The road was empty. I kept driving slowly forward and about 30 meters down the road I could see an elephant's bottom disappearing into the high grass to our right. Damn it, they are moving away from us. Graciously accepting defeat, I switched off the engine and turned to my client “I'm afraid we missed them. They have moved off into the high grass.” To our right we could hear the rumbling sound elephants make and the sound of branches breaking; the sound of elephants moving away.
“Aww, what a pity. It would have been great being really close to wild elephants.”
“Well, you-”
I was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a tree getting pushed over, this time on or left side. The sound of a Silver cluster-leaf hitting the ground just to our left made me nervous. That was way too close for comfort. I cursed the high grass – I still couldn't see a damn thing!
“That sounded close.” said my client.
Yeah, tell me about it.
“I can't see anything “ she said, moving over to the left hand side of the game viewer, camera raised, ready to capture whatever was moving through the high grass.
At this point I was just about to start the engine and get away from there – there were elephants on both sides of the road but as far as I could tell the road ahead of us was clear. Time to leave!
Before I could turn the ignition key, though, the large bull elephant we had seen earlier stepped out of the grass and almost head-butted the game viewer. Clearly surprised to find us there he took half a step backwards and showed us the erected posture (a classic threat behaviour where he is telling his antagonists Hey, look how big I am. Do you really want to mess with me?). He really didn't have to tell us that he was big, that much we could see for ourselves. He slowly moved closer to the game viewer looking down at us from more than 4,5 meters – he was a lot taller than the car. We could hear his rumbling stomach and his scent filled our nostrils.
Afraid to make any sudden moves or noises I realised that any sudden movement or sound at this point could provoke him to charge the car. There was no doubt in my mind that if he did, he would turn the Landrover (that felt more than a VW Golf at that point) into scrap and us into bloody pulp. This was not good there was no way I could get us out of there – if I had turned the ignition key the sound of the revving engine would definitely have provoked him to charge. My client didn't move a muscle but she still held out her camera and it still looked like she was about to take a picture of him. I recalled her earlier taking pictures using a flash so if she took another picture now he would likely have killed us both.
Behind closed teeth I whispered as loudly as I dared “Don't. Make. A sound. Sit still”
No response from my guest. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.
The elephant took another step towards us and he was now less than a meter from the game viewer. To be able to look inside the game viewer he lowered his head and looked underneath the roof of the car, starring right at my client. My client slowly lowered her camera and tried to remain calm. They were now so close to each other that if she would have extended her arm she could have touched him. But at the same time he could have extended his trunk and pulled her from the car. He starred at her with his ears extended to the sides – truly impressive since the combined width of his large ears and broad head was almost as wide as the game viewer!
I felt the rush of adrenaline in my body and for a split second I was convinced that he would charge. I'm not proud of it but I felt slightly comforted by the fact that my guest was the one closest to him and if he charged us she would be his first target; giving me a chance to escape.
And then, suddenly, he appeared to have lost interest in us: he slowly lifted his head again, turned and moved behind my car and slowly walked off down the road. We both sat there for a while in complete silence; we probably both felt that this encounter was a little too close for comfort.
I later commended my guest for keeping calm and quiet during our elephant encounter but she only looked at me, smiled and said “There was not much else I could have done. I figured that letting out a scream wouldn't have helped the situation much.”
/ J
No comments:
Post a Comment