A Game Drive
A Game Drive
Of the six weeks I was in Africa, it only rained one day, the day we took a tour of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Strolling through the ruins, I looked ludicrous wearing a man's one-size-fits-all yellow, hooded poncho that my brother-in-law insisted that I buy. Although I was quite dry, I would have been willing to sacrifice a bit of comfort to look a little less conspicuous instead of a smaller version of Big Bird walking around.
Later that night, we enjoyed our first game drive in Hwange National Park. Traveling in an open vehicle which seated about nine people, we drove into the bush. As we made our way on a dirt road, cutting through foliage that did not look much different than it does at home, I leaned back in my seat and relaxed. As the best times for game drives are early morning and at dusk--we were enjoying the latter--I would have been content just enjoying the landscape, but incredulously there was much more. Right in front of our truck, a female elephant and her calf crossed the road. Of course, we had to stop the truck as they passed. I had seen such animals at close range before at the zoo, but what an exhilerating feeling seeing them so closely out in the wild. Interestingly though, they did not see us as a threat. It seems that when tourists are in a vehicle, the animals only see it as a large object and are not conscious of the individuals inside, so we were able to travel about in an open vehicle and get into very close proximity to the animals without any danger to us--that is unless one were stupid enough to get out of the truck to get a better photo or relieve himself.
The drive pretty much went along in that manner: we drove at a moderate pace until there was a "sighting," and then we paused to view it. Some chose to take photos; others took a closer look through binoculars. I brought a fine pair with me, but I usually found that by the time I located the animal and focused the lenses, it was gone. A typical drive lasts about two hours, and this one culminated with a view of the watering hole at sunset. As several of the members of our tour group passed around what were, by then, warm beers, we watched a gathering of giraffe, zebra, and elephant drink as the sun set behind them. It was at this moment that I first fell in love with Africa. Sitting in silence, we watched the creatures, and I thought of Thoreau's words: "It is a scene like this that I should not tire of seeing in a thousand years."