“I was sleeping outside on the lawn of the house in the Drakensberg where our family used to regularly go for our winter holidays. The house…is very isolated, has no electricity, and is very rustic but also very comfortable… I like to sleep outside there even though it’s very cold in winter, but I usually sleep on the veranda and not on the grass. This time I slept on the grass though, and I woke up in the very early morning with the sudden awareness that something big was near me. It ran away immediately as I moved, and I saw that it was an eland bull, and that it had been standing or grazing right next to me. It didn’t go far, and I stayed awake as the dawn gradually broke, watching the great noble beast feeding from the ouhout trees around the edge of the garden, and eating the previous night’s charcoal from the braai. I felt deeply honoured to have been so close to this animal, especially as I have always regarded them as somewhat mystical, and can fully appreciate the Bushmen’s deep respect for them. I also felt that this experience was somehow very meaningful, perhaps symbolising the natural world reaching out to me in some way, but I didn’t analyse it too deeply.”
Story submitted by “Sally”
Image: Matthew Zylstra
(Note the image of the eland was not captured as part of “Sally’s” story but at another location.)
Image: Matthew Zylstra
(Note the image of the eland was not captured as part of “Sally’s” story but at another location.)
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