How to piss off an elephant!

Still February 9th 2020

No one showed up for breakfast...I mean the elephants didn’t.
So we went on our merry way riding north.
Soon after this video

we saw a few of those giants hanging around the road, scratching their backs on a tree.....walking about.... After yesterdays amazing show at the lodge’s waterhole we felt quite comfortable around them even though at the lodge there were some barriers where elephants can’t go: Several rows of little concrete pyramids on the ground with a nice pointy piece of rebar sticking out of the top, keeps those animals away from the main hangout/restaurant/bar and the bathrooms around the campsites.

Though in general it’s ”the elephant’s right of way” - give them space and don’t piss them off or be in the way...especially the paths to the waterhole.
It’s lovely to see them roam around so freely.
On the road -we were told - if we see them crossing - slow down or even stop  and let them do their thing before continuing on your way.
The trucks and local busses (not very many, I might add) don’t seem to have gotten that memo, because they hardly slow down and the bus who passed us -after I had taken the above video - had the tenacity to honk at one humongous male who had stopped 3/4 of the way across the highway scratching his hind leg. The giant hurried to get off the road after being honked at (later we heard that they are scared of trucks/busses) and we thought he was long gone when we reached that same spot quite a few minutes later.....but, nope, he was behind a bush right next to the road. We slowed down, but it was too late......we surprised him........ being surprised ourselves...He swung around facing us, visibly irritated, trumpeting, shaking his head and flopping his ears..stepping back onto the road taking a few steps towards us...James and I both froze...we should be backing up..at least we stopped ..but the animal started to cross the road back again and stood in the middle ...still facing us..we didn’t even know where to back up to...just facing him...time froze. My knees got soft, my heart was pounding..... facing our fate while this giant kept moving around us angrily, making angry elephant noises. And, of course, no truck,  no bus, no car...nobody came to our rescue! It was only matter of minutes, but it seemed like a life time when he finally moved parallel to us along the other edge of the road and then into the bushes, while I thought that whole scene would have been a great photograph/video, but -sorry-I was too busy crapping my pants!
This is a video clip when I took a shower and peeked out the back of the bathhouse in the lodge before hitting the road that day.