{"id":731021,"date":"2026-06-12T03:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731021\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:34:21","slug":"i-was-six-inches-from-an-elephants-backside-times-readers-on-their-safari-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731021\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I was six inches from an elephant\u2019s backside\u2019 \u2014 Times readers on their safari memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lying on a camp bed under a mosquito net in a clearing, a lion grunting somewhere nearby (\u201cI\u2019ve never felt more edible\u201d). Catching zebras for relocation using a lasso on a pole. Swimming while holding onto the ears of an elephant named Abu, rescued from a barn in Texas and returned to Botswana.<\/p>\n

As travel anecdotes go, the former Sunday Times journalist Brian Jackman\u2019s tales of African wildlife<\/a>, from the infancy of safari tourism in the 1970s to the contemporary conservancies that have helped stave off habitat loss throughout the continent, are hard to beat.<\/p>\n

But we were so inspired by your comments beneath that article, detailing memories from African adventures over the decades, that in our travel newsletter last month we asked you to share your most treasured safari stories in full. Here are six of our favourite responses.<\/p>\n

Travel newsletter<\/p>\n

Your weekly round-up of the best travel inspiration, guides, hotel reviews and advice from our experts.<\/p>\n

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\u2018I witnessed one animal save another \u2014 of a different species\u2019<\/p>\n

Edgar Williams, 75, Staffordshire<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been on three safaris and, if I could, I\u2019d go on another 33. The one that stands out is the one during which I witnessed one animal alert another (of a different species) to an imminent danger.<\/p>\n

We were in a small minibus in Tsavo West National Park in Kenya<\/a>. The roof of the vehicle had been elevated to provide us all (there were six of us) with a great view of everything that we came across\u2026 and we came across a lot.<\/p>\n

Our driver, James, told us that a lion had been spotted nearby and to hang on tight. We sped along the tracks and within a few minutes we came to a small group of Land Rovers, minibuses and other tourist-toting vehicles. We stopped on the edge of this group and could see a lone gazelle grazing to our left. James pointed out that to our right there was a lioness crouching in the bush waiting to pounce. She was well hidden, but eventually we all managed to get our eyes on the predator.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn elephant in Tsavo West National ParkAlamy<\/p>\n

The gazelle was moving towards the hidden lioness. Seeing a kill on TV is one thing but in real life? We were all feeling a bit queasy and didn\u2019t know whether we wanted to watch this real life-or-death scene. We could see that the lioness had flattened herself on the ground to get the best possible chance of a kill and there was complete silence as the unsuspecting gazelle inched closer to its near-certain demise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just then an elephant appeared some distance behind the lioness. It surveyed the scene and obviously weighed up the situation and decided to intervene. With a loud trumpeting warning call it broke the silence. The gazelle lifted its head. Message received and off it sped. A cliffhanger with a happy ending \u2014 or was it? James explained to us that the lioness was pregnant and for the time being was not with her pride. She was fending for herself and looking for food on her own. Now we started to feel sorry for her.<\/p>\n

\u2018Two brothers calmly padded towards the dining tent\u2019<\/p>\n

\"TwoThe Karoo brothersErika Lindsay<\/p>\n

Erika Lindsay, 65, Dorset<\/p>\n

Samara, a semi-arid conservation area in the Great Karoo, South Africa<\/a>, was founded in 1997. My husband and I visited in September 2025.<\/p>\n

The plains are conducive to cheetahs. We observed a heavily pregnant female. Cheetahs are the least strong of big cats and sleep with heads raised to detect danger. Last year\u2019s litter had left. It was recorded that lions moved into her territory, posing a risk to her cubs. She gave a distress call and two brothers, likely fathers, nicknamed the Karoo brothers, led them to safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Karoo brothers approached before we left camp. They calmly padded towards the dining tent. One drank from the plunge pool. The other walked methodically along the perimeter of the decking, sniffing as he progressed. One walked off. The other called to him. He waited and they left together. A magical experience.<\/p>\n

\u2018Something moved six inches away from our window\u2019<\/p>\n

Barbara Yorwerth, 79, Bridgend<\/p>\n

A few years ago, when my husband and I were on safari at Governors\u2019 Camp in Kenya, I was woken in the night by the sound of an animal moving around outside our tent. I got out of bed and looked out of the window but all was pitch black so I couldn\u2019t see anything.<\/p>\n

I blinked my eyes and stared hard, desperate to see what was out there. All of a sudden, the pitch black \u201cmoved\u201d to the left and I could clearly see the trees and stars outside. I then realised I had been six inches from an elephant\u2019s backside. Oh, the wonders of safari!<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s the people that make a safari\u2019<\/p>\n

\"GiraffesGiraffes rear up after being startled while feeding in the Masai MaraGetty images<\/p>\n

Geva Blackett, 70, Aberdeenshire<\/p>\n

My first safari holiday, 39 years ago, was on honeymoon in Kenya, where we stayed at Cottar\u2019s Camp just outside the Masai Mara national reserve.<\/p>\n

We often share our memory of how we were driving around the park and suddenly it went from day to night with a very fast sunset. Slightly panicking about how to get back to our camp, we briefly became surrounded by legs. Two giraffes had narrowly missed the bonnet of the car as they ran over us \u2014 maybe a lion in the area? It was amazing.<\/p>\n

\"SafariLeft to right: guide Ryan Jack, Geva Blackett, Simon Blackett and tracker MumpsRYAN JACK<\/p>\n

But in 2025 we took the holiday of a lifetime (because Africa enters your soul) and went on safari in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. We loved it all. But what made the holiday for me was our stay at the Royal Portfolio property in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Our lodge at Waterside was beyond luxury but it\u2019s the people as much as the wildlife that really make a place and our guide Ryan and his wonderful tracker Mumps could not have been more inspirational. Ryan is a font of knowledge \u2014 from the wildlife to the nighttime starscape \u2014 and he found us wild dogs, lions (and a huge kill), giraffes, rhinos, buffaloes in their hundreds, vultures, hyenas and kill, eagles, big birds, little birds\u2026 I could go on. Mumps was a true countryman \u2014 his tracking skills were phenomenal and his knowledge too was unbeatable.<\/p>\n

\"TwoThe hyenas with their killRYAN JACK<\/p>\n

\u2018Two courting leopards put on a show\u2019<\/p>\n

John Benner, 53, Kent<\/p>\n

My story relates to a trip to Kenya. A group of us had completed a 500km cycle ride in five days from Nairobi through national wildlife parks to the coast in Mombasa.<\/p>\n

The most memorable, euphoric but sad moment occurred later on a safari in the Masai when we saw a pair of courting leopards. These beautiful but generally solitary beasts were relaxing in a glade and every 20 minutes or so the female would entice the aloof male to mate by winding her body, pheromones and all, about the torso and head of the larger male who would eventually rise to the occasion with a rough growl.<\/p>\n

Seeing such intimate behaviour was exceptional, and when recounting this our balloon-flight pilot asked for the video as in his 25 years he had seen everything but never mating leopards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The magnificence of watching these beautiful and wild creatures doing what is so perfectly natural was totally absorbing. But it was when your focus left them that you slowly became aware that surrounding this small bit of rough bush were at least 50 safari trucks all with numerous people with huge telephoto lenses. I felt shameful, despite the leopards being uninterested in us humans. I was part of it and wouldn\u2019t have missed it for the world, but felt perhaps that the price I\u2019d paid was the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018A mesmerising spectacle by the watering hole\u2019<\/p>\n

\"TimesLiz Flack and her husband Peter at Deadvlei in Namibia<\/p>\n

Liz Flack, 72, Devon<\/p>\n

When in Namibia after a month of seeing Botswana and Zambia on guided tours, we took to the road ourselves. We had done our preparations and as two retired adventurers set off for 17 days. We had booked hotels and lodges around our chosen route and made sure we had plenty of time between stops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While staying in Etosha National Park for three nights in some very mediocre accommodation, we were told we wouldn\u2019t see \u201cvery much\u201d wildlife in the middle of the day, but nevertheless we went off to explore each day. One day we called into a watering hole car park and sat watching the usual suspects: wandering giraffes, zebras and gazelles as well as a huge mass of small birds. We realised we were the only folks around as all other cars had moved on because things were as quiet as we\u2019d been warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At that point I looked far to our right. About 300 yards away, I thought I saw something coming out of the bush. \u201cPeter, elephant!\u201d I said. \u201cAnd another!\u201d Lo and behold, we managed to count a herd of 39 elephants all heading towards us and the watering hole yards in front of our van. We sat utterly mesmerised watching mums, babies, a herd of all sizes and ages, drinking, playing and loving the water as much as these two astounded humans, who couldn\u2019t believe their eyes.<\/p>\n

Do you have any memories to add? Please share them in the comments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lying on a camp bed under a mosquito net in a clearing, a lion grunting somewhere nearby (\u201cI\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-731021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}