Thank you Craig and Deidre for your awesome hospitality, Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2007.

Close Call

We went out one evening to look at the wildlife and came across a big male lion in the middle of the road. I was in the front seat of the jeep taking photos. Then he started roaring to the other lions to come to him. Wow that roar was loud and left me vibrating. Soon the whole pride came and all went to him. Then this big male got up and proceeded to come towards our jeep. My driver said do not make a move or sound. The big male and the other lions were sniffing the jeep.  I froze as I watched this big male come right towards me. It sounded like a steam train as I could hear his breath. I forgot my video was on and it let out a beep sound. He let out this huge roar right by me, I thought I was done for. He jumped on the bonnet and stared right at me. I was completely frozen and thinking I am going to die. Lucky for me my driver beeped the horn and this huge male leapt over the whole jeep and disappeared.

My driver said that was a close call. I drank a bit of South African wine when we got back to camp and we talked about it all night"Wow"

Monkey Bussiness 

i stayed at a safari lodge for 2 days and it had these little monkeys around living in the trees.I was told not to leave any doors and windowsc open and do not feed the monkeys. One day I noticed a little baby monkey following me, i decided to take a photo. As I was taking the photo it climbed on my back. It proceede to grab some food that was in my back pack. I tried to be careful but somehow the monkey got stuck on the strap of my bachpack. It started freaking out and punching me on my back. It felt like a adult was hitting me and I was grasping at this little monkey, all of a sudden it let out this high pitch scream and all the monkeys were racing for me.I didn't mean to throw the monkey but I was panicking as I was been chased by the whole tribe. I ran in the lodge and shut the door all the monkeys were outside making noises like a angry mob. The nexts day the sun was beaming hot I decided to open the kitchen window to let in fresh air. I forgot to close it and went on the jeep sightseeing. We came back for lunch and I saw  everyone was outside looking up in the trees. It was a bit of a commotion as the monkeys had trashed the lodge and taken the quest stuff like clothes  phones, food even shaving cream in the trees. The staff were trying to get the stuff back, but to no avail. Later that evening the lodge manager was saying some idiot left the kitchen window open and was looking for the person responsible. Lucky for me my ride turned up and I was out of there. The thing was the monkeys never trashed any of my stuff. "Hard case"

"Duke"  the great African  Bull elephant of Kruger National park, South Africa, 2007.