The scary part about this particular day with this elephant, was that we had passed the elephant going in the opposite direction, and we knew he was an irritated elephant in musth. Musth is a normal periodic condition in bull elephants, characterized by a large rise in reproductive hormones, temporal drainage, and dribbling/trickling of urine. Musth is not a disease or ailment, and therefore, there is no "cure." If a bull elephant goes into musth, it actually means he is healthy.
We got about 100 yards down the road, and it was washed out from the previous rainstorm and floods. We turned around and started heading back only to come around that infamous corner, only to find that bully waiting for us! And as you can tell, he was not messing around. He definitely wanted our lunch money. As we started to approach him on the return trip, he didn't hesitate and just started to come toward us in a slow motion but forceful way, as if to say, "Are you back for more?" Obviously, we had to assess the situation quickly as we backed up around the corner again. It was quiet, and you could hear a pin drop in the vehicle. Our Safari guide reached down into the side of his door panel and pulled out a large machete… I immediately thought, "Are we going to have to fight this beast with our bare hands and a machete?" 😳
As we crept forward and eased our way around the corner, there he stood, boldly and with conviction, as if he was taunting us and saying, "I dare you to come back here again." But, of course, we had no choice as we had no exit strategy and nowhere to turn. All of a sudden, the vehicle was moving forward with brisk intention as our guide moved the vehicle forward with a slow but powerful force, almost as if a firm and steady push was forcing us towards the beast. You could feel the tension in the air and cut it with a machete 😂 (pun intended). The engine was revving, and he was banging on the side of the vehicle with the machete, which made a very shrieking metal-to-metal sound. I'm not sure if it was the guide, but somebody was bursting out quick breaths of a whistle, almost sounding like an angry bird. However, that didn't stop the bully as he continued forward, now flapping his ears, which is a sign of aggression. He followed that with laying his trunk up and over one tusk, as if to tell us he was going to whip us with one swipe of the backhand! He continued to charge forward as we firmly and diligently moved ahead as well. He then stopped abruptly, flapping his ears again and moving his trunk from one tusk to another, as if pondering his next move. 🤔
He then decided he wanted it and started moving forward once again with his brute force, and all of the weight on one foot at a time. You could feel the ground shake. And then he paused again, but as we kept driving forward with all of our noise and agitated sounds, I believe that we were showing a force to be reckoned with. In a split second, he turned and ran into the bushes, and his cohort, who was directly behind him, thought it would be amusing to take his shot, but then he too turned and jaunted his buddy into the depths of the greenery.