Walking with the beasts

2 close for comfort

Well today started off pretty nervewrecking for me, and I think everyone knows why, yes I was first up to drive the land rover at 6am when i could barely hold my head up. When i got in the car I felt a million different things going through my head and on top of that i had to do another pre trail brief which i was not expecting, i couldnt remember a thing because i was so focused on what i was taught by jeremy and dustin about stick shift. After my brief where i only missed  ”please no flash photography” I started the car and btw the steering wheel was on the other side and you even had to turn the igniton on backwards and manage the stick with your left hand!! I stalled out the first 3 times and accidentally short circuted the whole vehicle a few times when I tried to go straight from 4th gear to 2nd gear( whoops) but after that I did pretty well, we didnt really see that much when i was driving and all i could pay attention to was the road. After breakfast which consisted of cheese and butter bread sandwhich, apple and hard boiled egg and lunch which was chicken and pasta we headed back towards the school kinda bummed out because we hadnt seen much. Just as we were pullin back in we noticed a huge herd of elephant in the distance. Nellie and Sean found this to be a perfect opportunity to practice what we had learned about animal behaviours so they told the two people on the tracker seat to get in the vehicle and they switched drivers because we arent that experienced. They warned us that we are going to get very close to the elephant and do not move a muscle and dont make any sounds! I figured they were over exaggerating and was like yeah yeah yeah lets just go already, man was I in for a big suprise!! First Seans vehicle pulled up with haulf the students to test the herds patience, then when it was all clear we pulled up right behind them and switched off our vehicles, once you switch off your vehicle there is no turning them back on because this could scare the hell out of the herd and this would be really bad for us! as we sat there flashing photo after photo of the herd and babies eating the elephants moved in closer and closer and closer till they surrounded our vehicles, never before have you ever felt such a huge prescense so close to you! At any minute everything could go wrong, but we were there now and there was no turning back. One of the curious males decided to come right in front of our vehicle and get a good sniff and feel for what we were. It stood there so long looking at us that it got tired and ended up resting on his back legs, which was a good sign they were calm and allowing our presence. Just as we started to feel too comftorable around them we noticed a group of females surrounding the babies trying to hide them from us, which meant they were feeling protective. Just then 3 big males surrounded the other jeep and formed a wall and started to flap out their ears, put their trunks up in the air, and trumpet. At that moment i thought what the hell are we doing here? and we are going to die!! just then sean tried calming the gentle giants down saying “shh shh calm down , calm down now” which worked because they started to quiet down and slowly turned around and walked away. For all who didnt know you can actually talk to an elephant and get them to change their mind by having a very calm and soothing voice, and ensuring them that its okay can make the difference between life and death. As we watched these huge magnifcent creatures dissapear off into the bush, I looked around and the look on everyones face was priceless and boy did we ever start talking and freaking out and showing eachother all the gerat pictures we had taken and got out of our jeeps with knees wobbling and legs shaking from all the adrenaline!! I cant believe I got so close never in my life had i imagined I would get that close to something so big and confident, it was truely a moment i will never forget!!

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