Doug and Kerry Hudson, charged by the bull elephant, Zululand, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa

World Trip >> Africa >> Kwa-Zulu Natal >> Zululand >> Hluhluwe-Umfolozi >> Bull elephant

During our Zululand trip, we had many adventures. We particularly remember the time in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve when a bull elephant charged us.

This was a genuinely terrifying moment for both of us. As it was a feisty young bull elephant, there was a very real risk of getting violently torn limb from limb. Had it been an older elephant, it might have been content to pin us with its trunk and just crush us to death with its immense bulk.

We rounded a corner and there he was, twenty metres away and feeding on some bushes. His trunk was stripping the green leaves from the branches, a demonstration of how powerful and how dextrous it was.

We knew he'd seen us. He started raising his trunk high above his head, and flapping his great ears. He obviously didn’t like the look of us. We tried to back out of the turn, but another car had arrived behind us, blocking our exit.

By now, the elephant was becoming very aggressive, shaking the bushes and branches with his mighty trunk. All the warning signs were there: He was about to charge us.

We were ready for his charge, but we still could not back out due to the fools behind us, blocking our escape. As they gawped out of the window at the rapidly approaching beast, we were shouting, "Get out of the bloody way!"

Luckily they understood our plain English and moved out of the way. We backed out of the road, only to see the elephant still chasing us. He was running now. It was time to put pedal to metal.

Unfortunately the very same gawping tourists who had blocked us earlier had stopped again to watch the action. With a few choice phrases and some judicious application of the horn we managed to convince them of the danger.

We escaped by the skin of our teeth. Our hearts had been in our mouths. We had been driving a tiny VW Golf mark I. Being such a small car, it would have been no protection from this mighty King of Beasts. Another adventure in Zululand!

World Trip >> Africa >> Kwa-Zulu Natal >> Zululand >> Hluhluwe-Umfolozi >> Bull elephant

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006