![elephant trunk reaching out outline elephant trunk reaching out outline](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a3/d6/4b/a3d64b81a7da81a1a271ef898a2af13d.png)
Yet its inland delta, at 5,500 square miles, is the largest in the world, an unparalleled ecosystem with an arkful of animals. Half the time the river is here half the time it is not. Swollen by April rains in Angola, it floods south, arrives in May or possibly June, fans out, and sinks or evaporates. Morula lingers to make sure I will follow along behind her.īotswana’s Okavango River disappears each year, disappears into the Kalahari sands beneath my feet. She hurries after her big brother, crowds up behind him. He snorts out a huge exhale, CHUffffffffffffffffff, then turns to follow Doug down a sandy path. The tip of his trunk wavers in my face then falls to my feet. He vacuums my scent from head to toe, reminding himself of who I am. Ten feet tall at the shoulder, he fills my entire range of vision.
![elephant trunk reaching out outline elephant trunk reaching out outline](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/10/f0/7f10f005f02f3a5de515b295c26a3d05.jpg)
Jabu, Morula and Thembi are right behind him. The tips of its fingers blaze with light.ĭoug returns. Above my head a jackal-berry thrusts up bare, wood-muscular arms. She ignites the tops of trees with her torch. She rises into an immense lemon sky that almost turns green before it turns blue. The sun rises with spokes on her head like the Statue of Liberty. Doug left a couple of minutes ago to fetch the elephants.
![elephant trunk reaching out outline elephant trunk reaching out outline](https://i.etsystatic.com/18393512/r/il/55a820/2544552488/il_fullxfull.2544552488_mhhr.jpg)
Beyond a swath of purple grass the blurry outline of a knobthorn resolves into a solid tree. Shivering, I stick my fingers in my armpits to warm them. As sunrise smolders I begin, slowly, to thaw.