A distinct advantage of visiting the Addo Elephant National Park is that one can enjoy close encounters with the elephants there. Of course one has to be careful and remain vigilant: they are wild animals after all. Here are four examples of the fascination I find in seeing elephants up close. The first shows a fine set of tusks on an elephant next to the road:

The plant on the right hand side of his trunk is Spekboom (Portulacaria afra), a favourite food of the elephants.

This elephant had just emerged from a mud bath when it walked across the road:

Elephants frequently either have mud baths or splash mud over themselves to protect their skin from insect bites.

Of course it is essential to drink water regularly – even the tiniest trunks get to master this important task:

These elephants were at the Hapoor Waterhole – a…

When I was in primary school people would tell my mother I had ‘piano-playing fingers’. Despite this I don’t think anyone would regard my hands as being particularly attractive – especially now that my fingers have become bent, and misshapen. True, in my younger days I could stretch out my long slim fingers … there was never the money for piano lessons, yet at least the slimness of my hands meant that the efforts of boys trying to ‘bone crush’ my hands were in vain!

I used to envy friends whose hands were soft-skinned and ended in well-shaped, carefully manicured nails. Such was the depth of these feelings that my grandparents gave me a beautiful manicure set for my twelfth birthday. I loved it and used it regularly to keep my nails clean and short: long, varnished nails have never suited me.

Mine are capable hands; strong hands; working hands…