Adventures in South America

Close Encounters of the Elephant Kind...

This morning we went on our 4th and last game drive and it was by far one of the most scary incredible experience of my life and without a doubt to everybody else that was on the ride. There were 8 of us on the ride and I think all of us believed that we might not make it out of this situation alive… all this due to elephants. After a rainy, very wet night, the rain subsided enough that we could leave four our drive around 6am. Due to wet conditions I don’t think any of us were expecting to see much. Along the way we passed a few antelope but nothing we had not seen before. About an hour into our drive we saw elephants!! About 8 or so, who seemed in a hurry to go somewhere. They crossed directly in our path and we all scrambled to take pictures. It was an awesome sight. The last elephant stopped for a few seconds, looked at us and flapped it’s ears in an aggressive stance but quickly moved on. Wanting to see more, we speculated that they were trying to catch up with the rest of the herd, so Brendan (ranger) and Erick (tracker) moved quickly to catch them on the other side of their path. And catch up to them we did!! There must’ve been a pack of 30-40 elephants of all ages and sizes that crossed our path within 20-30 feet of the vehicle. As the last elephants crossed our path, that’s when the problem started. Words can not describe how scary the experience was… the Matriarch of the path started us down and for whatever reason, perceived us as a threat. She flapped her ears out in an aggressive stance, and the standoff began. Although account of the actual time the standoff lasted vary from those of us involved from 3-15 minutes, I think a safer guess I 4-5 minutes. It’s really hard to convey these minutes in writing… the elephant stared us down, then a 2nd elephant joined the stare down with her calf in tow and effectively blocking our path. The Matriarch got closer and closer to the vehicle, ears flapped out. The matriarch charged two times, then stopped (faking us out a bit) each time stopping closer to the vehicle. By this time we were all very, very scared. Brendan and Erick stayed deceptively calm. Mom was hovering next to Dad, Seth was sitting next to me quite shaken, I was trying to stay calm and was asking Brendan to “please drive away”. I think we were all honestly fearing for our lives. Brendan calmly explained to us that we have to scare off the elephant and he shouted at the elephant to go away (you scare an elephant by trying to make more noise then it does). If we drove away there was a good chance that the elephant would chase us and trample us. There was also the issue of the other elephant blocking our path. Erick told Brendan make more noise – he turned on the engine, revved it a few times and honked the horn. Brendan had forgotten this step. The matriarch in what appeared to be a final warning slammed into a tree a couple feet away from the vehicle, flinging some thankfully small branches into the vehicle (some of them hit mom and landed at her feet). Brendan had to think quickly and this was, he realized, our only chance for a getaway. The other elephant calf had moved from the road, thus clearing the path. We had a split 2nd to move while the elephant who was stunned from hitting the tree had turned away. Brendan knew that the next move would be a car stampede by the elephant. Brendan knew that it was likely the elephant would chase, but calculated we would be able to get a head start while he recovered from the blow. About 2-3 seconds after we took off the elephant began galloping in pursuit of us!! You can imagine our fear!! Thankfully the elephant turned away after 10-15 seconds. We continued speeding away, looking to make some distance between us and the elephants. About 5-10 minutes down the road Brendan stopped the car to talk to us. Although he appeared calm during the standoff. He explained to us that he had experienced lions charging at him, has had numerous experiences with elephants and other animals, but this was the least control he felt an all his experience. He really felt that he was either going to have to drive into the bush (off the road) behind a tree and rip out his rifle to kill the elephant – to prevent us from being stampeded. He really felt the elephant was not going to back down - & it didn’t – it chased us. Brendan showed us his hands & they were shaking. Knowing that Brendan was scared made me even more frightened. And from that point on we were all nervous, looking behind and around us constantly and getting even more nervous every time Brendan stopped to show us antelope or giraffe. I don’t think any of us really wanted to be anywhere except for a safe place. You must keep in mind that it has rained every night and morning that we were at Akeru. The roads were very muddy, rivers and waterways that are normally crossable were flooded with rainwater. This added another dangerous element, that was heightened by our elephant encounter. What is we got stuck in mud/clay? I think that was when the gravity of the whole situation stuck. I had definitely seen enough of the “big 5” by that point. Close to camp Brendan stopped to show us a baby python. He stopped the car, picked it up from the side of the road and brought it closer to the car. Eva broke down in tears. Apparently she is afraid of snakes, but I think it was also the gravity of the situation that hit her. We were all relived to arrive back at camp soon after. Over a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit salad, cereal, orange and guava juice, scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, home fries and sausage, we recounted what had happened with Thabo and Dale. I am relieved that this happened on the last day of our safari experience – non of us (except Dad) wanted to go out again. Even driving to the airstrip to catch our small chartered plane was a little unnerving.

posted by sethnem @ 5:51 PM