PART II, THE GREAT KRUGER PARK SAFARI (THE SURVIVAL PART)

The time had passed so quickly (not so much for Ron and her protege Ange) that before we knew it, the afternoon was waning and a late afternoon glow of sunlight now shone thru the bushes. It’s time to get home. Of course the first turn we make, we see a leopard sitting on a huge rock, just off the road, sunning herself. We are so shocked that we squander another few minutes looking at her. Ok now we must go. Hold it, what’s that. My god it’s a lion walking in the grass along the side of the road. Two of the big five in the space of 20 minutes. Now the animals all start coming out of the bush to lay on the hot road and toast themselves before nightfall.

They are all over the place, but as you approach them they slowly move off to the side. I’m sure they are thinking “what is this idiot doing out here at this time”. Now we are within minutes of missing the curfew at the compound. A sense of panic starts to fall over me. My usual icy demeanour is starting to splinter, and an occasional “darn it” slips out. We are lost, well I mean to say, that, I am just as lost, as I have ever been. Apparently it was not Deysi’s fault, whatsoever. Now in the glimmering twilight comes the famous black lion travelling thru the bush looking pretty scary at near dark. A very rare sight indeed. Oh well a couple of more minutes. By this time it is too dark for a picture.

We drive, take a left, take a right, go back, come around and like a well tuned GPS I take us to the gates of the compound. They are locked. There is a surly guard in the guard shack, who grunts at my cheerful greeting, picks up his handset and babbles something incoherent into it, at about 100 miles an hour. He then opens the gate, and there in all their glory, are two trucks, loaded with park rangers and their trackers. They were just getting ready to set out after us. They were pretty agitated. Each, with visions of a full family, getting eaten by the wild animals, with them left to clean it up. We were met by a ranger who was less than happy with us.

We had probably wrecked his dinner plans with his buddies, and they were now all piled into trucks, looking equally as pissed as he was. Well he gave me a little bit, of a tongue lashing. I’m sure he was swearing at me, because every few words he broke off into Afrikaans and he turned a deeper shade of purple as he chewed off the words. I can tell you it was not “I’m so happy you are back safe and that the lions and hyenas didn’t eat you” or other such nurturing words. Anyway we were not going to be buddies I decide.

Back in our compound everyone was waiting for us and anxious to hear if I got my ass kicked by a big old park ranger. When they see that I hadn’t, I could sense a little disappointment in the air. We sat outside around a big fire and discussed the days touring. The others had stayed in their group and followed each other around like a Grand Prix race, each jockeying for the pole position. Well they never found even a part of what we found, and in a lot of instances, by the time the second or third car arrived, whatever they were looking at was gone.

Deysi filled them in on our conquests, while I smugly listened, looking wise like an old tracker. The camp attendants made us a first class camp dinner over an open fire while we sat around enjoying Africa. As always the food to us was exotic. The girls were exhausted, so along with the other children, went off to bed. The adults sat around a huge fire, inside a high wire and steel fence and soaked up the atmosphere. Some soaked up the beer. I was into my 5th year, at that time, of being the DD, so enjoyed my 20th coke of the day.

The sights and sounds were wonderful. It was pitch black around us, not an artificial light within 100 miles and it was silent. Deysi saw, for her first time in her life, Fireflies flitting around in little bursts of light, landing on her arm and lighting up a tiny spot for an instant. She was fascinated. Outside of the perimeter of the compound and only a few feet away was Africa.

It was like a Tarzan movie only we had a high fence around us. You could hear the animals walking up and down the fence line. You could feel the deep vibration of the male lion’s grunt. The laugh of a hyena, growling of wild dogs and shrieking of some weird and wonderful bird, all combined together and all looking at a chance to have a bite of us. Magic is a poor word, however that is as close as our language can get us, to describing this scene.