Elephant wake up call

Our tap at the door did not come at 5:15am. A loud sliding thuddy sound was outside our door. It couldn’t be the watchman.No,we had an elephant wake up call. Mother and baby elephant we’re moving across the  patio. We watched with mouths open. I realized a bedside light was on and jumped to turn it off so the elephants didn’t want to join us in the bedroom- just a screen door between us. Two gray behemoths in the gray morning light pulled leaves with their trunks and stuffed them into their mouths before heading down the bank to the river holes.

We dressed and opened the door to the equatorial dawn, Andrew said we can make it to the lobby/restaurant/viewing deck.I just clapped for our escort as we were instructed to do, especially after yesterday’s encounter near the hut.

We had only been delivered to the Leopard hut, the last hut on the western edge of the 10 huts,most were built with tree trunk stilts,when the assistant manager Wilson rushed back, Trish, there is an elephant now come look. Oops, he grabbed my arm and pulled me close to the patio of the Lion hut next door.The elephant,a tussles female came around the other side  of the Lion hut patio. We quickly withdrew into the front door of our hut with Wilson as the Nagy elephant “mock charged” us.

I was certain I would wait for an escort. He came in his oversized night jacket apologizing  for the late wake up call as there was a herd of elephants around the path to our hut. We saw them,we told him.

We walked halfway to the lobby  when the escort grabbed my arm and ran towards a hut with stilts. I had no idea was I was running but just raced along,hoping Andrew was behind us. We crouched under the hut, Andrew says he barely made it but I was looking for what we were running from and saw a gray thick leg, elephant!

We came out from under the hut and walked along the bank to the lobby. Heart racing, I calmly sat down to yogurt, fruit and bra flakes.