Early start again today. I felt tired for the first time since I’ve gotten here. The old roll over for just one more five minutes thing kicked in again and it was cold outside the comfort of the quilt. I persevered though and had the 3 S’s. (Sorry Mam!) I walked out to the vehicle and it was still dark and I could hear tree’s being smashed up very close to the fence. It was cool as my eye’s started to adjust to the light I could see a massive herd of Breeding Elephant right outside the College fence. It was hard to tell how many were there but at least twenty plus! What an amazing way to wake up in the morning. It just reminded me of just how lucky I am to be here.
We eventually got going from the College just after six and to be honest the morning drive was cold and uneventful. It was hard to have any enthusiasm for things when you’re freezing your nuts off in the back of an open game vehicle. A Leopard or Lion would have been nice though! We met up with the other group after about two hours and we really enjoyed the coffee I can tell ya. We headed back to camp later on because we had some visitors to the college. The director of Kruger and some other dignitaries wanted to meet us and see why and what we were studying. After talking to these peeps for a while we all hot footed it back out to the bush for our lunch.
Having lunch out in the open listening to the silence is really cool. We started off back on the trail after and I was in the tracker seat possie. I enjoyed it and was just getting into the swing of things when we ran into the Breeding Herd I had seen that morning. It was a bit dodgy for me to stay in the tracker seat so I moved back into the relative comfort of the vehicle. We then drove forward a little and positioned ourselves about 100 meters from the Herd. Then the most amazing thing happened. They slowly but surely as only Elephants can came over to investigate us. It was a full compliment of females, babies, juveniles and one big straggling Bull. One male adolescent came right up to our vehicle with his trunk up in the air sniffing away. I don’t know how I would have felt if I had been on the tracker seat but nervous comes to mind! At one stage one of the babies got a bit of a fright and the rest of the females came over trumpeting and kicking up dust! You could cut the tension with a knife. It was exhilarating to be there for all of that. For the most part they were chilled out and when they eventually left to go to the Pan for a drink you could hear the tension being released from the group. All smiles and nervous laughter ensued! It’s a moment I’ll always remember!
We eventually got going from the College just after six and to be honest the morning drive was cold and uneventful. It was hard to have any enthusiasm for things when you’re freezing your nuts off in the back of an open game vehicle. A Leopard or Lion would have been nice though! We met up with the other group after about two hours and we really enjoyed the coffee I can tell ya. We headed back to camp later on because we had some visitors to the college. The director of Kruger and some other dignitaries wanted to meet us and see why and what we were studying. After talking to these peeps for a while we all hot footed it back out to the bush for our lunch.
Having lunch out in the open listening to the silence is really cool. We started off back on the trail after and I was in the tracker seat possie. I enjoyed it and was just getting into the swing of things when we ran into the Breeding Herd I had seen that morning. It was a bit dodgy for me to stay in the tracker seat so I moved back into the relative comfort of the vehicle. We then drove forward a little and positioned ourselves about 100 meters from the Herd. Then the most amazing thing happened. They slowly but surely as only Elephants can came over to investigate us. It was a full compliment of females, babies, juveniles and one big straggling Bull. One male adolescent came right up to our vehicle with his trunk up in the air sniffing away. I don’t know how I would have felt if I had been on the tracker seat but nervous comes to mind! At one stage one of the babies got a bit of a fright and the rest of the females came over trumpeting and kicking up dust! You could cut the tension with a knife. It was exhilarating to be there for all of that. For the most part they were chilled out and when they eventually left to go to the Pan for a drink you could hear the tension being released from the group. All smiles and nervous laughter ensued! It’s a moment I’ll always remember!
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