This is not the best picture of elephants; Natasha and I were driving back to camp just before the closing at 6:00pm and we saw these two in the sunset. I pulled over quickly and just snapped a photo with the camera on one of its automatic settings; the camera focused on a bush between me and the elephants. But, that’s okay, I got another pic to add to my hundreds of photos of elephants.
I love them that much. When I was in my teens, I decided my dream was to get a biology degree and spend time in Africa around elephants. I didn’t care or even think about what I would do; I just wanted to be around elephants. And then chemistry happened.
Chemistry defeats me. I’m okay with the math and generally get the concepts, but putting everything together to pass even a basic class? Nope. Fail. Multiple times. It was basically the class that took me out of college the first time around and then life happened.
But I still dreamt of elephants and seeing them in the wild. Of course, I went back to school to pick up an English degree, then went on to my MFA in poetry. That is where I met my wife. She was born and raised in South Africa; she took me home for our honeymoon where I got to see elephants in the Kruger.
Once again, I snapped every elephant I could. We watched them eat, play in water, even saw a young calf suckle…
They do create traffic jams when then cross the road. We give them plenty of space and look around to make sure we haven’t split the heard up. We saw this heard before they crossed the road and stopped way back and just watched.
This elephant is close, really close. We were in the back of one of the open trucks on the Sunset Drive out of Olifants Camp; I didn’t have the flash on and there was no spotlight on the elephant.
There aren’t the best photos. Elephants are hard to capture in the Kruger, even though you see quiet a few of them, because you’re in your car. But, they are so wonderful to see.
Poetry Overland 