The wildlife in the Kruger National Park is quite accustomed to safari vehicles in its midst and so seldom runs away from or charges vehicles. However, everyone has a bad day sometimes as in this case where an irritable elephant cow decided to charge our Land Rover.

We were not particularly close (and certainly not threatening), but we could see that she was irritable and protective of the herd. There's a bit of a standoff as we hold back and give her space to move on. For a moment it looks like she's going to do just that but then she has a change of heart.

Depending on the situation backing away can actually increase the elephant's confidence and cause them to charge. You can see this happening after the stalemate when we do back-off. The situation was well-read and handled by our guide Diedre and tracker Sidwell (banging on the vehicle to deter the elephant) from Singita Lebombo lodge. We discovered that Deidre has superb uphill reversing skills on rocky jeep tracks. We gave the herd a wide berth and continued on our adventure.


Oh....and that elephant looked rather more intimidating from where we were sitting.