In two weeks, I set off on a trip to South Africa, with a mini-safari included in the deal. To be honest, it's not one of the top ten places that I'd prefer for a tour but the wife rated it number one.
Years ago as a kid, I heard a fascination with a Saturday afternoon show.....Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The head guy was Marlin Perkins and for thirty minutes, you were entertained by clips of Marlin's latest adventure. The show went from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.
I didn't so much watch to view Marlin, but his number one assistant....Jim.
Jim seemed to always be the guy who was assigned to climb into some lion pit, or handle some hefty snake. Jim, in my humble opinion, was just a breathe away from death in almost every episode. Jim seemed to favor clean living, no booze, and no cigarettes.
Marlin would tend to talk about the trip....the strategy of hunting elephants....the handling of tigers, etc. Jim was the action-guy.
My take, after probably watching four-hundred episodes....Africa and this safari business was probably not on my top ten 'adventures'. I think this was mostly Marlin's fault because he made it all seem perfectly safe and with no hazards.
Last week, I noted some German gal who'd entered some safari park in Tanzania....then decided she needed to take some picture of a nearby elephant. No one says if she said anything, or just scared the elephant....but he came over and stumped her to death. Today, I noticed another travel story from the region (occurring over the weekend)....a German guy walked too near some elephant and the elephant freaked out....attempting to stomp him to death (failing, but giving the guy a broken leg and arm).
Maybe these two Germans were a bit like Jim and willing to take chances. It's hard to tell.