June 25, 2011

"Welcome to Africa"

I decided to go to Kenya... How I did this was by signing up for a private safari by a lesser known company. The entire trip (flights from and to the US, 17-day private safari through Kenya and Tanzania, 4-star resorts, all food, and a personal driver and guide the whole trip) cost $5000. You can find out more about this tour by going to: http://www.sardiustours.com/ I highly recommend this company!


Sooo....the first day I was there, while driving with my driver and guide to the national park I was going to be staying at that night... just before twilight... we see a baby elephant on the road. He's making noise and running at us with his ears out. When we back up, he runs back into the bush, then comes back and does the same thing. We are all laughing and think its cute. BUT THEN! We hear another elephant... look around... suddenly, the bush we were directly next to moves and a big daddy elephant is now about 15 feet away, his trunk extended towards us.... moving quickly. The baby is still in front of us, but the driver slams on the accelerator and the baby moves out of the way quickly realizing the game is over. So by this point, I've hit the floor, got this look of terror on my face, very close to tears, realizing how close I was to my actual demise. The driver and guide begin laughing at me, then say "Welcome to Africa!".


This is the only photo I ended up taking of the whole event.... it was as we sped away from the daddy elephant... not the best photo, but it sums up the story pretty well :D You can see the dirt road we were on in the corner of the photo:




It happened multiple times actually....