Page 57 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing

Namibia to visit the desert elephants. We wished to know if the Ambassador and

his herd were singularly in relationship with us, or whether we might have similar

contacts with different elephants in other places. We were always careful about

whom we invited to join us on such a pilgrimage and wondered if the elephants

would contact us when we were in trucks driven by guides from the area. New

rules were being enforced in Chobe National Park. We were no longer able to

enter without a guide and even Lynne, the local woman guide, was working

under unwieldy restrictions. This visit would test whether we could overcome the

greater obstacles to meeting the Ambassador and whether the meetings would

be confirming for us and convincing for Lynne and our other guide, Matt Meyers,

from South Africa, who had been Head Ranger and Head Photographic Ranger

at MalaMala, adjacent to Kruger National Park, one of the first private reserves in

South Africa. If the connections with the Ambassador or with elephants were to

have impact, they would have to be acknowledged by people who had expertise

in the wild.

For our own purposes, we had to find guides who could listen, who would agree

to spend two to three hours in silent meditation each afternoon at the Chipungo

tree. The guides at the other reserves would have to agree to spend long

periods of time in silence without driving and to allow me to direct our activities as

long as there was no evident sign of danger. The usual patterns is for all tourist

vehicles to converge when there is a sighting -- a leopard, a kill, a rare animal.

Then each truck may only be allotted five or ten minutes of primary viewing area

before it has to yield its place to others or speed away to see a herd of buffalo, a

pack of wild dogs, or a mother cheetah and her cubs. Both Matt and Lynne were

very happy to have the afternoon to sit and watch what appeared to us over time

instead of chasing around the veldt.

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