As I write this, I am sitting on the teak planked porch of the Safari tent that Danita and I are sharing at the Shinde Camp in the northern part of the Okavango Delta in Northern Botswana, Africa. Directly to my left is a giant termite mound which is around 9 feet tall. I am surrounded by 100 year old shade trees on all sides. Directly to my left is the safari tent where Teresa and Jana are staying. Straight in front of me is a clump of palmetto trees beyond which is a large sausage tree from which are hanging what looks like three large, white sausages as big as my forearm. The beautiful African savannah dotted with arching acacia trees across the horizon is the picture within the frame of the towering trees around me. It is breathtaking! Two little tree squirrels are playing at my feet. In the language of Setswana, they are called Shindi which is where the camp got its name. These are very small visitors compared to the one which came to our tents last night.

Just after supper around 9:30pm, our guide had walked us back to our tents (we are not allowed to leave the tent unaccompanied for any reason after dusk or before dawn for fear of meeting a large cat, hippo or elephant). We had no sooner closed the front door of our wooden framed tent when I heard this sound of thrashing in the bushes outside. I lifted up the tent flap and looked out the window. Vaguely in the darkness I thought I could make out the curved shape of a large white tusk. Yes!! It was 2 tusks belonging to the ancient male elephant which we had seen earlier far from here on our safari drive. I could see that Jana was shining the light of her flashlight on his luminous dark grey body as he reached his trunk down and twisted massive armfuls of tall grass and easily, but noisily plucked it up from its roots.

Oh my goodness, the elephant was right up against their tent only a foot away and just a few yards from my tent! At one point, he faced them with his massive head and spread his ears out and looked directly into their eyes through their screened window. He was not quite as tall as the peaked roof on their tent, but almost. We had been assured that if we remained in the tent, we would be completely safe. We had been told repeatedly that if we were ever confronted by a wild animal, we should remain calm and not make any sudden movements. The reason we were told not to come out in the dark, was that this would give the wild animal an advantage since they can see better than humans in the darkness.

As we breathlessly watched, the grass around their tent began to be diminished by his late night appetite. He recklessly lumbered around into the path where we had just walked searching for the delicious marula fruit which he knew fell on to the ground from the many marula trees in the camp. He went out of our view and we began to settle in for the night.

By this time it was 9:45pm and I was so tired. I had been up since 4:30am that morning with no nap. I had a decision to make—lay down and relax to the many sounds of the African wildlife and go in and out of sleep wondering what wild creature was outside my canvas walls? Or put my earplugs in and sleep like a baby under the pale mosquito net that surrounded my bed covered in white linens? To Danita’s surprise, I chose the latter. I put those earplugs in and I was out like a light (like the ones that went out when the generator was turned off at our camp at 10:00pm!)

This morning I awoke before dawn, refreshed and ready for 2 boat rides and a safari drive which were planned for the day. As we were picked up by our guide at 6:30am, the pale daylight was just beginning to filter through the trees. He asked, “Did you hear the hyena’s screeching loudly last night just outside your tent? No…. As we walked toward the dining tent, we saw a huge uprooted tree blocking our path. ”Did you hear the elephant knock down this tree by your tent last night?” No… We had to step up very high to get over the tree on the way to breakfast. We saw that the ground which had yesterday been covered by marula fruit was nicely cleaned up this morning. I thought to myself, “Jennifer, you made the right decision with the earplugs. Sometimes it’s better not to know!”