Page 44 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

The bare but startling beauty of the landscape resembles the moon more than earth, and

the Elephants themselves seem to have emerged from the land. In Damaraland as in

Thula Thula, it became possible to focus on particular members of the herd. Following

their lead when we came upon them, rather than our inclinations, we repeatedly found

ourselves in the presence of a great bull Elephant. Only on our return home, at the

airport in Frankfurt, did we realize that this great bull had dominated the landscape on

the last day we had spent in Damaraland the year before. He had been posed like a

sentinel on a rocky incline at the entrance to the lines of trees and desert springs along

the sand river.

We had stayed with him for almost an hour, mesmerized. This year, the same; whenever

he appeared, we gave ourselves up to him. Without acknowledging us, he silently

directed us to stay and we did for long periods of time. The first day, we were parked

below an earthen bank where a female was feeding on a tree when he appeared and

displaced her. Though we remained with him, there was no indication that he was aware

of or interested in us.

Again in our presence, the second day, he approached two young bulls who were trying

to topple a tree. He advanced as an elder, demonstrated the right technique for grazing

on trees and leaned against it so as to instruct them properly.