“Do NOT under any circumstances exit the vehicle when you are on safari.”

I read this warning printed in bold letters and nodded in obvious agreement. Our Toyota 4×4 Land Cruiser bumped along through the dusty tracks of the Maasai Mara as elephants rumbled by close enough to touch and hyenas bared their teeth at us from the tall grass. We marveled at a leopard in a tree, spotted a black rhinoceros running in the distance (a rhinoceros runs fast!), saw Cape buffalo, and watched endless herds of wildebeest and zebras move across the plain. Inside the vehicle, it felt safe.

Then a small emergency developed: my wife announced that she was over-hydrated and needed an urgent stop.

Our safari driver, a polite older man, initially explained that it was forbidden to stop. But my wife made a convincing argument. Looking around carefully, he finally agreed, and drove off the road a bit into a grassy patch, and said, “Go quickly.”

The moment my wife stepped out of the Land Cruiser, my teenage son called out: “Ima, come back, there is a lion very close to you over there.”

I didn’t believe him, but, still, I poked my head out to check. You know how in the movies when someone’s face turns to sheer shock? Remember how in the first Jurassic Park when Sam Neill takes off his sunglasses and his eyes widen as he looks at a giant brachiosaurus for the first time? That was how I looked and felt just then.

Oh. My. God. I pointed and stuttered, “Honey, it’s… it’s a lion!” My wife was used to us making mischief and playing jokes, so she just told us........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)