Thursday 24 April 2008

Hluhluwe

After a long dry day in Hluhluwe Game Reserve, we drove around the corner, and saw an elephant, grazing close by in a flat field on our right, calm as a dairy cow. I switched off the car and we walked outside into the sunset, the breeze cool and nice on hot skin. Nothing around but the indifferent elephant, big and slow as whale. No sound, just the munching of the elephant, and the tick of the cooling car engine. Whispering in the twilight, so not to break the hush, it felt like we were the last two people in the world.

Reverie was ended by a frightened squeal from me as I looked behind, and saw a family of seven elephants 'get-in-the-fucking-car-NOW' close to us. J was having none of it- we actually went closer to them. The family eventually crossed the road in jumbled single file, like a gaggle of school kids trotting past a crossing guard. The mom elephant prodded the baby one along with her trunk, the teenage one sulked along at the back, several yards behind. The troupe vanished one by one into the bush, til we were staring at an empty road. They left us breathless and grinning, me clapping my hands with delight.

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