A Living Savannah

I'VE waited all my life for this trip. And now this? Frustration drove me up the wall by the second. A Themba Safari guide were to pick me up at 5am from the front entrance of the game lodge in Hoedspruit that I was staying at. By 6.30am, we should have parked at the Orpen entrance of Kruger National Park for a full day's tour. It was already 5.15am but there was still no signs of the lodge ranger who was supposed to get me to the safari guide. There was no landline services at the chalet and mobile phone reception was shabby to say the least. It was still dark outside for me to walk out to the main building to make contact with anyone. The distance to the main building was probably just 300m but guests were warned against walking about on their own in the dark. There were a host of wild animals on the ground, including a crash of hippos. They may be crossing over to the lake situated in between my location and the main building.
“You don't want to be on their path when they're crossing over to the water. They usually do at dawn,” alerted the friendly lodge lady as she served me a red welcome drink when I arrived the day before.
Biting my lower lip, I moved around the room frantically, holding up my mobile phone in search of a bar or two. With no such luck, I stepped outdoors, desperately hoping for a connection. It worked but only to fuel my frustration even further. Disappointed and angry, I stared at the 20 missed calls registered on my phone. No one was around on the other end to answer those calls. As I helplessly ran my fingers through my hair, a frog half the size of my pinky jumped out of my head, jolting me from self-pity. It must have gotten up there while I was pacing about outside. My attention shifted onto that tiny creature which later hopped onto the red Persian carpet beneath the coffee table. For a moment, the mini amphibian seemed to have appeared just to tease me before it vanished. When I knelt down in search for it, there it was again, sleekly camouflaged into the carpet's tiny floral motif. I lightly prodded it with the tip of my index finger and it surprised me again as it sprang a foot away just to land on a leaf motif. What an exceptional spring-mechanism! For the first time that morning, I felt my face string a smile. Seconds later, I heard the roar of an engine nearing my chalet. It was already 5.45am, and by 6am, I was on the safari vehicle, well on my way to more adventures and experiences that put smiles in my heart.