African Elephant Bull

Before the crack of dawn, we had left the comfort of our beds and had already driven hours before parking the safari bakkies to carry on by foot. As I started my first safari in the bush of Kruger National Park, I became intensely aware of how wild everything was around me. We walked in a silent single-file line with one guide in the lead, and one as the caboose.

From the security of the large safari bakkie, you can get lulled into not realizing how vast the area is, how much land you have to cover, and how truly extraordinary nature is. It has a way of navigating anything. But once you're on foot, the respect for what's around you becomes reinstated if it had ever wavered.

Up until this point, I had been most concerned that some predator would be silently sneaking up on us. I had never imagined that a multi-ton bull elephant would have so easily been able to appear right in front of us. After all, how on earth does the world's largest land animal move undetectably? And yet, here I was, slightly elevated by the outcropped rock I was standing on, staring awestruck into the largest face I had ever encountered only meters away. He too stopped a moment from his browsing to take us in and fan himself with his massive ears. And just as silently and smoothly as he had first appeared, I watched as his wrinkles and perfectly grey body camouflaged him back into his surroundings as he turned slightly and walked away from us.