Nine hours with the Hwange elephant census

Once a year our guides join the waterhole count across Hwange, logging herd sizes from first light until the pans empty out at dusk. It's slow, quiet work — long stretches of nothing, then a herd of eighty arriving at once.

It's also the best way we know to actually understand where the animals are that season, which shapes which routes we run on the Big Five itinerary for the rest of the year.