Wild elephants stroll through hotel reception

                                                                                       Photo: BARCROFT MEDIA

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. "The elephants start coming through base camp in late November of each year to eat the mangoes from our trees. "When they are ripe they come through and they stand about for four to six weeks coming back each day or second day to eat the mangoes."

 Living in the 9, 500 square kilometre national park, the ten strong elephant herd are led to the lodge each day by the matriarchal of the herd, Wonky Tusk. "The most interesting thing about this is that they are wild animals and are certainly not tame," explains Andy. "They come through the lodge to eat the fruit. "There is ten in that herd and it is only that herd that comes through. It is a strange thing. "The matriarchal in the herd is Wonky Tusk, and she brings the nine others through and they come and go as they please."

Mfuwe lodge, which is part of the Bushcamp Company, consists of seven camps and the base camp where the elephants come through. Employing 150 staff over the eight camps, the management of the lodge are happy to report that there have been no incidents involving the elephants to date. "The elephants are not aggressive but you don't want to tempt anything as they are wild animals. "It is the elephants choice to come into base camp and they have been doing it for the last ten years.

 "There are other wild mango trees around and they seem to prefer this one." And even thought the lodge was unwittingly built upon the path, Andy says they had no idea the elephants would insist on returning. "It wasn't a design mistake - no-one really knew they were going to come through," he says. "The lodge was built and then the elephants started coming through afterwards. "We keep people at a safe distance. They are obviously close enough to see what is going on from pretty close quarters but we also make sure we have staff around to make sure the elephants don't get too close. "But as I said they are still wild and still dangerous. They are huge beasts and untamed. "We have bricks and walls between the elephants and the guests such as the counter and other barriers to stop them getting to people and if they try to there is enough time for people to get away."

Naturally, the lodge becomes a busier attraction for both elephants and guests during November time. "We find that we get more people visiting us during the elephant migration because of the unique experience of being so close to wild animals in an unusual environment.," says Andy. "But as I said this is a totally natural phenomenon, the elephants come here of their own accord and it is certainly a rare but magnificent sight."