I'm Norman Perry. I went to the Middle East to work, met my wife, Revian, there.
I'm Vivian Perry. In the summer of 1974, my husband Norman and I were living in Tanzania,
working, building a transmission line across the country.
His daughters, Nikki and Shelley, came out to spend the summer with us from England.
We decided to take them on a trip to Macombie.
We were driving through the game park and there was this big gully.
And I decided to put it in four-wheel drive.
We didn't realise that it wasn't in the proper four-wheel drive and we got totally stuck in this black mud like blue.
We could see where lions and elephants had come down into this gully.
All we had for defence was a pickaxe handle.
They spot that.
Not even a pickaxe headed along.
And so I decided that my wife would stay with the vehicle and I would go back,
15 kilometres back to the entrance to get help.
And suddenly I notice I'm in this big open area.
There's this elephant about 100 metres out there.
An elephant charges at you and they do three fourths charges.
And then the fourth time they're after you.
I'm looking for a tree and there are no trees.
Suddenly the elephant raises up and comes down.
What's going to happen? What am I going to do?
And I suddenly think I can take my clothes off and maybe the elephant will stomp on that and not on me.
And it goes up again.
Down, run some more. It's getting closer.
I can't back up fast enough.
The whole atmosphere just seemed really ominous at that point.
I wouldn't let the girls get out of the vehicle.
I thought that there might be parasites in the mud and I started making up all sorts of stories
to keep everybody calm and entertained.
I told about every little fairy tale I could think of.
And it goes up for the fourth time and it's...
And it comes down and starts for me.
And just then a vehicle comes around the corner and it hammers on the horn
and the elephant turns away from me and follows it.
I'm wondering, oh, I hope they come back for me.
So it comes all the way around and eventually stops in front of me.
And it's a Swiss guy. Works for Nestles.
And his Philippine wife.
His Malaysian wife.
And relatives in this station wagon.
Norman, who's back again?
We're driving down and then suddenly on the right-hand side are these what they call a mototo.
Little baby elephants. So you know there's parents around.
Slowly trying not to disturb any...
And suddenly the elephant's coming.
So it takes off as fast as it can.
And I've got to tell you that elephant came within six feet on the back of the vehicle.
And we're going screaming around this pathway.
And suddenly we take the sharp end and there's an elephant right there and it rises up.
It just seemed like they're rearing over the Land Rover.
And I tell you, we went underneath in front of it.
We drove off down to the entrance and we went to Makumi Lodge and had a great restful evening.
Thank you for watching.
