Viewing elephants in the wild is a safari highlight for many travelers. © Dana Allen
This guest blog comes to us from James Hendry of Wilderness Safaris, one of our tour operators in Africa.
When I visit wild places, I am often torn between heading out on a drive or going for a walk. This pleasant quandary set me to thinking about what makes the two experiences so different.
Driving
I suppose for the inherently terrified this is the best option. Even if it is a false sense of security, sitting in a hulking great steel Land Cruiser does make one feel somewhat less threatened when viewing a herd of elephants or a pride of lions. In some areas, you can virtually park right near the cats to view them. Indeed, there are places where big cats will seek out vehicles for shade or the vantage that the bonnet provides.
If you’re a photographer and you want close-ups from a steady angle then there is no question that the back of a vehicle is where you want to be. You can obviously also cover more ground and see more from the back of a safari vehicle; important if you are on a once-in-a-lifetime African holiday.
There is, however, a sense of detachment that accompanies driving in the bush.
On Foot
Being on foot is different. No longer can you be merely an observer of nature. You are an active participant. For some this is a wonderful feeling and for others, it’s simply scary.
I remember my first experience of seeing big mammals on foot. I was on a ranger training course, utterly clueless and completely out of my depth. There were six of us in a group and, under the guidance of our trainer, we snuck up the back of a dam wall to view a small herd of buffalo drinking. There we sat in the shadows watching the eight large bovines about 20 meters off. They had no idea we were there.
Then, from the grass about the same distance off to the right, a huge male leopard stood up. I was awestruck. The leopard, who must have been a particularly gormless cat, eventually noticed us sitting in the shade and scarpered off.
I was blissfully unafraid.
This changed when I was sent out to walk a reserve unarmed and alone. Then I did feel threatened – actually the feeling was probably closer to sheer terror. Slowly, however, I came to appreciate the solace and pleasure of walking in the wilderness alone. It is quite unlike any other experience. My terror was so slowly replaced with caution and profound appreciation. Something primal, deep in the recesses of my genetic memory, began to speak to me.
Of course, walking in the African wilderness is not as unsafe as it might seem initially. Animals out here are generally terrified of us. Buried in their genetic memory is the knowledge that we have been hunting them since our ancestors first stood up and started throwing stones. Aggression from animals is almost always born of fear. Unless they feel threatened, even lions and elephants will keep their distance from a person on foot.
So which do I prefer?
Well, for viewing animals, driving is the way to go. Animals are simply not as affected by vehicles as they are by our upright human posture. In many areas it is possible to watch animals behave as they would without our being there at all. Much of our knowledge of ethology comes from the ability to watch, photograph and film animals so easily from vehicles.
Being on foot in the wilderness, however, presents a totally different sense of the wild. Walking is an immersion and connection with our pre-history and it delivers an “aliveness” that is difficult to achieve in any other circumstances.
© Wilderness Safaris. Reprinted with permission.
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