Brooklyn meets Dumbo

So now that i finally have a moment to tell you about our massive adventure in South Africa....


Our day started at 4:30 am, when we were picked up from our Bed and Breakfast by Jenny our game driver in an open truck and whisked away about 30 miles down the road to the game reserve. Let me tell you 4 am, dark outside and an open truck at 55 mph...a wee bit chilly! However, it was awesome to be able to look outside of the truck as we were driving past villages and see the sun rising.
Eventually we arrived at the entrance to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park located in Zululand, South Africa. It is the oldest game reserve in Africa, where Zulu kings such as Dingiswayo and Shaka hunted and put in place the first conservation laws. Today, Africa's 'Big Five' (lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros) stalk the flourishing savannah. Game viewing is the principal attraction in the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve. (info.) Viewing hides overlook pans and waterholes enabling one to observe the wildlife at close range. And that was what we intended to do, see some animals!

We saw a few impala and almost right as we entered the park came across a lion. He was very far away but with binoculars was amazing to see. I have been to the Lion Park in Johannesburg and been very up close with lions, that was an amazing experience. I vividly remember reading the signs warning people in the park not to get out of the car, its a pretty simple thought process to stay in you ca when you are driving in a fenced area which contains your car and 20 or so Lions....well you would be surprised we were very shocked to learn the week before four Japanese tourists were mauled to death when the got out of the car to take a photo. Honestly all of the animals in Africa are no joke..as we would soon learn first hand.

The views of the Park were absolutely stunning. We drove along from 5 am until about 12pm stopping only for breakfast snacks around 7am [tea/coffee and rusks, they are kinda like biscotti].
We saw a ton of animals. we saw 4 of the Big 5, we didn't see any Leopord. My mom said that even though she has been on a ton of game drives she has never seen one. they are very elusive... but we did get to meet one of the big 5 up close and way to personal.... here we go

(this is the actual elephant that charged us)

The photo above has no zoom, it was taken right before he ran across the street charging towards us... about 3 feet from my mom and me.

The story goes like this. We completed the drive after a quick detour to a restricted area to go see a family of cheetah. Jenny our game driver drove us over to a picnic area and began to cook up some eggs and bacon (well chickpeas for me) and stewed tomatoes for brunch. Our cooking facilities comprised of a gas heated wok that everything went on. As the meal preparations were being made Eric and I decided to walk about 100 yards up the pathway to a gift shop in the camp area. I wanted to get a book on the park. when we were driving Jenny had given us so much info i definitely needed to get something to reread to remember everything there. So we are in the gift shop with my mom poking around and another game driver asks up if we had seen an elephant yet that day. We had but he was fairly far up on a hill... that game driver was telling us that there was an elephant about a 1/4 kilometer down the road (now i am far from knowing much about the metric system so i had no idea how far that was) but we decided against it and to head back for breakfast. We left the shop and turned the corner to see some Impala in the road..."ohhh wilderness" and continued down the path to the picnic area. There was a rustling to the left of us and we turned to see this guy hanging out and eating a tree. Uh oh bad news! now to give you a perspective on how tall he was....when he decided to stop his tusks were just above my head... I am 5' 8". M-F'er was freaking huge! What set him off still hasn't been figured out but we were standing there moving very slowly snapping a picture or two as we slowly made our way towards the site (note: when around massive elephants or any animal for that matter quick movements are not a good idea..it spooks them and they can run after you a hell of a lot faster than you can run away). there was a big white truck just to the right of us that decided to drive away at that moment Mr. elephant decided he was pissed and began to charge us (thankfully it was a mock charge...a real one and I would not be making this entry). Ears flapping and running (no not sauntering..running) across the dirt path this thing is pissed and headed right towards us. My mom grabs my arm and says "don't move" ...ahh sure whatever you say fine not moving, standing riiight here, peeing my pants but not moving. Then he runs up (still pissed, ears still going, trunk ready for action) and stops about right in from of us. At this point i am freaking out, all i can hear in my heart pounding in my ears and all i can think is "dont move, don't move, Jesus, don't move" i have no idea what an elephant does (learned later he knocks you over with his trunk and tramples you to death... that's a nice thought isn't it). At this point he is sniffing us with his trunk and all of a sudden he puts his trunk up to my mom (standing behind me) and blows snot all over her, side steps, and bounces merrily down the road. I don't think i regained feeling in my legs for about 1/2 and hour.


And that was the big adventure on the 3rd day of our trip to South Africa. The next day we went to Cape Vidal a beach on near the St Lucia estuary, which was beautiful but i was extremely weary for two reasons. (1) i knew that the waters around there were home to zambezi sharks.
and (2) after our meet and greet with the ele our game driver told us we were lucky since they had recently had a lot of kills by elephants up on the cape Vidal beaches....and we decided to go there because.... apparently to laugh at death in the face! Luckily no sharks and thank god not an elephant in site. When you are in Africa you really are in Africa and anything can happen.