Safari not so good!
Don't let the title fool you, we are all good! We just had, well, let's call it "a day". Our day started with a wake up around 5:45 am. We woke the boys up, went to grab a coffee and hot chocolate and then set out in our safari vehicle for our full day game drive. While we were at the camp, our guide could hear some lions roaring in the distance. He told us we are going to see what they are up to this morning. Within 5-10 minutes of leaving the camp, we get stuck in a huge mud hole. Let me remind myself and everyone exactly where we are staying - a tented camp in the middle of the central Serengeti. Our guide tries multiple things to get us out of this mud pit - giant rocks under the tires, he picks tall grass to provide better traction/etc - when all fails he decides to radio the camp for help. No one at the camp answers. He tries again, and again, and again, and again and still, no one answers. Surely, someone will drive around here... Well, someone does pass by from the main road and either didn't see us or didn't want to get involved in our mud mess. Daniel, our kind guide/driver, says to us "are you ok if I leave you alone and walk to the main road to ask for help". Let me give you the picture of our vehicle - complete open air, no doors or windshield with only a canvas roof. Paul hesitantly says, "yes, we will be ok". He walks away for a minute and then comes back because the lions are too close and will come if they see him walking. This is reassuring. We try the radio again, we try a different station, we try "Ranger Ranger emergency", we try calling from our non-working cell phone. NOTHING. We watch the hot air balloons take off, float around as the sun rises and then land. We sit for at least an hour and half (most of which is at dawn when the animals are most active) waiting. Paul decides to climb on top of the roof of our safari vehicle to flag down cars from the distant main road. Many pass by and either don't see us or don't care. Finally, someone comes down to help! The poor guy tries and tries and almost gets his safari vehicle stuck. At this point, 4-6 other SUV's are here to help us! We get a different 4x4 to pull us out and finally we are able to get out of the mud! Yahooooo! Let the day start now!