On most Compassion trips that we go on, there's usually a day or two that you take time to have a cultural experience. In the Philippines we went scuba diving in the ocean. In Uganda we went to the Nile river.
So in Kenya we went on a safari on the Masai Marra National Game Reserve. If you've ever seen the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth, it's the place they shot the great migration of wildebeest. Needless to say, it's amazing.
When you go on these safaris you ride around in these big 4-wheel drive jeeps. They're actually like big pickups with stadium seating in the bed. We had a sweet guide who had been leading safaris for 11+ years. His name was Joseph. He knew everything about everything. He had tons of stories. It was really sweet cause all of the guides in all of the different trucks have CB radios so they're in constant contact with each other about what's happening where. So when one guide finds the lions, he tells the other guides and everyone knows where everything is.
We saw lions, water buck (my fav), baboons, elephants, giraffes, zebras, African buffaloes, antelopes, hyenas, and abunch of other stuff I don't remember the name of.
You have to keep in mind, these are open air jeeps. If a lion wanted to eat you, there's nothing stopping him from dragging you out of the jeep. Nothing. However, the animals see these vehicles so much, they've gotten used to them, so they're not afraid and more or less uninterested with them. This is what allows you to get so unbelievably close to wild animals. The guides don't sweat it. But you can be sure it's a little unnerving when you're 12 feet from a lion, the engine's off, and he looks pretty hungry. Because in the back of your mind you can't forget that lions are killing machines.
So now that you get the picture, here's one of the two best stories from that day:
We had just got the word that a female rhino and her 11 month old baby were moving across one of the fields. While we were on the way to see these rhinos, Joseph told us a story about one time when a rhino attacked on of the vehicles. The story was terrifying. Basically, the rhino put it's horn through the drivers door, into his femur (shattering it), and lifted him out of his seat while ripping the door off. He explained that after this incident the driver lost his job because he didn't follow the Game Reserve's distancing rules. Then the story oddly ended there because we had arrived where the rhinos were.
The rhinos were awesome - huge, tough, strong, awesome - all that. The mother had this huge scar on her shoulder, and Joseph said he was there when she got the scar. It was from when she had been in a fight with a lion, and killed it.......The rhinos are walking in a straight line across this field that has alot of shrubs and bushes everywhere. Joseph is slowy keeping up with them for a few minutes. Then he pulls ahead of where they are walking, and cuts off the engine. They're walking towards us, right towards us. Then finally the mom notices us she stops and kind of give us a second take. Lucky for you, I started rolling the camera at that moment. Here's the video:
Roger pee'd his pants. Ben cried him self to sleep for the next two nights, Bo called his mother on the satellite phone immediately, and I had to change my diaper.
Here's what you're seeing and hearing: She stops, Joseph tries to start the Jeep, the sound of the engine pisses her off, and she comes running towards us huffing and puffing on the way. Joseph quits, she stops, Bo stars crying.
It was awesome. Here's some of Eric's photos from the safari.
2 comments:
I peed nothing
yes you did, Roger. don't lie.
and i had to change my diaper.
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