Natural World: Eye for an Elephant (8 of 20)

Natural World: Eye for an Elephant

After 18 months, I knew I'd been accepted by Echo and her family.
And I had recorded some unique and intimate moments in their lives.
But Amboseli had other surprises in store.
One grey June morning, I ran into two huge bulls lining up to fight.
They were Beach Ball and the one-tusked Lexi.
Serious fights between elephants are extremely rare.
As the bulls squared up to each other...
my heart was pounding.
It was terrifying to be so close.

I had to have a ringside seat but I could easily become involved by mistake.
Each elephant tried to twist the other off his feet.
Then he could stab his toppled opponent with his tusk.
The ten-hour bout ended without either Beach Ball or Lexi being badly injured.
All too soon, it was time to leave Amboseli.
I wondered if Echo and the family would remember me on my return.
In the meantime, I wanted to film elephants in more hostile surroundings.
I travelled up the wild Skeleton Coast to the remote northwest corner of Namibia.
I had long heard travellers' tales about elephants sliding down sand dunes.