Human beings love to tell and listen to stories, all kinds of stories, from the dramatic to the funny ones. Don’t know where you will place mine, but here it comes.
South African safaris spell excitement and something mysterious to be encountered by the courageous, not the faint of heart. Sunday, April 24, 2016 found me riding in an open jeep with eight others on a “game drive” in search of animals, not to be hunted, but admired from a short distance. Night had fallen around the Kapama Safari area as we drove through trees, brush and bush, to lay our eager eyes on elephants, rhinos, giraffes, Cape Buffalo, species of the deer family and more…
Our ranger received a radio message that a lion was close by. So off we went into the thickening darkness, led by the beaming light held by our tracker perched precariously on the front end of the jeep. The ranger drove recklessly on making new paths off the beaten track, as he was determined to give us the thrill of a lifetime.
And then it happened. As the jeep hit obstacles in its path like shrubs and the like, they fell aside to make way for the kill. Suddenly something fell from a branch above my head. I instantly brushed it aside with my hand, and it, I presumed was a thorny branch, fell on the seat behind me. I was oblivious to the initial pain, until it hurt more than I expected. We did see an old lion, king of the jungle, in the glare of the light. However, that joy quickly waned as my discomfort grew rapidly.
On arrival at the Lodge, the light revealed a huge caterpillar curled up on the seat behind me with black needles an inch long poised for attack. It had been disturbed, so in its protective mode, it sent out stings that struck me. My left hand fingers were covered with needles, and my rear too! They had penetrated through my clothing much to my dismay, and the shock of those around me.
The Lodge Staff was agog. They had never seen anything like this before, including our travel guide who has been many years in the business. A woman at the front desk valiantly tried to pull out the needles from my left fingers with my tweezers. Lo and behold, she had a reaction to it, and started breaking out in red bumps.
What ensued was painful and funny. My dear husband had the task of pulling out the black culprits from my rear, while I leaned forward giggling at this strange situation. It took all of half an hour to be rid of the stingers. However, it did not end with a good shower.
The reactions I developed later on led me to a drug store not far from the Cape of Good Hope, where a kindly pharmacist gave me an ointment to soothe the troubled area. Alas, the rash got worse, and days later, my beloved husband found me a good doctor in a small town (that is another story) that we visited in wine country, who prescribed an antibiotic, Cortisone pills and cream, which my body began to accept.
You may recall the children’s story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” who ate and ate, and built a cocoon, and pushed his way out to become a beautiful butterfly. Well, one night at dinner, many nights after the fact, a huge moth swooped down on us, and one of our traveling group loudly exclaimed, “That’s Viola’s caterpillar!”
So, it wasn’t a big animal that attacked me, but a very HAIRY caterpillar that South Africans refer to as “worms.”