"I didn't scream and yell and flail my arms like I usually do because it always seems so violent. I did stand there and try to get her to stop, but she was already within a few meters of me. When she was at about a meter and a half I decided that she wasn't going to stop, and I turned and ran.
"I tripped on some bushes in the sand and fell, knowing full well that she was bearing right down on me. I turned to face her, and she was already over me and about half way down the trajectory to sticking her tusks through my chest."
Coming in for the Kill
The elephant was coming in for the kill, he said, when he turned to face her. With the tusks only a foot (0.3 meter) or so away from his chest, Fay caught them, one in each hand, and used them to get out of their way. "I wasn't actually controlling her movements. I was controlling my movements, doing a pretty good job of keeping those tusks away from vital parts," he said.
The elephant went on to its knees and tried to roll on top of Fay, repeatedly trying to stab him with her tusks. "She missed that first stab and her tusks were sticking in the sand four inches [10 centimeters] from my head…and then when she tried to roll on me I thought, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to be squished,'" Fay said.
Fay said he felt as if he was in a bad dream "where I couldn't get traction and I was for those microseconds thinking I was going to get tusked in the back, but she retreated and I was alive."
He held on to the tusks as long as he could to leverage himself out of the way. He estimates the elephant made about 15 attempts to stab him.
Fay may have been saved by members of his group who had come back to yell and throw a backpack at the elephant. After retrieving his glasses from the sand, the group escorted Fay several miles on foot to a camp from which he was evacuated by air to Libreville for medical assistance. The aircraft took off in the dark with the runway illuminated by truck lights.
Fay said this was not the most violent encounter he'd had with an elephant, although it was the first time he had been in physical contact with one in the wild. "I have had situations where I have been more frightened.
"But my feelings towards elephants hasn't been changed by this experience. If you know animals and their behavior, you know how to combat their tendencies when they're getting aggressive. You are still safe.
"But it will be interesting to see what my reactions will be in future when I meet elephants. I don't know that I'll be nearly as engaging as I've been in the past."
More on the Megatransect from Nationalgeographic.com:
Congo Trek: A Journey Through the Heart of Central Africa
Congo Trekking With the World's Most Adventurous Explorer
More on the Megatransect from National Geographic magazine online:
Megatransect I
With photo gallery and field notes by photographer Michael "Nick" Nichols: Go >>
Megatransect II
With photo gallery , field notes, audio, and video: Go >>
Megatransect III
With photo gallery , field notes, audio, and video: Go >>
Sights & Sounds from Megatransect Across Africa
Multimedia presentation of the megatransect: Go >>
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