Eri & Lee's Travel Blog: Day 5

Today was all about safari. We jumped into the car about 09:30 and entered the game park. We were rewarded very quickly with the sight of a jackal, followed shortly later by kudu,warthogs, zebra, buffalo and leopard tortoises (including a mating pair).

Black headed heron.

Leopard tortoise.

Dust devil.

Termite nests.

Male kudu.

Amorous tortoises.

After seeing no elephants during our drive around, we came to a watering hole that had about 70 elephants in and around the area. This was the same place we had seen the 3 elephants last night. It was really great to see so many elephants around in there natural habitat doing normal things. Some were playing in the water, some playing on the land, others were drinking, some were eating, some left, others arrived. And all the time you could see lots of contact going on and lots of trumpeting and low growling. Its was totally absorbing and we spent a very long time there taking it all in. Words can't describe how amazing it was for us, so I hope that some of the photo's I have put on here do it justice.

This is how we were later. Except there were many more elephants.

After being out for hours in the morning, we reluctantly left the park for lunch which consisted of blackened line fish in Cajun spices fish for me and an 'Addo steak' sandwich for Eri. We then topped up with petrol and headed back into the park at 4pm. This left us 2 and a half hours to try and find the so far elusive lions before the park gates closed up for the night. The sky in the distance was overcast and was threatening rain. Maybe the animals sensed this because there were not out, Despite many kilometres driving around scanning for animals we hardly saw anything. We then decided on heading back to Rooidam (the place with the previous elephant success) to try our luck there. When we arrived, there were a few elephants there along with a few cars. As time went on, more elephants appeared as well as more cars. A few female elephants then came towards us and seemed to want to get past, but a car close in front of us was blocking the way. After a few moments of looking and checking us out, the females passed on by and walked away behind our car. Whilst the females were behind us a group of about 7 males headed our way. A few of the larger ones gave us the once over but then continued their game of trunk wrestling with each other. At this point all the elephants were a little close for comfort. Our hire car seeming quite tiny in comparison to the close-up heavyweights. Eri wasn't to comfortable with how close they were getting and wanted to leave. I thought that was a good idea but the problem was that there was no-where to go. The engine was off and we had elephants all around us.

At that point a smaller male walked in front of our car and glanced in at us over the bonnet sideways onto us. We decided it best to avoid eye contact. By this time the other 6 elephants we so close that I couldn't get a focus on my camera. Eri as worried now and I was worried about how I would explain elephant damage to the hire car company! Its not that the elephants were being aggressive. Because I didn't think they were. It just that they were wrestling, jostling and pushing each other around and we were far too close for comfort with these wild animals.

Things then got a little worse when the elephant in front of the car then turned full on to face us. Especially as he then backed up a little and stopped. Was this going to be a charge??? Luckily the answer was no. He walked through a gap between the 2 cars and slowly walked on by. Meanwhile, more elephants had joined the group to our right. This was now getting out of control and I decided that we were leaving; if this lot wanted to get past there was definitely no room and we were certainly blocking their path.

I said to Eri that it was time to reverse the hell out of there. She wanted to go but was frightened that starting the engine would startle the elephants making things worse. This was true as our engine was off, but the way behind was now clear and I wanted to take this opportunity to escape. I had wanted to see elephants close up, but this was far too close! I depressed the clutch, selected reverse and had my fingers ready on the ignition key. When the time was right I turned the ignition key, raised the clutch and pushed the accelerator. The noise did startle one of the elephants but we were already reversing our way to freedom. We then pulled out left and headed off down the road back to camp leaving the other 5 parked cars to there own fate.

It was with relief that we drove away, but after a couple of kilometres we discovered another problem; we only had 20 minutes to go before the park closed for the night and the route that we had taken was the longest route back to the exit! A quick calculation showed that we had about 15 kilometres to cover in 20 minutes with a maximum speed limit in the park of 40 kph. Needles to say, I may have exceeded the speed limit on a few occasions in our race against the clock to make sure that we didn't get shut in for the night. What an evening we were having, first we nearly got squashed by a herd of elephants. Now we racing to get out of the park.... A race that we only just won with one minute to spare. When we arrived at the gate, it was already closed but luckily it was not locked. The guard did not look best pleased though when he came out of his darkened office to let us out.

After all that excitement, we jumped in the shower when we got back to our tent and was then treated to a further elephant show in front of us from the porch of our safari tent. A whole group of elephants (most likely the ones we were with earlier) came to the watering hole in front of us. All enjoyed at a safe distance with a bottle of south african red :-)

Tomorrow we would continue our search for the so far elusive lions.