Travel story: An elephant at dusk
“And remember, you will be sleeping inside the national park, so you must take caution at night”. What? Excuse me? No one told me that. It had somehow slipped my attention that the safari-group was going to be sleeping inside the Serengeti National Park without any fences to separate us from the wildlife. And I got a bit anxious to be perfectly honest. And nothing would have prepared me for what I was about to see.
The rules were fairly simple; do not go after any animals, always go with a companion, and do not go out looking for the animals. After the rules where explained, the most obvious question popped up from a girl in the group. “Has anything bad ever happened to anyone?” We all laughed a little bit, but I think I speak for the entire group when I say the laughter did not disguise our need to hear the answer. We were all a little scared. “I’ll tell you when we leave” said the guide cheekily. Let’s just say that this did not put us to rest.
After a day out in the safari park seeing numerous animals both far away and up close and personal, we were ready for a night at the camp. And to be honest, I think we all were more excited about that part of the trip than the safari-drive itself. Nothing was probably going to happen, but just the thought of it left me, at least, feeling electric.
We ate a large and tasty dinner, and then the staff told us they would be setting up the “African TV” as they so inventively call the bonfire. If you haven’t been to Africa, be prepared to hear a lot of African x as substitutes for other things. It left me fairly confused, as the first time I heard this expression I was wondering where the TV was going to be plugged in to.
We all gathered our chairs, and sat around in a circle around the fire. Beside us there was another small group of four people, eating some kind of food. “They’re not really supposed to be eating out here” said one of the guys around the fire. We had been told that the animals have a very good smell, and could smell any food in the camp – we were therefore not allowed to bring any ourselves, and it had to be handled by the guards. And I was soon to find out the reason why.
I was chatting away to the people next to me while gazing at the fire. Suddenly, the girl right in front of me caught my attention, because she suddenly became very pale. She was looking at me, but not directly. She was looking behind me, stiff as a stick, until she finally could utter the words “that’s an elephant”. We all turned lightning-fast and to our amazement, fascination and complete fear, not even a couple of meters away, towering over us, was a full grown elephant. It had smelled the food, and came by to have a look. We all jumped out of our seats, and the elephant started to back away, and ran out of the camp. We all tried to grab our phones to try and capture this moment, but it was too quick. And suddenly it was completely out of sight, leaving us with no words, and so many questions. The most important one being, how on earth could a 4 ton animal manage to sneak into the camp and not get spotted by anyone until it was right next to us. I had a hard time believing it, yet I was the one who had experienced it.
The next day as we were heading home the girl once more asked the question “has anything bad ever happened”, and the answer now was “yes, a girl peeked outside her tent to see two lions looking back. She simply went back to bed and that was that, but it could have gone another way”. I loved this elephant-encounter, but I think I’m good with that being all it was, and I have no desire to run into a brotherhood of lions when I want to go pee.
Seeing animals from a safari-car is amazing, but there is something very special about having a natural encounter with an animal; an encounter that you did not go looking for, or pay money to specifically see. They just appear. And they grace you with their presence. It was a memory I will never forget, and it serves as a reminder that the greatest travel stories are those you didn’t even expect at all.
