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A muddy patch of black cotton soil just passed 3 seconds before when a breeding herd of elephants appears ahead on the little track going uphill. Only 3 or 4 are visible and amongst them the tuskless matriarch, huge female standing tall and staring.
The warm light of late afternoon is painting the ellies. We are silent, enjoying the moment. She starts moving and she slowly comes down the road, slowly slowly getting closer. I talk to her sweet words and she aknowledges me, she is thinking now, getting her mind straight to understand if I am friend or foe. She is a bit nervous but she keeps coming, 5 meters, 4 meters, she stops at 3 and rumbles. Out of the blue comes all the herd, not five or six animals as I expected but more then thirty. A wall of muscles and ivory coming towards the car, they block all the road walking side by side and they also come closer and closer,the guests are frozen, not a single camera shutter is heard, seconds are also frozen in different timing perception. we are in the middle of an horseshoe of ellies the farthest one maybe 10 meters from us. They are tense they still do not know how to react, what to do. And the tuskless one comes again, I keep talking and talking to her, she passes by and stops 2 meters from us. she looks beautiful she looks powerful she looks at us and then slowly moves. All the others follow her passing both sides of us as we do not exist as we, that were felt as a danger ten minutes before, are already forgotten. Within seconds they disappear, again wonderful silent ghosts.
Few minutes later lions roared as the giraffes where posing silhouetted agains the sunset.. The heart beats faster.
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