On one of our transects in South Africa, things were going swimmingly well. Actually, my ranger (we had to have them, as they knew the lay of the land, and how to deal with the animals- for the most part) had refused to get into a canoe earlier. To cross a small lake. There are hippos in the park. Hippos are the only animal I was wary of encountering. Falling asleep to their calls each night was more creepy than hearing a hyena whooping outside of your tent. And seeing their eyes peeking out from the water was quite an other-worldly experience. Regardless, he was not chancing falling out and getting eaten. So we did this transect instead.
African elephants are different than Indian elephants, apparently. The ones you typically see at zoos and such are Indian. They are more docile, not as prone to outbursts. African elephants…entirely different story, at least in this park. Rangers are terrified of them. The moment Willkom (I will misspell his actual Zulu name, and he went by Willkom to the majority of people, so I’ll refer to him by that alias) refused to get in the canoe, I knew we’d run into a situation. We did.
We had received reports there might be elephants about, and they could be in groups as big as 20. You don’t want to walk into a valley of elephants that don’t want you there. As he tried to decide what was the best option (there was no way to backtrack, or do anything but go into the valley) I couldn’t get the Coolio song that has the part “As I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death…” out of my head. Yes, in the midst of amazing nature, a tricky elephant encounter, adding to it the fact that I didn’t speak Zulu, nor did he speak English (although we were tight by the end… he sort of decided I was a lucky charm, as we were the only people that kept encountering animals that never even got faux-charged) I had “Gangsta’s Paradise” stuck in my head. In addition, I took a selfie while in an elephant situation. 
A ‘haven’t showered in 7 days, nor did I even bring makeup or other sundries’ selfie. And I took it looking at the elephants, thus they aren’t even in the picture with me. Worst selfie ever. Eventually, through compromise, (I wanted to go through the valley on the left, as the wind was blowing left, thus blowing our scent left, and he wanted to not go into the valley) we went into the valley. He almost shot three different small deer type animals that were hiding in bushes. For some reason I felt no fear, but I also had Coolio’s song in my head, so I think we were giving off relaxed, not here to hurt you vibes. We made it through unscathed, obviously, but towards the end, I did start to jump a little every time I heard a twig break, or any random noise. In the end, all’s well that ends well, and it was an amazing transect to do, but the lesson is- always get in the canoe. Just tackle the fear in front of your face first, or karma will get you. We managed to have other elephant and lion encounters, but the only animal that was ever moderately aggressive was the wildebeest. It did its wildebeest honking type noise at me. Twice. Least threatening of all the animals, only one that really wanted to go at it. It was hilarious, and a re-accuring thing. A rhino with its baby looked at us and said “whatever..I’ll keep walking if you do”. But a wildebeest went into, well, beast mode. Glorious, unexpected experiences. Love them so.
We really were tight by the end. Going through crazy experiences bonds you. Plus, I got the Zulu handshake. Based on anecdotal park stories, and their stories, it is traditionally exchanged with men that they hold in high esteem. While I was asked multiple times why I had no children, he finally decided I was a “Good girl. Strong girl. Good girl.” I’ll take that affirmation any-day. So, with no children, but not a high fear factor, and ability to keep up while hiking, I got transferred into the respect group. Gender politics play a role everywhere, but… I’ve been lucky enough that they’ve been surmountable in most cases. Happy memories.
Oh, and keeping with a style theme, I’m rocking a camo camelbak (took me forever to find the right color scheme camo- finally ordered it through the camelbak for army website), patagonia pants, and either a Rock Creek tshirt, or a $4.99 men’s army tactical shirt. Everything had to be neutral, tans, browns, greens, or you couldn’t go. You’d be too obvious and catch the animal’s eye. Thank goodness for Buffs. I gave both of mine to the camp manager, because she was a girl with curly/wavy/crazy hair like mine, and it was cool to leave a little part of my adventure there. My Nixon watch, too, which is my travel/adventure/has sand embedded in it, I love it more than anything piece of jewelry I own that’s glitzy and nice. Holds good memories whenever I check the time.
tigermarti 