What I noticed first was the silence. I was traveling in an open-top Land Rover in a game reserve in Hluhluee, South Africa, and my guide brought the Rover to a quiet stop, killing the engine. As the rattle of the vehicle died away there was hardly any other sound, until without warning a herd of elephants broke through the bush 100 feet in front of the Rover. They were huge and serene, darker in color than I expected, with piercingly intelligent eyes, traveling quickly across the rough path in front. It seemed to be family units, larger elephants surrounding smaller ones, and they were so big that up close it looked as if their legs were moving in slow motion, but in reality they were covering ground very quickly. It was over before I knew it, and gradually the sounds of the bush crept back into life. An amazing, vocabulary-defying experience.
