Let the adventure begin

And so began the adventure. Packed and ready to go the ‘Neighbour of the Year’ Wendy Lowe deposited me, bags in tow, at Mom’s. Lunch at Rita’s done we said our goodbyes, instructions forthcoming I set off. My niece dropped me at the airport, we had a great natter and then nek minnit I was away, safely on my way to Sydney where I had a five hour break.

Armed with entertainment for the journey as I seldom watch on board stuff but something made me check it the entertainment anyway. As if they knew!  

Here I was heading back to my favourite continent where the wildlife, the people and the vistas kept tugging at my sleeve telling me it is time to go back. And here I was checking out the on board entertainment and out of the screen pop the words “Serengeti”; a BBC Series.  How could I not watch? Even though I am not doing much in the way of big wildlife this trip, where the main animal attraction is gorillas, I still had to watch. So here I am watching the most amazing series in flight. 

It might have been a small screen but I could reach out and touch those babies, feel the lion’s pulse and the blood dripping from his mouth, smell the grass, hear the roars and feel the mothers pain when her new born was killed by its father. I could feel the flies landing on my face, swatting them as the mother lion did. The grunts from the male lion reberverated in my headphones. That water buffalo that just popped up out of the water and gave chase had me gasping for the next breath, not taken again till I knew the lion cubs were safe. 

The on screen fight between the beautiful cheetah and the maned lion took me back to the Timbavati where, safe in our safari truck with the heavily armed tracker on the dickey seat at the front, we laughed when we were sat between the cheetah and the lion. How cool we thought while watching the tracker with that gun at the ready. It wasn’t till the lion walked off and the tracker breathed a sigh of relief that he explained that we were in real danger. A fight could have erupted at any moment and he had his gun ready to fire if it got out of hand. 

I held my breath again when the elephant was charging towards me, off that tiny screen and into my seat bellowing, flapping its ears and raising its trunk. It reminded me of the real life encounters I’d had with charging elephants; once where the ranger diffused the elephants musth fed charge by tapping on the side of the truck and the second time when I forgot to turn off my flash one night and really pee’d off the resident matriarch who chased us with horns blowing  and tusks almost inside the truck. Bea, Helga, Sue may remember. 

I got a thrill when I heard the animals called by name and remembered when we first met “Mickey’s cubs”, the two lion cubs we got to know, or “Nashipai”, the lioness that was collared while we were at Naboisho and the elephants which we learned to recognise from their tusk and ear markings. 

I saw the wildebeest heading for the Mara and knew that they would hover there till the rains came when they would have a pow wow and head back over the river in their thousands, risking life and limb as the did so. I remembered the lion, who was hiding in the bushes, taking down the wildebeest, which had managed to safely get past the crocs, as it set foot on the Serengeti side of the river. I’m sure I saw that same bush on the screen. 

I could feel the leopard jumping down from the tree and taking down a ‘Big Mac’, ‘cause I was there!!!  Real life I saw all of this. 

This was far different to the real life experience that I had in the Serengeti which, like most public reserves, was full of tourist vans where we all stuck to the bitumen roads and lined up to view the animals, peering over the top of those that got there first.  Far from the real experiences of the private reserves or Naboisho where there are no roads and the few vehicles go wherever the animals are. It makes me a little sceptical about the last part of my trip that will include some time in popular public places but oh well. 

But I was in seventh heaven and my adventure hadn’t even started. 

Sadly my next flight did not come with such amazing entertainment but provided a more frustrating side of life with delays, random organisation and generally a good deal of disbelief thrown in. Nevertheless Doha was soon under my feet and soon it was time to board for an uneventful and unremarkable flight into Athens. 

I was soon reunited with my Bro and a little later got to see my nephew, his wife and adorable wee Victor who we even got to baby sit for later in the week. Not sure who enjoyed it most, the wee man or us grown kids. 

But for a bit, it was time to spend with my big Bro.  The week went by all too quick but still we had time to catch up with some cousins and I managed some time hanging out in my old haunts, even managing to buy a small statue that I regretted buying last time round. 

Saturday morning Greek time saw us following the big game on audio. My attempts at linking in to a vpn and snatching a live video view were wasted but still we got the idea and like most kiwis were left very disappointed at the outcome.  Eddie’s team just too good for us on the day; we will never hear the end of it now.