Archive for January 20th, 2001
Day 17
I took a few shots with a hand gun today, a 9mm pistol. It was so much harder to use than the rifle with a scope - it took me 7 shots to hit the target 25 meters away!
Mrs. Lente Roode visited us today, she was the founder of the project. She was showing her family around. She seemed very polite, and urged me to make any suggestions to improve the project. I was tempted to suggest a pool, TV, table-tennis and a bar for the student’s camp at Nungu, but thought this this may not go down too well.
The boredom of the otherwise uneventful afternoon was shattered by the arrival of a herd of elephants! There were about 13, including 2 youngsters. It was incredible, I had my feet up reading a book at Nungu camp, heard the snap of a twig, and turned to see the whole lot of them right there behind me (on the other side of the fence)! How is that possible I asked myself? How can 13 giants sneak up on you so quietly?
I sat and watched the herd as they made their way around the camp, winding their trunks around tufts of grass before pulling them out of the ground and eating them. And they really are so peaceful, and quiet, and graceful - you can see how social they are, how they interact with each other. I am really quite humbled by these gently giants.