On our last weekend in Durban, we were taken to Hluhluwe Game Reserve. We were SO excited to have the chance to see some African wildlife (other than monkeys) up close! Upon entry to the park, we were all sort of thinking of the Lion King and amazed at the beauty that surrounded us! We saw a few animals as we were driving up to our lodge, which just heighted the excitement for me!

Upon arriving to the gate, Jonathan took this photo of me by the sign (if you can’t read it, I’m pointing to the part that says “Keep a safe distance from elephants”). Telling. Very telling.

We got settled into our room and made our way to the main lodge area where we met our guide and loaded into a truck that looked like the one below for our three hour game viewing drive:

We set out to see the “Big Five” of Africa: Lion, African Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Black Rhinoceros and Leopard.

From the comfort of our seats we saw impala, rhinos, giraffe, zebra, cape buffalo, a warthog and elephants in the distance. I must say, I was slightly disappointed at the lack of lions, but it was very dark by the time we were making our way back to our lodge for dinner. As we were heading up a somewhat steep and windy dirt road surrounded by brush on both sides, we noticed the park vehicle ahead of us had a giant flashlight shining out the back. As we grew closer, we could hear people yelling and then, we could tell they were distinctly yelling at us. “Get back! Get back! An elephant! An elephant is charging us! Get back!” Hearing the panic in their voices, we knew they weren’t joking, but we really couldn’t see an elephant. Our quick-thinking guide put the vehicle in reverse and started heading back down the hill. Then we saw it in the headlights of the first vehicle-a rather sizable elephant running down the hill toward us with his ears flapping in the wind. Hm “an elephant running downhill has gravity on his side” was my second thought (after the first thought which I won’t share with the masses). Our driver was going at a clipping pace down the hill and was finally able to turn around after which I would say we were booking it out of there. We stopped after a few minutes to make sure the other vehicle made it out safely and then sped around the other side of the hill to make it back to the lodge. Just as we were getting close again, we saw ahead of us two large rhinos fighting in the road! They were not going to let us through. After being admonished by our guide to be quiet around the elephant, we were all silent. Then our guide started flicking the headlights, banging on the door of the truck and yelling! I thought I might wet my pants. The rhinos responded well to the noise though and broke free from their fighting and made way for us to pass. Hooray! I was SO very glad to make it to dinner that evening and didn’t even mind the Jurassic Park sized bugs that were in my hair, behind my ears and stuck inside Jonatha’s shirt. Okay, the one inside his shirt freaked me out.

About the noise factor, apparently elephants don’t give you a warning if they’re going to charge you so you should just be quiet and still and maybe it will forget you’re there. Other animals give you some sort of indication when they’re charging so you have some time to figure out your next move. Just a tip from our guide.

The next day, we took another game viewing drive and our guide, Johannes, just happened to be the fellow driving that other vehicle the night before. Turns out, the elephant was a male and um, in heat, and can’t find a mate. So he was pretty mad about that. So mad he was willing to attack anything in his way. I sure hope you found a mate, poor frustrated elephant.

That morning we were hoping to see something a little less exciting, like maybe just zebra standing in the shade and we did see a few vulchers, but mostly zebra and giraffe and they were moving slowly. It was perfect.

Here’s one of my favorite photos from that morning. It’s a baby rhino with its parent and a baby zebra with its parent.

If you’d like to see more photos from our game drive, please check out Jonathan’s photos here and here