Secret Safari Read Online Free Page B

island of Zanzibar. But which would you like for part one? Animals or adventure?’
    â€˜Animals!’ cried Emma.
    â€˜Adventure!’ cried Bob.
    Rafiki turned to Emma’s mum and dad. ‘You can split up,’ she explained. ‘The boys might prefer the adventure package. It includes white-water rafting, rock climbing, ballooning …’
    Bob looked like he was going to explode. ‘Dad, please! We have to do the adventure!’
    â€˜Well, it’s supposed to be a family holiday,’ said Dad. ‘Although I have to admit it sounds pretty good …’ He looked at Emma’s mum searchingly.
    â€˜Why don’t you go?’ said Emma’s mum, smiling. ‘It will be a great father-and-son couple of days and you know how much Em and I love animals. Then we can all meet and swap stories.’
    â€˜Ha!’ cried Bob. ‘I reckon it will be us who will have the stories!’
    I wouldn’t be so sure about that, thought Emma.
    Rafiki made a quick call on her phone and a young man appeared and collected the boys. ‘Well, that was easy,’ she said as they waved goodbye. ‘Now, Agents EJ12 and SJ45, we need to get you to the SHINE Wildlife Refuge.’

Rafiki, EJ and SJ walked to a large, white open-topped jeep that was splattered with mud. This was just as EJ had imagined—a real safari jeep to travel through the rough and wild African landscape. So she was disappointed when they drove out of the airport and turned on to a black, bitumen highway, with streetlights and road signs, and headed towards a city with tall buildings looming in the distance. She didn’t come here to see skyscrapers! Even when Rafiki took a turn away from the city, the scenery was still urban. With nothing particular to look at and tired after the long flight, EJ nodded off.
    She woke with a jolt a few hours later as the jeep hit a pothole in the road. EJ blinked sleepily and looked around. They certainly weren’t near a city now. The track twisted and turned among seemingly endless plains of tall, green-brown grass that swayed in the gentle breeze. Boulders cropped up around the grasses, and acacia trees, with their spindly trunks spraying out into flattop leafy branches, provided the only shade. Flocks of birds flew in the sky and crowded the trees. And, in the far, far background was the purple-brown of a distant mountain range and above it all was a large and deep blue sky that seemed to curve down and touch the plains while strips of white cloud streaked high above.
    â€˜It’s beautiful,’ gasped SJ.
    â€˜It’s awesome,’ said EJ.
    â€˜It’s the African savannah,’ said Rafiki. ‘Home to millions of wild animals and now is the perfect time to see them all. When we get to the top of the hill, you’ll see them in the next valley.’
    As the jeep came to the crest of the hill, EJ looked out and dotted across the plains below were hundreds, thousands of cattle-like animals with brown shaggy beards and horns.
    â€˜Wow, there are so many of them!’ exclaimed EJ. ‘They’re wildebeest, aren’t they?’ She remembered them from her on-flight briefing.
    â€˜Correct, and they are on the great migration,’ said SJ. ‘I’ve seen it once before. Look, EJ, there are zebras, too.’
    â€˜When have you seen it?’ asked EJ as she watched the black and white striped zebras trot amongst the wildebeest herd, grazing on the grass.
    â€˜Oh, I’ve been OM here a few times,’ replied SJ. ‘It is quite amazing.’
    â€˜Indeed it is,’ said Rafiki, as she turned the jeep off the track, driving in amongst the herd. ‘The great migration is a natural wonder of the world. It is the annual round-trip journey of the wildebeest herd. After grazing in the Serengeti Park further south from here, hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, and zebras, move north to enter this reserve to feed on the