Out of Africa: Part 10 (Continued - A) – Full Day of Debriefing, Reflection and Relaxation

On my recent trip to Africa, I disciplined myself to keep a daily journal of what transpired and how I felt about it. These entries are from that journal.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Experience #2 – On Safari and Animal Reflections

The next couple of journal excerpts will be focused on the fun part of the trip – the excursion into the world of the jungle. This is every man’s Disneyland! For the non-nature lovers, I simply say, “Good-bye.” For those interested in the wildness of nature, I hope this is interesting and possibly enlightening. Remember I am not a zoologist. For the most part these are just facts the locals shared with me.

The day for me began by getting up at 5:30 am to prepare for a 6:15 am departure on a game drive. This in itself was an incredible experience. I have been on two already since we were living right beside the Masai Mara, but this one allowed us to see three animals that we had not seen yet. We were able to see hippos, crocodiles and lions for the first time. You cannot appreciate the incredible creative nature of God by seeing these animals in a zoo – although I have no problem with that. But, there is something about being 100 – 200 feet from these animals that cannot be described.

We saw lots of young. It is spring here, so it is mating season. Enough said. Dogs, chickens . . . fights.

Hippopotamus – A hippopotamus is absolutely huge. Words do not do these incredible animals justice. You do not realize until they get out of the water and are standing 50 feet from you. Here is an interesting fact: a hippo is one of the most dangerous animals in the wild when you begin to talk about Human Wildlife Conflict. More humans are killed each year by hippos in this region than any other animal I was told. Since they hang out near the water, where humans come and they are often invisible to the human eye, they come in contact with humans a lot. Hippos do not like humans. They will chase a human simply for the purpose of killing them. They are very fast for an animal their size. (Almost everything with four legs will outrun things on two legs.) Once a hippo charges you, you very well could be a goner if you are not in a vehicle or holding a weapon. They have these enormous teeth that they simply gore you with. Masai warriors are known for killing hippos. Where we stayed the previous four nights there is one killed every year in the dry season searching for water. The Masai warrior has deadly accuracy with their spear. They also can run incredibly fast, jump incredibly high, and climb with amazing skill and speed. This allows them to be able to kill this extremely dangerous animal when need be.

Baboons – They live right outside our hotel. There are warnings in your hotel that if you leave the doors to your “balcony” open and food visible a baboon will come in your room. They are very intelligent and can open the door if you do not lock it as well. Two pastors last year left their door open when they left once with some snacks on the table, only to come back and find baboons in their room. They are strong and dangerous, so this is not good. There is an emergency button to push outside of our room. It lists two reasons to push the emergency button. The first is fire; the second is wildlife in your room. Enough said.

Oh, as I was writing this a baboon just ran by my door. He looked in at me and started to come in until he saw me! The three guys in the next room just squealed like schoolgirls.