A Blocked Road and a Big Surprise
Tourist guide Cristina Marques was out on a game drive with Tatu from Kwa Maritane in Pilanesberg Game Reserve when the group’s morning took an unexpected turn. Cristina had just asked her guide about the whereabouts of “Amarula,” her nickname for elephants, when the answer appeared right in front of them.
As the convoy rounded a bend, a big male elephant was standing squarely in the road. Cristina was in the third vehicle, with her group’s first, second and third trucks parked one behind the other. With no way to reverse or make space, all three vehicles were stuck exactly where they were, and the elephant had nowhere to go but past them.
Brushing Up Against the Trucks
What happened next had everyone holding their breath. The elephant approached the lead vehicle and began brushing up against it, using the frame almost like a scratching post. For a moment, it looked as though the bull might push the truck right over.
Cristina described the scene vividly: “The elephant brushed up against the first safari vehicle and we almost thought that it was going to push the vehicle over but it just kept brushing against it almost like it was using the vehicle frame as a back scratcher.”
While Cristina, an experienced guide, remained calm throughout, she admitted her guests were caught somewhere between excitement and outright fear. It’s easy to understand why.
Having several tons of elephant lean into your vehicle is not something most tourists experience twice in a lifetime.
Moving Down the Line
Once satisfied with the first truck, the elephant shifted its attention to the second vehicle, giving it a brief brush before turning toward Cristina’s own truck. That’s when Tatu started the engine, and the group made a quick move to clear the elephant’s path.
Cristina noted that this wasn’t her first encounter of this kind. Having experienced similar elephant behaviour before, she knew roughly what to expect, though she was still careful not to underestimate the animal.
Reading the Room with Elephants
Elephants are known to test their surroundings, and vehicles parked closely together can sometimes become an obstacle they choose to investigate rather than avoid. Behaviour like rubbing against a vehicle isn’t necessarily aggressive, it can simply be an elephant using whatever is nearby, in this case a convenient metal frame, to relieve an itch or assert its space on a crowded road.
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Still, elephants remain one of the most unpredictable animals in the bush, and their sheer size means even a passing brush can have serious consequences for a vehicle and its passengers.
A Lesson in Staying Calm
Cristina’s advice for anyone caught in a similar situation is simple. Stay relaxed, keep quiet, and give the animal room to move on its own terms, or reposition the vehicle if there’s any space to do so.
As she put it, “these big beauties can be very unpredictable at times,” a reminder that respect and patience go a long way when sharing the road with wild giants.
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