Safari Journey: Chapter 1 - Slow Drive
Hey guys, new Jared fic hopefully it stays around longer than the last couple
Tagging: @fyeahproudglambert (lemme know if you want to be included)
I walked through the door over to the car. It was the start of another normal day. Just like any other. I filled the car up with petrol and looked over it to make sure there were no creepy crawlies or slithery serpents hiding where the guests could get hurt. Once everything was in the clear I grabbed the keys out of my pocket and jumped in the vehicle. Before I started I paused and listened. There last sounds of the night birds where being sung. The hyenas were whooping in the distance. Nothing else major though, I could only hope that there would be once I got out into the field.
I drove over to the main lodge where I met my tracker, Herbie. He was full of smiles and a nice warm hug.
“Any news?” I asked my colleague.
“There were some interesting noises to the west, leopard, possibly male,” he said
.“Oh, that is some exciting prospects.” I smiled.
“Now, now, Sara…. You sound like your brother,”
“A Dyson can’t help being a Dyson,” I grinned. He shook his head jumped up on the front of the vehicle for us to wait for the guests to finish breakfast before our three-hour sunrise safari.
Herbie wasn’t joking when he said I sounded like my brother. We were alike more than most we grew up in Durban, South Africa taking risks most people called us crazy for. Living out in the bush taking people on a safari twice a day and working in an animal orphanage were probably some of the more tame jobs I’d had.
“Sara,” I heard when I looked over Brent was walking down the steps toward our car. He waved me over when he saw I was paying attention.
“What’d you dob me in for?” I teased as I walked past Herbie who was perched on the tracker seat on the front of the car.
“You’re about to find out,” he taunted. Back.
“What’s up?” I asked my boss as I got to him.
“I need your help with something?”
“These conversations never end well for me,” I laughed.
“There’s a group of people that I want you to show around today,” he told. I rose my eyebrows.
“That is my job,”
“High profile,”
“Okay,” I said looking at him properly.
“I want you to give them the full behind the scene experience,”
“Behind the scenes?”
“The orphanage and everything.”
“I’m on duty in the orphanage today,” I reminded him.
“Great, you can take the main client with you,”
“Brent,” I grumbled.
“They’re paying high prices to get this,”
“So, give them to someone else?”
“They requested you,”
“Me?”
“From the social media,”
“Ugh, I knew it was a bad idea to leave me in charge of that.” I sighed.
“No, it’s brought us a lot of recognition.”
“Do I get a cut?”
“What?”
“I have a ball and chain for the day, do I get a cut of your profit?”
“Depends on your reviews”
“Okay,” I sighed.
“great” he smiled. “I’ll tell them you’re ready to go,” he said turning and walking back inside. I turned toward the car. “Oh, and Sara,” he called I looked back over “They’re here for at least four days,” my body dropped. I rolled my eyes as I walked back over to Herbie who was laughing.
“You’re in this too”
“Yeah, but you have to make sure they have a good time,” he said. His Afrikaan accent strong. “I have to make sure they see animals.”
“Yeah, right,” I laughed.
“Here’s your project.” He said. I stood back and looked over to see five people walking down the steps of the lodge. “Don’t forget to smile,” I shot Herbie a sarcastic smile as I walked over.
I walked over and shook the man in front’s hand. I had to bite my lip at the way they were dressed, something out of a wild west movie, I swear. Not laughing right now was a struggle.
“Hi, I’m Sara,” I smiled. “I will be your safari guide today,”
“Hey, I’m Jared, this is Emma,” he said pointing to a tall girl, “Shayla” he pointed at a shorter blonder girl “Peter, and Jason,” he said motioning to two guys. I shook each of their hands as they were introduced to me.
“Alright, let’s go to the car,” I said keeping my tone positive like I always did, I was a professional, even if 99% of the clients annoyed the hell out of me. I walked toward the vehicle. “This is the amazing Herbie, he will be helping us find the animals this morning,” I smiled. They all said hey. “Alright, jump in and I’ll briefly go over the rules.”
“Rules?” Jared laughed.
“Yes, rules,” I smiled “Rules that might save you from getting eaten by Lions,” I told.
“And if we don’t follow them?” one of the other guys laughed.
“I may feed you to lions,” the whole car laughed. I stood up in my usual spot that I did to talk to the car before drive. “Are we all happy with our seats?” I asked. There was a murmur of yeses. “Okay, welcome to Xongile Heights Safari Lodge as introduced I am your guide, you can call me Sara, and on the front of the car is the amazing Herbie, he will help me find amazing African Animals for your education and entertainment,” I said confidently. “It is vitally important that you follow either my or Herbies instructions at all times, especially when in sightings. Failure to do so could result in you returning to the lodge unable to get in my game driver anymore, the loss of your life or even worse the loss of an animal’s life.” I took a breath. “Please keep your limbs and belongings in the car at all times, if you happen to drop something out, do not just jump out and get it, inform me and I will instruct you to get it or get it myself,” I told. “If we are in a big five sighting keep your voices down if I put my hand up like this” I held my hand up. “Stop what you are doing and keep still,” I thought for a moment. “I think that covers the basics, I know that’s a long speech, but I have to do it or I’ll get in trouble, any questions?”
“Can you remind us what big five animals are?” Peter asked.
“Elephants, Rhino, Lions, Leopard and Buffalos,” I said confidently.
“What are the most dangerous?” Jared asked.
“Elephant, Buffalos, Rhino and Hippo’s on land,” I told everyone was silent. “anything else?”
“So, I’m researching for a movie role, so if you can, I’d like a really in-depth experience,”
“Okay,” I said, “I’ll do my best,” I agreed. “If that’s it?” everybody looked around “Alright, let’s make some memories,” I said sitting down in my seat starting the car up. It wasn’t long until we were out of the lodge and on our way west like Herbie had instructed me. It took a little while before anything showed up, but I slowed down as a male Kudu ran across the road.
“Oh, what is this guy?” Jared asked. I’d gotten used to his voice, it was the younger of the males and probably the smoother.
“This is a greater Kudu bull,” I told. “They are browsers, which means they eat mostly leaves and shoots,” I said. The animal looked up at the car. “Kudu is a species that we always trust when they alarm call if they alarm call they have seen something they are genuinely scared of”
“What prays on them?” one of the girls asked.
“Lions mostly, it’s not rare for a leopard to kill a bull but it will usually get stolen, however, the females are a lot smaller and are often preyed on by both Leopards and Lions and at times wild dogs,” I said. “Oh, and if a Hyena clan is big enough” I added I looked to the other side of the to our right we have a female Kudu,” I told pointing at her. “you can see she’s a lot smaller than the male,”
“She doesn’t have antlers,” the other girl said.
“Horns,” I corrected. “your deer back in America have antlers, our antelope have horns,”
“What’s the difference?” Jared asked.
“Antlers are seasonal, horns are permanent,” I told. “So, if this male was to break his horn, it would not grow back”
“Oh,” someone sighed.
“if you look at the female’s feet as she crosses the road, you will see that these animals direct register,” I said moving my head out of the way, so they could all see. “They do this to make less noise, so predators don’t hear them as clearly.”
“Wow,”
“Alright, let’s leave these guys to live in peace,” I said starting the car and moving on. It wasn’t too much later I spotted the next mammal. I pointed over in the bushes to a huge giraffe.
“Giraffe,” one of the girls gasped.
“I’ll walk to that junction and check for ingwe tracks,” Herbie said, I nodded as he jumped off returning to my standing position.
“this is a giraffe bull, he’s pro-“
“How do you know it’s a bull?” Jared asked.
“See his Ossicones,” I asked.
“His what?”
“The horn looking things on his head,”
“Yeah,” Jared said squinting. With a sigh, I reached down and got my binoculars handing them to him. “Oh yeah!”
“See how they’re kind of balding?” he looked at me and nodded hand my binoculars around to his friends. “Female’s ones are fuzzy,” I explained. “Males use theirs to fight with other males, so they tend to get scar tissue as well as lumps on their faces,” I told. “I can tell this bull is probably about six, on the younger side,” I told. “as he has not got too much scar tissue around his face,”
“Wow,” Jared nodded looking back at the giraffe. “They’re browsers too?”
“Yup, hopefully when it gets a bit warmer we can see one drinking,” I smiled. “It’s a sight to see” I laughed turning back around into my seat driving up to Herbie. “any luck?”
“it looks like they’ve gone towards the pan,” he said
“They’ve?”
“tracks for a male, cub and female,”
“Oh, right,” I nodded as he got on the car. “We’ll head toward the pan and see what’s there,” I said driving for a while before making a sharp left-hand turn. Before too long we were sitting at the pan Herbie gave me a hand signal that told me that there was something on its way to the pan. I liked to work with an element of surprise, so my guests found the experiences more enjoyable. I went back to my standing position. “So, this is a manmade pan,”
“How?” Jared asked.
“I was getting to that,” I laughed. “it started out as a mud wallow for warthogs, buffalo, Ellies then in the dryer season it would dry out and the former property owners would have no animals on their property to show, so they cemented the sides and put in a bore pipe, it fills up a couple of times a day, so it is always a permanent water sauce for all of the animals” I said looking over the back of the vehicle. “Including this leopard,” I said sitting in my seat and turning the car around there were ooos and aahs instantly. I had a good looked at the leopard in order to identify it correctly. “this is one of the two dominant males we get in this area, his name is Mvula, you’re fine to take photos and talk in this sighting, he’s pretty good with cars.” I said
“What can you tell us about leopards?” Jared asked
“A lot,” I laughed.
“Miss Sara is a wealth of leopard knowledge,” Herbie said from the front of the vehicle.
“Oh, Herbie,” I laughed.
“Well?” Jared asked
“What do you want to know?” I questioned.
“Hmm, how do I know this is a leopard and not a cheetah?”
“Common question,” I smiled bending down and getting a book out of my kit that I brought with me every day going to a page I had marked for this exact reason. “Okay,” I said looking to see where Mvula was before climbing over my seat, so they could all see the book properly. “I bring your attention to the cat in this book,” I said holding it up on my stomach. “If you noticed the black stripes running down under her eye?” I said looking up. “That is a Cheetah’s tear mark,” I told. “if you look over at our leopard,” I said motioning to him, he was looking around as he sat by the pan. “You can see that he does not have this,” I told there were murmurs that showed me that they found it interesting. “not to mention the Cheetah is a slimmer cat in order to help it run faster Leopards are thicker set and built for climbing.”
“Wow,” Jared nodded.
“Also, the spots on a cheetah is called a spot, the pattern on a leopard is called rosettes.”
“Really?” Jared asked.
“Yes, same with a jaguar,”
“That’s interesting,” he nodded.
“I think so,” I smiled
We stayed with the leopard for a good while before moving on. I showed them the typical things like hippo and buffalo and the major dams before it was time to head back for breakfast.
