Our most significant safari moment is not on video. During our first night on safari the guides took us to a dead elephant where female lions were feeding on it. Then we heard a loud elephant trumpet and a herd of elephants appeared out of the darkness, charged at the lions and scared them off the carcass. The lions ran into the darkness off to the left.
The elephants started rocking left to right, shuffling their weight from foot to foot, in front of the dead elephant. Some of them picked up dirt and rocks with their trunk and toss it upon themselves. We were stunned and overwhelmed with what we were seeing, and our hearts went out to the grieving animals.
This all happened in the deep darkness of the night, and this first night of safari I was caught without my flash. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, it was the most surreal moment of my entire life. After dragging every single piece of camera equipment I have half way around the world, I was unable to capture the moment. Instead of snapping pics and video of what I knew would be dark trash anyway, I observed intently and first-hand, and because I didn’t have a flash, I witnessed it not through a lens, but instead with my heart and soul.
Gregor was able to get a couple lucky pics of the elephants on his phone when the guides would quickly shine a hand-held spotlight near the action. These are the only photos from that experience:
Hungry lions to the left of us, angry elephants to the right, and we are stuck in the middle with the carcass. The encounter was only a few minutes. I was slightly frightened my first night on safari. Truly… but our guides were very experienced, one with 20 years experience and the other with 18 years experience, and when we asked them how many times they had witnessed such, the answer was…. never. This event has somewhat changed my perspective on life, and I am humbled and forever grateful that I was lucky enough to witness this rare event.
The Next Morning
We went back to the same sighting the next morning at sunrise where we found much more decay and Hyena’s taking their turn at feeding.
Wow!
In what way did this experience change your perspective on life?
Great Question. I was skeptical of the safari industry to begin with. Seems that it would be so easy for the guides to bait the animals, making sure the paying customers have an experience. It took me the entire trip to realize that this was not possible, because animals would then associate *food* with the *trucks*. Humans would not be able to sit in the trucks if the animals think trucks mean food. Once I realized this (safari is not staged), I allowed myself to absorb the moment, be in awe of nature, and ponder the circle of life… not ponder some task in my office cubicle far away in a city of concrete.