A B.C. woman who recently took her South African husband on a “Canadian safari” in the Rockies says the pair’s up-close encounter with a massive moose was quite literally breathtaking. Kellie Paxian, who is from Vancouver, has a passion for wildlife and travel. She spends most of her time in South Africa where she runs a business that specializes in safaris, bringing her into close contact with elephants, lions and leopards. But the Rockies have a “special place in her heart” and she wanted to share them – and hopefully some of the quintessentially Canadian creatures that roam their forests – with her husband Matt last weekend. On previous trips to Jasper National Park, she’d had luck spotting moose while driving down Maligne Lake Road around sunrise. This year, she was worried her luck had run out when she and her husband didn’t see anything on their slow drive down the 45-kilometre stretch. “I was kind of like, ‘Damn, I lost my chance. Where’s our safari?’” she told CTV News. But then she turned the car around. “I just see this majestic creature coming out of the mist, walking towards me through the fog. I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s a moose.’ And it was a proper moose – a male moose with its antlers – and it was just moving very slowly and comfortably down the road.” She pulled the car over, not wanting to frighten the moose, thinking she and her husband would be lucky to catch a glimpse of the animal from a safe distance before it ran into the forest. In retrospect, Paxian says she would have closed the car’s window, but in the moment, she had no inkling what would happen next. “He wasn’t threatened or scared at all. He just seemed kind of curious and came right up to our car. He was so close that I didn’t want to startle him,” she recalled. “We essentially just held our breath for the minute that this was taking place. He came up and started licking the side mirror. Then he started licking our door, and the next thing you know, he was sticking his head into the car, sticking his snout in, kind of intrigued by the air vent. I still haven’t washed the car. I just have this moose slobber on it now. It was just absolutely incredible.” She thinks the moose was attracted by the salt accumulated on the car over the winter, which would explain the licking. Paxian says the pair drew upon their experience on safari and stayed calm and still while the moose explored the vehicle and waited until it seemed safe to drive away. “It was definitely a really once-in-a-lifetime moment,” Paxian said, adding that the Canadian safari she promised her husband defied all expectations. “I was just hoping to show him a moose in general, let alone have one basically sit on his lap. I think he was very taken by surprise. We were just so awestruck. I think he was just soaking it in at that moment. And then he exhaled after.”
