My Photo Album

Elephants in the Mist

Our expeditionary group finally arrived at the Sand River gate entrance to Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. We were here to study mammalian behavior and savannah ecology. As the clock ticked a few minutes closer to the break of a new day, a tall sleep and dream deprived man stumbled out of his hut. In an average day, the reserve shuts its gates at 6:00 pm, but tonight was no average night. As the sleepy man clumsily entered the vehicle he raised his arms and warmly greeted our road battered expeditionary team. In hush tones he and our team leaders discussed a plan of action. He sat by the driver and started directing the driver towards the personnel gate. Our objective was to secure and occupy a nearby campsite near the game ranger encampment.

As we inched our way towards the camp, Willy (our guide, our protector and not his real name) warned our team about a pride of 20 aggressive lions that frequented the camp area. He was quite confident that we would be safe once we had a fire going. Unfortunately we had no firewood! Panic stricken our fearless leaders tried to negotiate with Willy to assist in the acquisition of firewood. Normally looking for firewood was not a major operation, but it was a quarter to midnight in a strange place! After some coaxing Willy agreed to show us an area where we could collect firewood for our bonfire.

He quickly rushed back to his hut to put on appropriate attire and grab some firepower. Now armed with a vintage 1893 Enfield rifle over his shoulder and a poorly oiled semi rusty .38 special snugly tucked in his belt. He was ready to brave the night.

Willy had an uncanny sense of direction. He must have been genetically endowed from his warrior ancestry. He confidently directed our vehicle off the road into the savannah in the dead of night searching for the illusive wood pile. As we cautiously meandered through the thick grasslands, he finally said, “Lots of firewood here.”.

Armed with flashlights our group formed a grid pattern search around the vehicle’s immediate perimeter in the hunt for wood. A few minutes into our exploration a clear distinct trumpeting blast echoed from a distance. I was quite confident that the team was safe, since the elephants were a good distance away. Oh boy I was dead wrong! After a series of distant trumpet calls, the night went eerily silent. All of a sudden an ear deafening bloodcurdling trumpeting reverberation suddenly dominated the night air. I was startled and reacted to the oncoming threat by dropping my load of lumber and dashing to the safety of the vehicle. Unfortunately, I never made it to the bus. A hand came out of the darkness and grabbed my shirt collar. It was Willy, “Stop this way…” his voice tremble with fear, as he gradually handed me his .38 special.

“WHAT?!”, I screamed in a whisper. What was I supposed to do with a .38 special? I was not dealing with any ordinary animal; I was dealing with the largest living beast that walks the earth! A .38 caliber slug will only tickle the funny bone this behemoth of a mammal. Wait a minute… was it for me? Was Willy protecting me from the unspeakable pain of several tons of flesh and bone crushing me into pulp of meaty goop? As I deliberated over the situation at hand, Willy whisperingly uttered the words, “Piga motto!”, referring to the 12 watt spot light slung over my shoulder. Wait a minute here… was this man crazy! He wants me to turn on the light and give our position to these bone crushers? I am sorry but I am not that altruistic! “Haraka piga motto!”, this time he spoke in a commanding voice. I obeyed the command - flip and there was light. As soon as the beam of light permeated through the dark savannah landscape, less than 20 feet from where we were standing 10 massive elephant bulls stood side by side forming a formidable wall of death. The bulls angrily displayed their disgust by our presence by violently waving their trunks in the air and stomping the ground. Despite the aggressive display of power we held our position. We slowly and cautiously moved towards the angry oversized mob. Clutching the spotlight in my left hand and the .38 special in my right, I slowly cocked the rusty pistol. Suddenly the elephant in the center of the wall blasted a deafening sound and bolted back into the darkness. The elephant front lines were begining to collapse! One by one they ran into the cover of night like a retreating army.

A sigh of relief fell on both Willy and I. He turned to me and laughed. So I asked him what was tickling his funny bone. With an evil smile, he politely said, “Pistol not good.”. He said that the rusted out pistol sometimes fired and sometimes it doesn’t. Why did he give me an unreliable weapon? I guess the weapon gave me a false sense of security while braving several tons of angry elephants.

Unknowing to us the rest of the team was not aware that the threat of being pulverized had retreated into the night. As we headed back to the bus, I saw an emotionally broken down team. There they were everyman for himself slinging four letter words, throwing miss-aimed punches and violently air kicking as they tried to scuffle to safety. The bus was in chaos! We calmly and silently approached the chaotic vehicle. The driver fumbling over his keys as he tried to start the bus, our fearless leaders fighting to enter the bus, other team members taking five foot leaps through the bus window and a few sought shelter at vehicle's roof. What a sight. DANG! I wish had a video camera!

Back in camp we started the fire and we talked and laugh about the incident. As the fire slowly died, one by one the team settled for the night. I put a few large logs over the coals and lay my sleeping back just a few feet from the fire. Lulled by the slow flickering flames, I fell asleep.

At dawn I was rude awoken by a deep guttural rumble. As I opened my sleepy eyes, I could make out an animal at my feet. HOLY %@$*! It was a lioness. The lioness took a quick sniff of my sleeping bag and slinked towards my head. She was so close! If I reached out of my sleeping bag, I could actually pick one the dozens ticks plaguing her back. But this time I followed my common sense and kept all my appendages inside the sleeping bag. Slowly the pride moved on. What an exhilarating experience!