Elephants as you no doubt know, are large, and when they decide to walk past you within reaching distance, you can see how large they actually are! We came across a breeding herd of elephants early one morning, so we looped ahead of them in the direction that we thought they may move in. The idea was to get a close encounter with these huge animals, which is what we certainly got!
One of the females was particularly large and reading her body language, we could see she was very relaxed with us being there. The path she was feeding on took her past the back of our vehicle by a few meters, so we could see just how massive these beautiful creatures are. What was even more exhilarating, was that instead of continuing on the predicted route, she changed course slightly and fed literally up the edge of our vehicle. Casually turning at the last moment and walking around the back of our land rover, so close that we could have literally touched her!
Detail on her wrinkled skin and the length of her eyelashes covering her very large eye, were all in crisp detail as we were so close to her. We held our breath for a few very long seconds at that point! Throughout this time she was so relaxed and comfortable with us, that although I’m sure there were a few heightened heart rates, there was never a threat or any sign of aggression. Its encounters like these that stay with you forever!