Cliffy
AH elite
Wanted to try a different way of writing about our first safari. Hope someone enjoys it.
Do You Hear That? It's An Elephant Coming Our Way!
We have stopped the Toyota just as we are starting down into a mopane filled depression. The diesel engine rattled and shook as it died a sudden death when the key was turned off. It's fall in Zimbabwe, the trees are leafless, the trunks of the mopane stand in stark silence as there is not a breath of wind blowing. Leaves, what few still cling to the bare sticks of branches, hang limp in the afternoon sun, their brown color in stark contrast to the deep blue of the cloudless sky. The dusty two track path we have been following extends out in front of us and disappears on the other side of the depression.
Our PH, Thys, had, just a moment ago, suddenly stopped the vehicle and asked the question, "Did you hear that"? We hear the snap of twigs and the louder pop of small branches among the crunching of dry mopane leaves. As we look to the left where the noise is coming from he adds, "It's an elephant coming our way"!
No one is even blinking an eye as we wait to see what is making the noise in the forest. It sounds so close and yet we see nothing. IT'S ONLY BARE TREES OUT THERE, WHY CAN'T WE SEE ANYTHING? Then, as if in some Disneyesque movie scene, we begin to see a very large, gray mass appear. It seems to materialize out of thin air. In just seconds, from what seems to be open dead trees, the figure of a huge bull elephant composes before our eyes.
He walks into the pathway and stops! He slowly glances down to his right, directly into our eyes, and stares at us. It's an eerie feeling. It seems like suspended animation, no one moves, no one speaks. We are looking up at a wild 10 ton elephant, 25 yards away. All I can think of is, we're not in Kansas anymore, are we Toto!
Time is standing still as we look across at each other in the dry, dead calm of the forest. Who's going to blink first? Who makes the first move? Slowly, he turns his head back in the direction he was going and moves off the path into the dead trees beyond, Again, as if in a movie, he dissolves into the bare trees. The noise of breaking branches fades away and we are left with only the memory, a memory that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
This is only day three of ten days that will change our lives. This is our first African safari, but it started on a sour note on arrival in Joburg to find none of our luggage or guns made the flight! So we will miss our scheduled trip to Vic Falls tomorrow while we await, hopefully, the arrival of our luggage on the next South African Airways flight from Atlanta.
Do You Hear That? It's An Elephant Coming Our Way!
We have stopped the Toyota just as we are starting down into a mopane filled depression. The diesel engine rattled and shook as it died a sudden death when the key was turned off. It's fall in Zimbabwe, the trees are leafless, the trunks of the mopane stand in stark silence as there is not a breath of wind blowing. Leaves, what few still cling to the bare sticks of branches, hang limp in the afternoon sun, their brown color in stark contrast to the deep blue of the cloudless sky. The dusty two track path we have been following extends out in front of us and disappears on the other side of the depression.
Our PH, Thys, had, just a moment ago, suddenly stopped the vehicle and asked the question, "Did you hear that"? We hear the snap of twigs and the louder pop of small branches among the crunching of dry mopane leaves. As we look to the left where the noise is coming from he adds, "It's an elephant coming our way"!
No one is even blinking an eye as we wait to see what is making the noise in the forest. It sounds so close and yet we see nothing. IT'S ONLY BARE TREES OUT THERE, WHY CAN'T WE SEE ANYTHING? Then, as if in some Disneyesque movie scene, we begin to see a very large, gray mass appear. It seems to materialize out of thin air. In just seconds, from what seems to be open dead trees, the figure of a huge bull elephant composes before our eyes.
He walks into the pathway and stops! He slowly glances down to his right, directly into our eyes, and stares at us. It's an eerie feeling. It seems like suspended animation, no one moves, no one speaks. We are looking up at a wild 10 ton elephant, 25 yards away. All I can think of is, we're not in Kansas anymore, are we Toto!
Time is standing still as we look across at each other in the dry, dead calm of the forest. Who's going to blink first? Who makes the first move? Slowly, he turns his head back in the direction he was going and moves off the path into the dead trees beyond, Again, as if in a movie, he dissolves into the bare trees. The noise of breaking branches fades away and we are left with only the memory, a memory that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
This is only day three of ten days that will change our lives. This is our first African safari, but it started on a sour note on arrival in Joburg to find none of our luggage or guns made the flight! So we will miss our scheduled trip to Vic Falls tomorrow while we await, hopefully, the arrival of our luggage on the next South African Airways flight from Atlanta.
