welcome back to the Overlanding Legend. I'm Adam.

[00:00:34]Well, a couple of months ago we were in the Maputo National Park and had a great time and decided we want to come back and I wanted to explore the park a little bit more.

[00:00:43]And of course we were also couldn't find those elephants. We just saw the uh we saw the dung and all the broken trees and stuff all over and I was really hoping that we could find them this time.

[00:00:55]And I'll tell you what, we definitely found them.

[00:00:59]Uh so, yeah, but we also just explored a lot of other stuff. Uh went up north to Santa Maria, camped at some one of the other campsites in the park and that was also great. So, I've got all of that coming up um and the encounter that we just had this morning. So, yeah, that was uh quite exciting.

[00:01:21]>> Discovering new places and exploring is what overlanding is all about.

[00:01:26]Every time you head out of the city, the anticipation and excitement is tangible.

[00:01:31]You travel through changing weather and see the people and places far away.

[00:01:44]Our trip from Johannesburg down to Kosi Bay border post [music] on Easter Sunday was easy going. No road works and minimal trucks.

[00:01:58]The border [music] was quick and easy.

[00:02:00]And soon we were on the short tar stretch to the Maputo National Park.

[00:02:10]This stretch runs parallel to the Futi Corridor, which links Tembe Elephant Park to the Maputo National Park.

[00:02:18]The Maputo National Park is large and been around since the 1970s, which is when we first traveled there as little boys with our parents.

[00:02:28]Back then it was known as the Maputo Elephant Park.

[00:02:31]Although relatively close to South Africa and Maputo, it has always been a wild and remote area.

[00:03:01]We are back again to explore the central and northern parts of the park. There are a few bush camps around the park, often located next to one of the many lakes, and we plan to check out some of these.

[00:03:14]The first two nights we spent at Zinguti Camp on Lake Zinguti.

[00:03:48]The Zinguti Camp is one of the more luxurious campsites with a private ablution for each of the sites.

[00:03:56]It looked like there were about five or six sites privately tucked away in the bush.

[00:04:00]Unfortunately, the one right at on the lake was occupied. So, we settled for another one further into the bush.

[00:04:11]Our timing was just right as we had enough time to set up camp and enjoy the sunset and our first night in the bush.

[00:04:35]These sites are not fenced, so you need to be careful of elephant, hippo, and crocodiles.

[00:04:41]There are also leopard in the park, but I think you'd be lucky to spot one of them.

[00:04:47]But, it was the mozzies that got us more than anything else.

[00:04:51]Thanks to the wet and warm weather, they were plentiful in the thick bush.

[00:05:33]We decided to take a drive to a picnic spot on the other side of the lake for lunch.

[00:05:38]But, we didn't get far until we found a broken tree blocking the road.

[00:05:43]The elephants must have done this last night because there was nothing here yesterday.

[00:05:50]We didn't have any saws, so the best we could do was pull it out of the way.

[00:06:32]>> So it was an elephant, I think I saw it.

[00:06:34]>> What?

[00:06:35]>> And then, finally, rounding a corner, Johan spotted the elephants.

[00:06:39]>> And then, we looked down there.

[00:06:42]>> Oh, yeah, there are elephants.

[00:06:44]>> They lose the elephants.

[00:06:46]>> We were so excited to finally see these amazing creatures after seeing all the signs.

[00:07:12]The recent rains had really filled up the lake, and some of the roads we had traveled previously were now flooded.

[00:07:20]So we took some detours.

[00:08:06]>> Unfortunately, the water was so high that it was also flooded the picnic spot that we were headed for.

[00:08:13]We went on a little bit to see if there was another way around or any other options.

[00:08:21]But all we found was more water.

[00:08:46]And so we decided to just stop there and enjoy our lunch and the cool breeze off the lake.

[00:09:06]We also checked out one of the other bush camps further along the route.

[00:09:12]This one was located next to Lagoa Nela.

[00:09:28]It was a great single remote site with much more basic facilities.

[00:09:34]Although not used often, everything seemed to be there and functioning.

[00:10:21]Back at camp, we enjoyed another fire and a braai that evening.

[00:10:40]The next day, we headed to Ponta Malongane for the rest of our stay.

[00:11:02]We missed the rain setting up camp.

[00:11:05]But by the afternoon, it came down in buckets.

[00:11:21]But later that day, it started to clear and we had great weather for the rest of our stay.

[00:12:00]>> That evening, sitting around the fire, one of the resort staff let us know that an elephant was in our area.

[00:12:08]We could see him over the road with our spotlights.

[00:12:12]>> I'm shining his eye.

[00:12:14]We found him.

[00:12:18]>> Good thing you parked the vehicle where you did.

[00:12:20]>> Yeah.

[00:12:25]>> Oh, how dare you have them and I don't have any?

[00:12:28]>> How did we manage to get this?

[00:12:30]>> the Muppets >> It originally started for Nana because they were in Longman's stock.

[00:12:34]>> Yes, that's right.

[00:12:41]>> You can see how the elephants came up onto this road, this little path.

[00:12:46]That's in the night cuz when we came past here yesterday, there was you could walk here, but now you can see there were here.

[00:12:54]Obviously, broke all these leaves off here.

[00:12:58]You can see their footprints must have come up through here.

[00:13:30]>> Beach camping is my absolute favorite.

[00:13:33]>> [sighs] >> But the days flew by despite the laid-back pace of beach life.

[00:14:09]Although the tides weren't ideal for snorkeling, the weather was perfect with no wind and clear sunny skies.

[00:14:18]But we still had some great snorkeling, seeing some bigger fish and bigger schools of fish.

[00:14:24]Something I don't often see.

[00:15:04]On one of the days, we planned to explore the north part of the park and take a drive up to Santa Maria, which is a peninsula on the northern end of the park and forms [music] the eastern edge of the Maputo Bay.

[00:15:36]>> You exit the park at Machangulo Gate in the north and then continue on the sandy tracks to Santa Maria.

[00:15:58]>> That's good.

[00:15:58]>> Thanks, mate.

[00:16:04]>> The trip was about 46 km and took us around 2 and 1/2 hours.

[00:16:22]There was very little traffic and we passed a few little villages.

[00:16:40]Although this peninsula is fairly remote for car travel, it is easily accessed by boat from Maputo across the bay. [music] Eventually we reached Santa Maria, which was less developed than we had expected.

[00:17:09]It had a garage and one or two small shops, but mainly consisted of many different lodges.

[00:17:46]From here, you can charter trips to Inhaca Island for fishing and diving.

[00:18:06]We landed up going to Bemugi's place for a nice brunch, which is really great.

[00:18:28]For the trip back, we took a different route down the east of the peninsula as it looked like we could access the beach in some places.

[00:18:37]This route was much less traveled and we encountered no other vehicles along here.

[00:18:43]It was all dense bush and the access points all seemed to lead to private lodges.

[00:18:59]>> [music] [music] >> Oh, that's the It's this.

[00:19:59]>> Back in the park, we decided to take a chance and visit Ponta Chemucane.

[00:20:05]It said private access only, but we really wanted to check it out. As this was the first place we had ever camped back in 1974 with my parents in their first Land Rover.

[00:20:18]>> [music] >> The road there was a lot more challenging than anything else we had been driving and clearly not used often.

[00:20:45]We also came across a really tricky section on the edge of the lake.

[00:20:50]Crossing this section, I realized this was the spot where my parents had encountered Pogo's road works and had to travel in the water on the edge of the lake to get around it.

[00:21:16]>> [music] [music] >> I stopped and chatted to Brian about it.

[00:21:48]>> This is the That's the one.

[00:21:50]>> That's the Pogo's road works.

[00:21:52]>> Oh, you reckon?

[00:21:53]>> I think that's Pogo's road works and I think this is where they drove around inside of the of the lake.

[00:22:00]>> Yeah.

[00:22:00]>> And then if you remember if you see there's a picture on the road like this.

[00:22:04]>> Yeah.

[00:22:04]>> Like at a bit of an angle. I'll show you those pictures. You'll see.

[00:22:09]But that I when I looked into the water there at the sand bags you could see that >> You can see the >> drive here.

[00:22:14]>> Yeah.

[00:22:15]>> Yeah.

[00:22:15]>> So that's I think that this must be the lake that they cuz now if you didn't know Pogo's road works that you could drive in the lake you'd get stuck there you wouldn't be able to get through.

[00:22:24]>> You drive in the lake and you go all the way through.

[00:22:26]>> Yeah. Cuz there's a picture also where they came out. So they basically from the edge there they rode around the edge and then straight out just after the the water crossings last water crossings that we had.

[00:22:37]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:38]Yeah, just to get past that swampy bit.

[00:22:39]>> Yeah, that's just past the swampy piece.

[00:22:47]This is welcome to Ember Bay.

[00:22:49]>> [music] >> It was a beautiful remote but sadly no camping, only luxury tented accommodation.

[00:23:17]After navigating the tricky sections out of Ponta Chemucane, Yuan drove us back to camp.

[00:23:48]The next morning was our last day and by far the most exciting.

[00:23:53]I was up early and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

[00:24:17]You know, I talked about the elephants that we couldn't find and I tell you what, this time we found them several times. We saw them out in the in the distance, but now at the camp we've had this guy come and visit us for the last few nights. This is our our our last night, we're leaving tomorrow.

[00:24:36]And this guy's just come through here early this morning and he was actually right on this path here.

[00:24:49]>> Aw, look at the size of this fellow.

[00:25:05]>> Is he going to cry?

[00:25:06]>> No, just sit still.

[00:25:44]So, he was he just came through here, and I was I was standing further down the path and just videoing him. Luckily, he stood here just for a while.

[00:25:52]Then he moved on.

[00:25:57]Which you can see where he came through.

[00:26:12]He was eating in the trees here.

[00:26:15]And he was making quite a racket.

[00:26:18]Could hear it from our tent. And he must have come in all the way from the other side of the campsite.

[00:26:24]And then he just He basically just walks right through this bush here.

[00:26:37]And he's He's still down the bottom there.

[00:26:43]And if we didn't put our car parked in the right place, he pretty much would have come right into our campsite there, which is not great. So, he seems to be quite friendly and didn't seem very aggressive.

[00:26:52]But we're just keeping our distance and letting him just do what he needs to do.

[00:27:18]He's still around here. He's just walking back down the road.

[00:27:27]You can see the dung beetles are already getting close.

[00:27:33]And that dung's going to be pretty much full of dung beetles soon.

[00:27:37]There's already two guys here.

[00:27:40]And I mean this elephant was just here probably it was like 15 minutes ago.

[00:27:47]I hadn't been this close to an elephant in ages.

[00:27:50]And it was amazing. But pretty nerve-wracking, too.

[00:27:55]The old bull was never far, and we could hear him all around our camp at night.

[00:28:06]Still buzzing from the day and the night before, we were up early the next morning to pack up and hit the road for the long 10-hour journey home.

[00:28:22]I hope you've enjoyed this. Thanks so much for watching, and please like and subscribe for more adventures in future.