Tanzania 2014 Serengeti Mara Day 4
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The word comes to all guides and vehicles simultaneously. We hastily pack up - and we have lift-off! There is suddenly a mad, dust-choking, pedal-to-the-metal herd of about 15 open-sided Land Cruisers and Rovers bobbing and weaving, gaa-nooing and roaring thru the savanna and low brush where there is no road at all with their dazed passengers hanging on and fumbling to click their seat belts while racing for the crossing. Holy Sacagawea! Talk about your shock & awe! Reminds me of a Saturday night short dirt track demolition derby but without any collisions. At warp speed, we flash into a grove of trees, Albert fighting the wheel, dodging the larger ones, mowing down the small stuff; the rule here seems to be that brakes are for sissies. But in a few seconds we snap to a stop, inches from the smoking Land Rover in front of us, all vehicles akimbo and empty, and no two at the same angle. The dust is so thick we have no idea where we are. Well, at least we are all in the same place. We hit the eject button and bounce to the ground, every man and women for him/her self, and I immediately loose track of Nancy and Albert. More vehicles swerve sideways to a stop behind us, and those people, their pale faces and designer glasses smeared with a mix of dirt and diesel exhaust, tumble out. We are all running toward what I presume to be the crossing - either that or an ice cream truck. The further we go the clearer it becomes until there is no dust in the air at all save that being kicked up by hundreds of wildebeest charging down the river bank and plunging in. We made it, several dozen of us now teetering on the edge of a spectacle, not to mention a 20-foot drop into the Mara River. And from what I can see, nobody peed in their pants getting here. What a relief! In unison we raise our cameras and smartphones to the heavens and bleat "We are blessed! Let the clicking begin!".
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