Elephant Hike!

We were up early this Saturday am for what we thought would be a quiet hike through the rain forest.
Nope.
Turns  out that wild elephants wanted to crash our hiking party.  We smelt poop. We heard rustling in the trees. We saw a flash of grey. The look on Mao, our guides face indicated that, Houston, we have a problem.  We all had to freeze, stop talking, stop taking photos - recommended behaviour when elephants are lurking in the bushes. A word about elephants - while they seem friendly (aka Dumbo), in these parts human trampings do happen.
After fifteen minutes of quietly, slowly creeping, the threat passed. Mr. Shute thinks, however, Mao was tired of listening to the mzungu (us) chattering for hours that he made the whole elephant debacle up.
Mao took us to a waterfall, where he came periously close to falling  150 meters below all in an effort to get Jessica the perfect waterfall photo.
A word about Mao -he's about 75, wore a mismatched business suit on the hike, is a natural medicine doctor who can cure anything from an ulcer to asthma with a plant. In fact when Mrs. M was bit he raced off into the bushes and came out with leaves that took away the swelling and pain.
At the end of the hike across the ravine we were treated to an elephant standing, majestically waiting for us. He was far enough away that Mayo coud breathe easy, have a cigarette and we could all snap a bunch of photos.
We rounded out the day by heading to Kudu Lodge to swim and indulge in a pretty decadent dinner. It didn't, however, go unnoticed by the students how privileged we are to escape to the lodge for a few hours when just down the street peoole struggle for basic necessities such as food and water. Will even mentoned that he preferred the hostel to the fancy smnancy lodge.
Another great day for Team Tanzania 2013!

Written by - D. Salamon