Thailand, 2000
On my second day
there I had one of the more memorable experiences of my
lifetime. I had
spent most of the day trying to track down elephant, and at
about 5pm in the
afternoon while on a jungle path a couple of kms from camp
I finally heard
the cracking of bamboo, which could only be as the result of
an elephant. I
made my way through the bamboo till finally I saw the big
grey back of a
single male elephant. I watched him for a while, but as I was
being eaten
alive by mosquitoes, I tried to get a bit closer for a photo,
but must have
made a bit too much noise as it bolted away down the hill
through the
bamboo.
Quite chuffed that I had seen an elephant anyway, I got back on
the path,
and continued on with my bike. A couple of hundred meters later
the forest
opened up a bit and what should be in the path but an elephant,
possibly
even the same one. Being a bit confident, and assuming that the
elephant
would bolt when I got closer, I continued brazenly down the path
towards it.
However, when it did hear me it turned and charged.
I was
shocked,
not sure if it was a real charge or not - it hadn't trumpeted,
and
I couldn't tell by the ears, like one can with African elephants if it was
just trying to be
intimidating. It came to a halt with a trumpet about 15m
away from me,
watched me for a bit, scenting the air, before backing off. I
hadn't moved
apart from turning my bike sideways to try appear bigger than I
was. I was
quite aware that there was nowhere to run to, and the trees were
not
climbable. The only strategy for escape that had come to mind was to
throw
the bike at him and then try hide. Just as I was thinking I'd had a
lucky
escape the elephant turned and came straight at me at speed,
flattening a
small grove of trees as it headed for me. I though this is it,
its coming at
me for real. But it stopped, about 10m away - way too close
for comfort. I
was shitting myself (figuratively speaking!). This time the
elephant backed
away sideways till there were trees between me and him,
before turning and
heading off about 60-70m. Then it stopped and turned
sideways. Worried it
was gonna come again I clapped my hands, and took a
photo, the flash seemed
to put it off, and it bolted off down the path into
the forest.
It was now about 6pm, and getting dark. It was about 7-10km
to camp back the
way I had come, which had been through some difficult
terrain with the bike
which I had to carry fairly often, or 2km if I
kept going the way the
elephant had gone, so I continued, wanting to hurry
because it was getting
dark - but scared I was gonna bump into the elephant
again. And a short
while later, what should be on the path but the elephant.
I tried clapping
my hands to scare him off again, but it turned and charged
down the path
straight at me. I left my bike on the side of the path and
tried hiding
behind a tree. The elephant stopped about 2m away next to my
bike. Its been
a long time since I have been that scared. Nowhere to run,
nowhere to hide,
no gun and all alone, with a Huge elephant towering a
couple of meters away,
and blatantly not happy. I didn't have too many
escape options in front of
me, so I was worried. Then it charged again, I
stumbled to keep the tree
between me and it, thinking that this was it...
hello angels, but no trunk
reached out to take me, and no tree was pushed on
top of me, as the elephant
kept running down the path. I watched its huge
behind, with little tail,
shake the trees as it kept on going, then
I jumped on my bike and did some of the
most hectic downhill mountain
biking anyone has ever done to get out of
there. Wow.
To top it all
off I got lost on the maze of paths close to the camp, but
finally I got to
my tent, scratched, bruised, suffering severe blood loss
due to mosquitoes
and leeches, but happy to be alive