ELEPHANT MOCK CHARGE ON FOOT

I filmed this video whilst on a bush walk in Swaziland's Hlane Royal National Park. I was on foot with a small group of fellow travel agents. We were about ten minutes into our afternoon game drive when our guide asked us if we wanted to track a rhino and her calf on foot. Being of the adventurous sort, we leapt at the opportunity. After a thorough safety briefing, including do's and don'ts whilst walking in the bush on foot, we set off in anticipation of getting closer to a massive rhino female and her calf.

Unbeknownst to us, behind a thick copse of trees fringing the waterpan in the distance was a large, lone elephant bull. He was in musth and trailing a breeding herd of elephants in the hope of wooing a pachyderm princess. They were so silent and well camoflaged that we had not detected their presence at all. We had a great encounter with the rhinos and as we turned around in our single format to return to the vehicle, out of the blue this elephant bull surprised us some bravado!

I felt at once fearful and in awe of him; he taught me a life lesson that day; how frail humanity can be. Our guide handled the situation professionally and confidently. We all had to trust his judgement implicitly as he barked commands at us whilst negotiating the bullish bulk of this lone ranger away from us. It was the one experience in my life when logic defied instinct and I felt as if I had world war 3 raging inside me. He managed to get us all back in the vehicle safely after putting himself in front of the elephant bull as a decoy allowing us to scurry to safety. Once in the vehicle, we heard a rather loud rustling noise in the bush around us; the breeding herd of elephants that the bull ellie was following appeared all around us. Suddenly, the seemingly erratic behaviour all made sense.

We hightailed it out of there the first chance we got and even rolling up to a pride of lion twenty minutes later paled in comparison. Needless to say, we cracked our sundowner drinks much earlier that evening!

View my video clip at High Adventure on Foot for an armchair adrenaline experience!