Safari!

 A hippo honks a guttural tone – the lowest note of a tuba register. And the ground shakes if you are close enough. Interesting fact– they won’t attack you if you are having dinner at a table set alongside the Shire (sheer-ee) River in the grassy area they retreat to when not in the water as long as there is a fire roaring and a guide with a flashlight making sure they don’t charge the shore. (Or that’s what they told us!) That’s where I was last night.

This past weekend, we had a short work-retreat getaway at a “this is what you dream of when you dream of African Safari weekends” resort. The first week of the season after the rains, it’s very green and lush, making it very clear why they call it “the bush.” We rode the 3-row roadster for four hours in the morning and then another 4 in the evening for two days. It’s a bumpy sort of affair: those with slipped disks or coccyx pain, best not consider. This is serious business.

To reach the resort, we started by crossing this bridge. It spans a river and links the rooms and restaurant to the rest of the park. Every time we went out into the bush for another safari, we had to cross. Yes, it does get easier with practice but also requires the summoning of a great sense of invincibility! It's very high.

And woah, what an experience. Here are some photos that I took on my iphone. 

Some things that I learned:

• Waterbucks are about the most foul-smelling animal you can imagine. This is to keep the lions away. But…if a lion is hungry, it will eat anything.

• The golden orb spider’s web is so strong that it is integrated into bulletproof vests– it has a tensile strength greater than steel.

• Elephants behave like 2 year olds. Knocking trees over that block the paths of safari vehicles and making messes in the mud

• Hippos are surprisingly fast on land. If you are blocking the path of where they want to go, they will tear you in two. But they won’t eat you. They are herbivores.

• A baboon’s print in the sand looks like a small child’s handprint

• Elephants are afraid of bees– if they fly into their ears, the elephant can’t get them out. So beehives are used in many preserves to help keep the elephants inside. They won’t get near a hive.

And if you’ve made it this far, I shall reward you with a set of Haikus that I wrote as a way to absorb fully this Fantasy-Island worthy experience:

Sunrise Safari

Dew-cloyed heavy air

Ethereal webs glistening

And the sun rises

Shire River

Particles Racing

Frothy crests chasing downward

Boulders dividing

Thanks for reading:)