bigblueproject: Face To Face With An Elephant On A South African Road

I wanted to take a moment this morning to plug a cool project that I contributed a story too that I think a lot of you will really enjoy. It's called bigblueproject and the concept is simple, yet brilliant at the same time. The project's creator, Burkhard Gruess came up with the idea of soliciting contributions of photos and travel stories then connecting them to a location on a map. Visitors to the site are presented with a map of the world with pins planted in various places where someone's story took place. Clicking on the pin will bring up that story and a single image that corresponds to it.

Burkhard kindly asked me to submit a story back when bbp was still in its conceptual stages, but I had a difficult time finding an opportunity to put something together. He circled back around a few months ago and asked me for a submission again, and this time I could really see what he was building and quite frankly I was very impressed. I loved the concept and the stories and images that people were sharing were excellent.

Of course, now I was excited to be a part of the project but still had a difficult time finding a spare moment to put something together. Yesterday, Burkhard nudged me once again and having a bit of a lull in my schedule at the moment, I went to work on getting something together. He's already posted my photo and story today, which you'll find by clicking here.

My contribution to bigblueproject involves a run in I had with a big bull elephant while visiting Kruger National Park in South Africa a few years back. The massive creature was wandering down the center of one of the main roads and was none to happy to come across the minivan that I was riding in along with a group of other writers and our guide. If you've ever been in a vehicle that has been charged by a full grown male elephant, who happens to be looking for a girlfriend, you'll understand.

Anyway. I hope you enjoy the story and the bigblueproject.