• 10 months ago
A visually impaired traveler journeys through the wilds of Zimbabwe and discovers a side of the safari experience that very few know. This story is a part of the Travel Tales podcast series: https://www.afar.com/traveltales

Read this story on afar.com: https://rebrand.ly/pz91nzb

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Category

🏖
Travel
Transcript
00:00 I came to Zimbabwe to present a challenge to my safari guide.
00:03 How could a blind man such as myself connect to the unseen sights of an unseen place?
00:09 A few hours in, I'd only heard rumors of a giraffe and nursed a beer.
00:13 Suddenly, Alan's hand clamped my shoulder. We were surrounded by bush and shadow and something else.
00:19 Something not giraffe. His hand pivoted me around aiming my attention like a satellite dish.
00:25 "Elephant," he whispered, "25 meters away." I strained to hear it.
00:29 "15 meters away," he whispered, "10 meters away."
00:32 Then I could hear it. The faintest sound. The plodding of a three-ton bull.
00:37 An elephant's unstructured foot expands with every step, making this dispirited squish like you're spiking a semi-deflated football.
00:45 It lumbered towards us, deciding whether to charge. Then...
00:54 It shuffled off into the forest and was gone. Well, Alan Chirp, that doesn't happen every day.

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