Umfolozi Elephants

We arrived for our weekend hike in the Umfolozi Game park on Friday October 9th. South Africa has several parks just like this one. They are vast, fenced in areas where wild game are kept. So while they are inside a fence, the animals roam and live as they please. Lions kill the antelope, rhinos take massive rhino-poo's everywhere. No real intervention is made to save the sick or the injured. Its very similar to the way the wild country was 200 years ago, just inside a fence and more concentrated. Typically, you are allowed to drive through, but are advised not to get out of your car as many of the animals are quite dangerous.

Speaking of which, which of the following would YOU predict to be the most dangerous. i.e. which would you want to avoid the most on a trail: lion, jaguar, rhino, elephant, hyena, water buffalo, giraffe, zebra. Think of an answer now. Ok, keep it in mind as you read.

So we first met our guide for the weekend. His name was Bheki (which sounded like Baggy when he said it). He was a tall, dark South African and toted a huge .458 rifle with him on the trail. He was really great the entire hike. Very personable, informative, and most importantly, was very careful when it came to protecting us from dangerous wildlife.

He gave us intstructions on what to do in the event that we would come across various animals. Pretty much, the rule was do what he said and he would use his gun if need be. I was just happy he was a dude, as I was on the trail with 7 other females at this point.

We hadnt walked more than a few hours to our camp for the evening when, Richard, the back up guide spotted a large male elephant strolling down the trail towards us. Suddenly, there was panic.

"Follow Richard, go, now! Everyone up de hill!" cried Bheki. We did as we were told, still kind of excited at the thought of evading an elephant. We quickly scampered up a rocky hill. Bheki came up a little later, and invited us all down for a closer look. We walked down the hill quietly and slowly. We took a few pictures of the huge animal grazing on the tree branches. I was the furthest down the hill, the closest to the bull behind Bheki. Seemed safe.

Then, out of nowhere, the elephant began to walk quickly towards us. Bhekki yelled for us to run up the hill. There was even more urgency in his voice this time. Then the elephant lifted his head, began running full speed toward us, and made loud elephant noises. He was mad, and was charging at us. I quickly turned and began to sprint up the hill. However, I was immediately stopped by a wall of girl's backpacks. "Oh, this is wonderful" I thought, "I am going to get trampled because these girls are too slow." I thought for a moment about side-stepping them, and relying on my male athleticism to get me out of harm's way, but then I realized that that might not be very gentlemenly. So I waited for the girls to run up the hill, and I followed behind as the elephant approached. Bheki remained behind me, rifle in hand, making sure we were all safe.

Fortunately for us, elephants dont like to run up hills. We quickly made it to the top and were well out of harm's way. Bheki claimed no group had been that close to an elephant, and that certainly none had been charged by one. He hoped we would also be the last to have such an experience.

The rest of the days spent hiking were fortunately less eventful. We saw lots of different animals (see list) and generally had a good time. The only other scary event was a loud hyena outside our camp on the last night. It really did sound like he was about 10 feet away, and made a loud, funny howling-whine noise. But I was too tired at that point to really worry about it. Also saw some amazing lightning both nights, and I hopefully got a few good pictures of it with my 35 mm camera (which is why I cant post them yet).

So, you would think that of ALL the animals in the bush, at least a lion or a leopard would be the most dangerous. I thought certainly a rhino would be, or perhaps am angry water buffalo. But all these animals just ran away as soon as we got near them. They were terrified and wanted nothing to do with us. But the mighty elephant really wanted a piece of us, and would have certainly trampled us had we not gotten out of his way. Lucky for me, adrenaline apparently works well in females too, and we all made it away safely. (photos courtesy of Lisa B)