ONCE the safari bug bites you, there is no going back. It’s the animals, the people, the conversations and the cultural exchanges that make the whole package; and Zimbabwe just happens to be one of the world’s most amazing destinations.
I remember one evening sitting by the fireside making our own “UN summit” with representatives from the world over, and I heard one of the most endearing safari guides tell the most amazing tale I have ever heard about their bush experience. This is his tale.
So, on this city boy’s first night ever in the bush he could barely sleep because of the eerie sounds of the bush, from the sounds of the frogs by the waterhole to the laughing hyenas in the distance. What disturbed him the most was the continuous growl that seemed to be right outside his door. It paralysed him with terror, like a rabbit caught in the lights.
Common culture in horror movies implies that you never open the door, which would be a wise rule to any first-time safari person, yet my fellow guide found himself approaching the door and slowly opening it. Holding his breath, he was left dumb founded at the pitch-black night outside, yet oddly enough just a few inches above the ground he could see some light. Being the investigator he is, he got on his knees and crawled towards the light. After a short crawl he was surprised that he could see the full moonlight and the stars above.
He stood up and went on to knock on the door of the guy in the room next to his. The groggy tenant opened the door and the frightened boy narrated his dilemma. After the neighbor rubbed his eyes, he looked at our storyteller’s door and hiding his utter disbelief he asked him if he was seeing anything of interest, to which the boy replied “NO”. The neighbor asked him to look again and after a good look, his breath got caught up in his throat. It couldn’t be, but it was no hallucination.
Right in front of him was a huge elephant (who he later got to know as Jurassic because of his massive size but that is a story for another day), happily grazing on the green juicy grass in front of his room. He had heard tales of how elephants were so aggressive and how you had to always respect their space, yet he had crawled underneath it and had walked right near it.
The thought was mind numbing and disturbing to him. He then asked his neighbor if he could sleep in his room as there was no way he was going back to his own room. But his neighbour would have none of it, laughing it off by telling him he just needed to chase it away by making loud noises, flapping his hands up and down vigorously in a manner of standing his ground and showing the elephant who’s boss. He told him if all fails, he should go back into his room the same way he came out and then proceeded to slam the door in his face leaving him standing there, head hung down like a dead flower.
To this day, his story is unclear how the night ended for him or how he dealt with his dilemma. Some nights he says he crawled back the same way he had come out (which is under the elephant) which was a long traumatic struggle; some nights he explains how he heroically chased it away by the tactics his neighbour had taught him and yet some nights the tale ends with him continuously banging on his neighbour’s door until he lets him in for the night. That was his introduction to the wildlife.
I, on the other hand, joined the safari industry a few years ago but nothing quite as dramatic has ever happened to me yet, except maybe the day I fought a python, which again is a story for yet another day. I love elephants so much, I could literally spend a day watching them. In fact, I have spent days just watching them interact. Their intelligence is second to none, from problem solving, to being one of the six animal species said to be able to recognise themselves in the mirror. There is so much to love about these gentle giants.
Take, for example, the fact that elephants are very huge in size yet they can move so silently you won’t even hear them approach. This is because of the fact that they have pads on their feet that contract and expand, effectively acting as silencers to mask the sound. Despite their size, a baby elephant can run, stumble and fall between their feet without a single hair on their head being hurt.
Another amazing and amusing fact about elephants is their memory, hence the saying, “elephants never forget”. It’s been proven over and over again and I have seen this a lot of times. For example, I have seen one of the well-known elephants around the safari camp that I work for, getting electrocuted by an electric fence twice on different days. But on another day, you could tell that he remembered what the fence would do to him if ever he touched it, but his need to get to the other side was so great, the huge grey boulder decided to improvise. I watched him use his trunk (which is a combination of over 150,000 individual muscles) to uproot a tree which he proceeded to throw on the fence thereby disabling the electric fence and his problem was instantly solved and then proceeding to go through and be on his merry way. Sheer brilliance and ingenuity on his part.
So, my advice to everyone is, if you find yourself having a hard time solving a problem ask yourself this, “what would an elephant do?” Or better yet, get yourself an elephant and let him loose on your problem.
E-mail Makhosi: [email protected]
