Lake Manyara

09.11.10

Wow. I have a story to tell you.

The drive up to Rhotia and Moyo Hill overlooks Lake Manyara National Park, so today we took the 20-minute trek next door to day trip through the park.

I got to see baboons (yes, more baboons!), blue monkeys, hornbills, zebras, hippos, wildebeest, dikdiks, impalas, waterbucks, giraffes, not to mention parasitic trees! Seeing all these animals throughout the morning was wicked sweet, but it wasn’t take-my-breath-away, I-can’t-keep-the-tears-in. I appreciated it, but it didn’t grip me.

Until after lunch. We wanted to see elephants. We realllllly wanted to see elephants. When we finally did, it was fantastic. A matriline of about 5 elephants were wandering through the bush. They are huge. And majestic. And huge.

We kept seeing elephants on our way sauntering through the bush. And we were driving along driving along ... until we rounded a corner to see a BIG BULL elephant standing in the road, diagonal to us. It was one of those things where everyone was talking, but as soon as we laid our eyes on this scene, everything went silent, I stopped breathing, and tears filled my eyes. No one moved a muscle. He kept his eyes on us and we weren’t really sure what he was going to do. He was breath-taking. I. Could. Not. Believe. It.

We just sat there watching him for a while (not that we had a choice since he was in our path). A matriline emerged from the bushes behind him and you could just see him go into defense mode. His ears went out and his trunk went up. He was staring at us before, but his eyes drilled into us like nothing else.

When the females had crossed the road, he turned toward us and started moving forward.

Uhm ... uh oh ...

He was coming straight for us and I thought he was going to charge our cruiser. One of our professors, John Kioko, was driving. Thank the sweet Lord his expertise is elephants! He reversed slowly as the bull veered off to the side a bit. His eyes were on us the entire time. As he got closer, Kioko quickly drove past him. We were so close to him!! Kioko explained later that he could tell the bull’s indecision - he wasn’t sure whether to charge our vehicle or just let us pass. His body was pointed towards us, but he made no confidence increase in speed.

Phew.

After he passed us, he took control of the road. He stood in the center of the road right where the curve ended. It was as if he was just waiting for someone to turn the corner and challenge him. A bus came around and stopped as soon as it saw him, kicking up a little dust. The display the bull did was absolutely stunning. He just kept throwing up dust all around him. I can’t even imagine how intimidating that must have been from the front. Of course, the bus backed off to choose another route. Wow wow wow!

I’ve never been so humbled in my life. Woah.