A Love Song for Africa: Blog #5: Hippos and Elephants and Monkeys…Oh My!

I just had the most breath-taking time of my life! Sally, Dan, my mom, dad and I are just now leaving the Bushman’s Baobab game park, where we stayed two days. It was an unforgetable experience to be up close and personal to all of God’s extraordinary creation!

You know the feeling -- you go to the zoo and wish you could be in there with the animals? (Well, some of them, that is.) That’s exactly what we did … except the animals weren’t locked up. It was so exhilarating to see nature in its basic environment. We say monkeys, warthogs (Yay!), waterbucks, impalas, elephants and hippos! Our adventure took place in a bumpy, rusty jeep with stadium-like seats that looked just like the vehicle in the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. I do admit it wasn’t the most comfortable ride, but it was definitely better than the one in Frontier Land!

I was especially looking forward to seeing the elephants. On our drive into the park, we had no luck with those little (big) gray rascals. Because of this, I prayed the whole way back that we could see at least one. And guess what God did? He answered my prayer and even gave us a bonus with not one, but many elephants! I was shaking with excitement at not only seeing the elephants, but knowing that God answered my prayer, right then and there!

The next morning we did something that I know I wouldn’t have the guts to do back in America. We ventured down the Shire River in leaking canoes that stayed afloat only because we continued to bail water out with buckets. Really! (We did not know about the leaks until we were well underway. Smart guides!). But the leaks wasn’t the worst part! The guides took us face-to-face with hippos -- about 15 feet away! I was so scared, I was shivering in the hot and humid sun. Could it get any worse? Yes! “I’ve heard there are crocodiles in this river,” my dad asked one of the guides. “Oh yes,” he smiled without concern. “They are all swimming right under us!” Yikes!

As we floated closer and closer to the hippos, they were guttural warnings and apparently trying to scare us off. At one point, a daddy hippo started swimming toward us! I thought I would faint ... But still, I am alive, and can honestly say this was the best experience ever!

PS - At night while we were trying to sleep in our thatched roof huts, a hippo was trampling and shuffling around right outside our door!