It was a clear day, but for some reason beyond our direct control  Sherry (Terry’s sister) and I became lost deep in the jungle and couldn’t immediately get back to our base camp, although we sent out frantic emergency calls for assistance.

While circumventing through the deep vegetation in the jungle, on several occasions we became very close to death !

First while attempting to cross a large swampy body of water, we came upon a gigantic alligator who almost took my head off.  Luckily, Sherry had her handy weapon by her side and successfully shot the alligator right between the eyes.  A direct kill and I was able to successfully escape the sharp teeth of this predator.  Thank you Sherry !

Then once we were on the other side of the water on land we came close to getting trampled by a large heard of elephants, but fortunately was able to quickly hide behind a large group of rocks which protected us from getting crushed !

Then just when we thought we were safe, Sherry shouted …”look up” and there starring right above me was a hungry leopard who luckily had it not been preoccupied with a  recent catch, would surely had had me for it’s next meal !

Then when we thought we once again were finally in the clear, I looked to my left and there was this huge giraffe right next to me.  Luckily, the giraffe was preoccupied eating vegetation from the tree so I was able to slowly move safely away and avoid being crushed by any abrupt movements of this large creature.

Finally as we continued to move through the jungle keeping a close watch on any other possible dangerous predators….. we couldn’t believe our eyes and thought we must be hallucinating?  Just a short distance away coming right towards us down the dirt path were two baboons being pulled by a zebra in a wooden cart.  The fortunate thing is that the baboons, being so close anatomically to humans actually knew how to speak our native tongue !  They said, are you lost and can we assist you?  We told them of our recent encounters and indicated that we would gladly take then up on their generous offer to safely transport us back to our base camp.  Fortunately, we had an ample supply of bananas with us and offered them to the two baboons as a gesture of thanks for their help.  It was a win-win situation!

As we continued to move closer to the base camp while in the safety of our new friends (Pete and Molly…the baboons) we looked around the jungle and were constantly reminded that there were still a lot of other predators out there that could have easily taken our lives. Sherry and I counted our blessings and upon returning back to the base camp quickly documented the adventures that we had encountered that day in the deep jungle.

It was quite an experience for us and fortunately we were able to survive  and vowed that we would never let this happen to us again !!