Joe and his family snatched a couple of hours’ sleep when they returned to the campsite. They were all tired from the early start to the day and the excitement of the safari. Joe thought it would be impossible even to doze in the daytime, especially since he couldn’t wait to go back out on to the savannah, but he must have dropped off almost immediately and didn’t have a clue where he was when Peter woke him again. He was upset to find that it had rained heavily while they were sleeping, and there was still some moisture in the air as they set off with Matunde for a second time.
‘Rain makes it more interesting to go off-road,’ Matunde said, grinning broadly.
‘Does that mean we’ll have to stick to the tracks?’ Joe asked anxiously.
‘We have leopards and rhinos to see,’ said Matunde. ‘If they don’t come to us, we’ll have to go to them!’
As the sun broke through the clouds and it began to heat up, water evaporated from the sodden ground, making it misty and difficult to see very far. Matunde and his group of eager travellers passed herds of zebras, several giraffes and even another pride of lions, all of which caused cries of delight, but none of which had quite the same impact as on first viewing. Joe was eager to spot an animal they hadn’t seen before, and when he saw a strange, dark-grey shape, like an enormous swan on stilts, appearing through the mist, he held his breath in anticipation.
‘Look!’ he cried, when at last it became visible. ‘An ostrich! It’s enormous!’
The ostrich came closer, its head aloof, as though refusing to acknowledge its spectators, its long pink legs scything through the wet grass. Then, before Joe could pick up his camera, the ostrich began to lope away, its strides getting longer and longer, until it disappeared behind a line of trees.
‘Cool!’ said Joe, though he was dismayed he hadn’t managed to take a photograph. ‘They can run so fast!’
‘Over seventy kilometres per hour,’ said Matunde. ‘It’s one of the fastest creatures on earth.’
They continued for some distance without seeing anything else and Joe began to think that they would leave without spotting either a rhino or a leopard. He wasn’t so worried about the rhino, because he knew he would soon be helping to release rhinos, though it wouldn’t be the same as coming across one already living in the wild. But he was desperate to see a leopard. Matunde tried his best to locate both animals by liaising with other guides in the reserve via mobile phone, but the final two animals of the Big Five proved elusive.
‘I have an idea where to go,’ Matunde suddenly informed Joe and his family. ‘Hold tight!’
He quickly left the track, heading towards an area in the distance where there was a greater density of trees and bushes and where the landscape looked more rugged.
Joe held on to the sides of his seat as the truck bounced up and down on the uneven ground. He began to feel exhilarated now that they had left the grassland and were ploughing through much thicker vegetation, turning this way and that to negotiate round rocks and other obstacles.
Wow! This is a real adventure!
He was delighted when they came across a troop of baboons and Matunde stopped to allow them to take photographs. Within minutes, the baboons were clambering all over the truck, peering through the windows and trying to find a way in. Aesha screamed when a large male tried to wriggle through the viewing gap at the top of the truck before Matunde had moved to close it, and then cooed when she saw that one of the baboons was carrying a baby.
‘They’re so funny!’ cried Joe, as a young baboon stared at itself in a wing mirror and tried to groom its image.
Disaster struck when one of the baboons, encouraged by Matunde to take a piece of bread from his hand, leant through his open window and, quick as a flash, grabbed his mobile phone instead. The baboon jumped down from the truck, mobile in hand. Triumphant, it ran off with its prize, the rest of the troop scattering, as though fearful of repercussions.
Matunde shrugged. ‘Now nobody knows where we are,’ he said lightly, ‘and nobody can tell us if they see a leopard. But it’s not a worry. I will find one for you.’
Joe didn’t know whether or not to believe him and thought he saw an anxious glance pass between his mother and his father.
Do they think we might not get to see a leopard now? Is it too late?
The sun was just beginning to set as Matunde turned the truck sharply across an area of scrub in the direction of a bank of tall trees. He had been particularly quiet during the past half hour, his eyes scouring every last scrap of landscape, his ears alert to the slightest sounds. Something had obviously caught his attention, because he put his foot on the accelerator, taking the Brook family by surprise and throwing them sideways in their seats.
‘Whoa, steady!’ said Peter. ‘Hold on, everyone.’
Joe could feel the wheels spinning on the wet undergrowth and the surge of the engine, straining to make them grip. The truck lurched forward and began to eat up the ground as Matunde urged it on – but the guide failed to see an overgrown ditch ahead. Seconds later, the truck had plunged into it, landing bonnet first against the far side, its rear bumper in the air.
Silence followed. It was as if the whole of the savannah was holding its breath in shock.