Canoeing on the Sundays River

Last Saturday, as in February 6th, we went on a "canoe safari" on the
Sundays River. We met our oh-so-handsome guide, Chris, at his
parents' beautiful Bed & Breakfast, Crislin. Minutes later, we were
hopping into our canoes and faced with a narrow canal and lots of
reeds. I had stated from the beginning that I wanted to sit up front,
but because Jessica has a fancy camera, she won the front of our
canoe, and I was stuck steering. Apparently, canoeing is not
necessarily a skill you remember if you haven't done it since you were
in your early teens.

I tried my hardest to steer the canoe away from the reeds with my
feeble arms but failed miserably for the first half of the river.
Luckily, Jessica broke most of the reeds and brush with her face and
body before they reached me.

The river was beautiful and so peaceful. Chris told us he had grown
up on the river and spent time finding fossils and spotting wildlife.
Even just the other day, he was searching through the dirt and spotted
an off white object. He dug around the object and discovered a two
foot long piece of an elephant's ivory tusk. He showed it to us, and
I even got to pick it up. It was extremely heavy and about 8 inches
in diameter. He said the elephant was about 58 years old when it was
killed for this tusk. He called a museum, and they priced it at
around R2,000,000 (about $300,000).

We knew that this "safari" was really a bird safari, and we really
wouldn't see any other wildlife. However, we were so excited to spot
a Goliath Heron. This bird was as tall as me and looked prehistoric
as it walked on the bank. As we were snapping pictures, we heard a
splash and a small moan in the water close by. We looked over and saw
a small brown nose peeking out from the water. As the animal pushed
up for air, we realized it was a baby donkey—drowning!

We yelled for Chris to come over. I was terrified he would brush it
off and say something about not wanting to interfere with the circle
of life. In the distance, we could hear the mother donkey braying for
her son. Chris rushed over and shouted for us to check our canoes for
rope. I found a short piece and was terrified it wouldn't be long
enough. However, Chris quickly tied the rope around his neck, and he
and his friend, JP, began to pull. Chris decided he would have to get
in the water to push the baby donkey out over the bank. He saw that
there was a huge drop off and no place for the donkey to stand. After
much struggling and avoiding being kicked, Chris pushed the exhausted
donkey onto dry land. The donkey stood there breathing heavily but
nearly unharmed other than a small scrape on his nose.

Obviously, this was a fantastic event for me to witness and will live
in my memory forever.