On foot

I was offered the chance of a childfree walking safari at 6am. Three of us set off with our guide (Henry) and an armed guard we got to look at tracks, birds, poo and insects. Henry explained that if we saw any elephants we would be walking the other way because while they are quite happy with people in jeeps they do not like us on foot. We had been examining some fresh (warm) elephant poo when we heard an elephant off to our left by the river and then we saw another two in front of us. We paused, the elephant indicated that he knew we were there and we beat a hasty retreat. Another group of walkers on safari were closer to the river and as we were backing off we saw the elephant charge towards them. These beasts might be big but they can move fast, a few warning gun shots followed and with both our guide and guard looking a bit twitchy we moved off in the other direction. This caused quite a bit of excitement when we returned to the camp with Henry announcing that we had lost a couple of tourists. For those of you ever confronted with an elephant you should back off, take cover behind a tree or termite mound, failing that a few shots should scare it otherwise the guides carried whistles that would also scare it. If we ran we had to stick with the guide or we could end up hopelessly lost.