WATCH There’s an Elephant in My Garden!
It’s not often you find an elephant in your garden, but a family who live in the Kruger National Park returned home on Sunday to discover they’d had an unexpected visit from an elephant while they were out! Fortunately, their neighbour managed to evict the uninvited guest, and film the incident. Watch below. Dutch expat, […]
It’s not often you find an elephant in your garden, but a family who live in the Kruger National Park returned home on Sunday to discover they’d had an unexpected visit from an elephant while they were out! Fortunately, their neighbour managed to evict the uninvited guest, and film the incident. Watch below.
Dutch expat, Linda, who has lived in the Kruger since 2014 explained on her blog’s facebook page Our Life in Kruger: “While we were out in Sunday, a naughty elephant pushed our gate open and helped himself to some of our greenery. (Marula season is over…). Our neighbor came to the rescue and chased the cheeky bull out.”
During Marula season, Linda’s two trees had produced “buckets and buckets” of fruit which she had used to make jelly, as well as sharing with the “ellies” so they “don’t break down our fence again…??”
An elephant never forgets, and on Sunday the bull probably presumed the trees still had fruit. When Linda got home, she thought the warthogs – who have learnt to slip between the gates – had got in again.
Linda said: “I had no idea what had transpired… I only saw some bare patches on our grass. I blamed the warthogs for that in some choice words when I saw them that afternoon. I guess I owe them an apology… ?? Video courtesy of our dear, brave neighbor!”
WATCH VIDEO: An elephant in our garden
Followers of the page have loved the video. “Just too funny for words. ??” said one. Another said it was the perfect “how to video and choice words to use when chasing an elephant”.
It brought back memories for Annatjie K who reminisced: “My dad used to put a 210 litre steel drum just inside the gate so we could hear when the elephants pushed it open, then he’d chase them out. Ruined the lawn. We miss those days!”
Colleen A joked “is that an elephant on your stoep” and Wanda H added “I thought stray cats were a nuisance!!!!”
There were also many classic South African comments like “give that neighbour a Bells!”
Our Life in Kruger
Our Life in Kruger is Linda’s blog about living in the Kruger with her trails ranger husband, Steven, and raising a family. Linda grew up in Holland, in The Netherlands, and first visited South Africa when she was a KLM cabin attendant.
On her blog, she says: “In 2014 I married the love of my life and moved to Kruger National Park to start a completely new life there. We have two small boys and one of the reasons I started this blog is to write down the stories of our life in Kruger for them. Not a lot of people can say they grew up in this beautiful wild place! I hope you enjoy the stories too!”
People clearly love her stories. She now has over 21,000 followers and in 2018 was the runner-up in an SA blog competition for Best Travel Blog.
Elephants and warthog aren’t their only visitors. In February, Linda’s husband woke her up one night to show her some lions “chilling right in front of our house”, the closest she had ever seen them.
Follow Our Life in Kruger:
- Website: http://ourlifeinkruger.co.za/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ourlifeinkruger