A straightforward sighting of an animal is one thing; to be so close to what must have been about 16 tons of elephant, in the form of three bulls late one afternoon in the lowveld of Zimbabwe, was an exhilarating experience that pushed our heart rates up a notch. We had noticed a particularly impressive elephant bull in mopane woodland, and after observing him for a while, we decided that he was calm and approachable. Predicting his path, we moved ahead of him, and switched off our engine. Sure enough, he sauntered slowly towards a tree alongside us that had previously been pushed over by elephants.
The tree lay just to the left of our vehicle, about ten feet away. The elephant bull walked past us, turned slowly with his ears spread, and then decided that we weren’t a threat, so he began to feed on the fallen tree right next to where we sat. You certainly know you’re close to an elephant when you’re all whispering and moving extremely slowly, photographing his eyelashes, toenails, the end of his trunk, and the scarred detailed pattern of his wrinkled hide filling our camera frames! Sensing, rather than hearing other elephants, we looked back carefully to see another pair of bulls approaching us. Within minutes, they had surrounded us – literally on all sides – and without paying us any further attention, joined the first bull and began feeding on the tree next to us.
Being so close to these huge creatures gives you a real perspective of how small you are. Looking up into the gentle eyes of these wise old elephants, you can’t help but think that they must have witnessed a thing or two in their lifetime. We spent about half an hour amongst these bulls before they moved away, and gave us a chance to slowly back out of their space. It is always a privilege to spend quality time so close to a wild animal and have it accept our presence, as if we weren’t there.