It’s not everyday that you see a wild elephant standing next to you at the reception of a hotel.
But in the Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, the sight of one or even ten elephants strolling around the lobby is a regular occurrence.
Unwittingly built on the elephant’s traditional path in 1998, the Mfuwe Lodge stands directly en-route to this elephant herd’s favourite food – wild mangoes.
Andy Hogg, 44, Director at the Bushcamp Company that runs the Mfuwe Lodge, has lived in the South Luangwa national park since 1982.
But in his 26 years of dealing with wild animals in the Zambian national park, Andy has never seen such intimate interaction between man and beast.
“This is the only place in the world where elephants freely get so close to humans,” says the 44-year-old.
Every year, between late October and mid December the elephants arrive at Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.
The whole family of elephants comes to eat the wild mango (Cordyla africana) fruits which fall from a tree just beyond the open plan lobby.
An intrepid matriarch called Wonky Tusk, (named for her backward-facing tusk) was responsible for teaching her family to seek out the delicious fruits over a decade ago.
Undeterred by the fact that the safari lodge is in their path, the elephants carefully traverse the vaulted thatched reception, carefully negotiating the tiled steps – why walk around when you can take a short cut through the lobby?
The elephants have the run of the place — Wonky Tusk’s offspring, Lord Wellington, was born in the lodge grounds in 2009, and at just two days old took his first steps in the lodge. He’s not shy either and has been known to lift a pen or two from the reception desk with his trunk!
“The elephants start coming through base camp in late November of each year to eat the ripe mangoes from our trees. They travel through the lodge for about four to six weeks, usually returning every day or so to eat the mangoes.” Andy goes on to say ”this is the only place in the world where elephants freely get so close to humans.”
Lodge manager Ian Salisbury says ”there’s great excitement when the elephants walk though, but we try to keep everyone calm, the elephants are usually very relaxed and pay little attention to people, so much so they have been known to fall asleep here!”
See their journey below:
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Thank you for sharing. This is amazing absolutely beautiful!
This video must be on the Lodge website. Tourists will flock to the Lodge.