I still have to pinch myself sometime, that I am here. Never in my life would I ever have imagined a life in East Africa. A visit to the park here is always different, and always amazing! In my homeland, there would be fields of cows or sheep-on this particular visit, it was zebras!
Three years ago, during my first visit to the park, two lions trotted alongside our vehicle. It was amazing!
This past week my work friend and I had opportunity to take a visiting guest to the local park.
After months of El Nino rains, the park was pretty flooded. We were so proud and confident in our driver, who was not so foolish as to get stuck! Can you imagine being outside of the vehicle and having to push your way out of the mud in a park with predators?
While witnessing a real “zebra crossing,” many prayers were going up, asking if the guest who was visiting from America would be able to see a lion. It was disappointing as we journeyed around each bend to see magnificent views but no lions.
Sometimes, we never know why our prayers are not answered. I had been praying for hours, “Bring a lion around the next corner!”
Then we got stuck in the deep mud, with no way out except to get out of the vehicle and push it backward out of the trench! We were too terrified to capture the event on our cameras, but if you can try to imagine me, my girl friend from work (who may or may not have been screaming the whole time!), and a 6-foot-4 American dude in his white vans pushing our safari vehicle out of the rut!
It worked! However, our safari driver took off like a crazy person so as not to get stuck in another rut, leaving us to have to run out of the way of the speeding vehicle, doing our best to avoid getting splashed by mud and all the while yelling for him to stop and pick us back up! Yes, this is a park usually with an abundance of predators such as crocodiles, hippos, and LIONS!
After what seemed like an eternity, our driver finally stopped; we safely returned to the vehicle and thanked God that our prayers for lion sightings had not been answered!
Here are a few more captures from a day that we will never forget!
