Learning to drive in a Land rover station wagon was no easy feat for a short person, never mind in a National Park where there were lots of BIG animals. I had to have a pillow to sit on and another pillow behind my back, or else I would not be able to reach the pedals. Thankfully I had a very calm, relaxed father to teach me, even though inwardly he was probably saying many prayers and keeping his teeth firmly clamped down on his pipe.

On one occasion we came to an ‘S’ in the road and I could see that there was a huge bull elephant ahead standing right beside the road feeding and quite unperturbed about us coming along. Unfortunately, I was absolutely terrified of elephants and whenever we came too close to them I would be on the floor of the vehicle with a pillow over my head and tear flowing down my cheeks. If I could fit in a glove compartment I would.

I slammed on breaks and pleaded with my father to take over until we had passed the massive grey beast. My father’s reply was a casual “If you want to learn to drive, then you have to drive past the elephant!” So after sitting for a while with a hammering heart and trembling, clammy hands I put the vehicle into first gear, closed my eyes and drove. I really have no idea how I managed to stay on the road, but I did get passed the elephant much to my relief.

SAVING A BABY ELEPHANT

We were travelling back to Main camp from the safari camp at Linkwasha. On arriving at Ngweshala pan we saw from a distance a black lump in the trough (a man made reservoir with fresh water piped into it for the game to drink from, with the overflow running into a pan).

The pump attendant ran up to us and asked if we could assist him in getting a baby elephant out of the trough. On closer inspection we found the terrified baby was only a few months old as he still had pink on his feet, ears and trunk and his mother was hanging around not far off. The pump attendant and Ross jumped into the trough and tried to give it a shove from the rear end and lift it up over the lip of the trough – but with a weight of approximately 100 kilograms at birth this just proved too much effort. Ross stayed in the trough to give it a shove from the rear while the pump attendant got out and pulled it by its trunk.

Once out the poor little fella then thought that Ross was his mother and started to follow him back to the vehicle. We decided that that was not such a good plan, as we did not want the mother to come charging us, so we persuaded Ross to lead it to the pump and rush back to the vehicle.

The frantic screams of the mother were futile as the noise of the engine was drowning out her desperate calls and the calf now refused to leave the pump. We then decided to switch the engine off and make a dash for the car and drive away a little distance so that it would not follow us. Finally the mother came closer to the pump and the baby managed to distinguish who was mother and who was not and they were reunited.

IS THIS MY MUMMY?



REUNITED AT LAST!!!