Yesterday, Kate and I decided to go out on a research drive to look for elephants. Since I am not yet use to all of the roads as there seems to be a network of them, we picked route 5 to drive. Halfway to the start of the route as we were crossing this small bridge made out of logs we saw a big male elephant in the distance going towards the area we just came from. I quickly crossed the bridge and turned around. To get to this male we had to take a road which had not been used lately since it was completely underwater. I put the car in 1st gear and slowly drove through the water. We were in the perfect area and the musth bull was coming straight towards us. I pulled up on a small patch of grass (still underwater) and switched off the car. After a few minutes of recording the basics of the male we decided to get closer. I pulled the car as close as I could without getting in the elephants way in a very shallow bit of sand and water and switched off. I climbed out of the driver’s seat and up into the back of the vehicle to get a better look of the elephant. Unfortunately just minutes after us being there he casually strolled into the thick wooded area and disappeared. Kate asked me to pull the car up to get a visual on the male so I climbed back down the side of the car, into the driver’s seat and started the car. As I drove forward, the wheels were spinning but the car didn’t move an inch. I then decided to try and reverse. As I was slowly spinning in place, Kate shouted for me to give it more gas, but when I did we just kept spinning and sinking further and deeper into the sand. Immediately I switched off and realized that we weren’t going anywhere. Kate immediately jumped out of the vehicle with bare feet and started to walk across the water and thick reeds to find some wood for the tires. Willing to help I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and stepped into the cold, murky, slimy water. It didn’t take me long until I stepped down onto a whole branch of thorns. I yelled and quickly pulled up my foot to find a few of the thorns completely broken off in my foot. After we found some bits of wood for the tires we went back and started to jack the car up in the water. As we jacked up one tire the other would sink and likewise. We knew that we had done all we could and called in for help, which came in 20minutes. Our vehicle was pulled out with no problem, but as it was attached by a rope it disappeared out of view while Mphoeng and I were still standing in the water. We figured after a few minutes that Kate was not going to come back so we started to walk through the waist deep water in the middle of the delta channel full of crocodiles and hippos. I kept thinking to myself how insane this is as I sank further and further into the water….
Related posts:
- One Good Spot On Friday Kate, Mphoeng, George the new volunteer and I...
- Winter is here This morning when I woke up , I could not...
- Little Voice and Nandipa This morning as we drove out of camp we saw...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
