We lined up for 30 minutes, while my friend and I told each other jokes. Then our little steamboat came into view, it was called Wamba Wanda, “What a weird name!” I said. Our boat was a typical exploring boat, it had a sheepskin roof and everything was covered in ropes, axes and survival things. It was also very dirty looking; dirt and mud covered every inch of it.
The staff at the wheel said something about “make yourself at home” and we started the journey. We went past a long-since unoccupied explorer’s cottage, which looked like it was going to fall the very next second. As we went deeper into the jungle, a colorful tropical parrot greeted us. It had bright red feathers and a yellow beak; I thought it was very beautiful. I saw a spotted leopard eating a brown male deer and pointed this out to mum who was admiring some extraordinary flowers. Out of nowhere spout out a spray of water, hitting me in the eye. It was an elephant whose big ears gently fanned itself. Suddenly, my thoughts about how ugly the elephant was stopped, the elephant turned its head, I ducked just in time, the spray of water had hit my friend behind me. We laughed, as it was so hot, we did not mind a bit of water. We went through a thick clump of bushes and my friend shouted: “Look!” I turned to see a tribe of Indians and said :Ooooh!” I wasn’t surprised, I knew Indians would come in somewhere, people always put Indians and adventure together, it was just that they were so realistic. We slowed down when we saw a huge rocky mountain; inside the caves of the mountain were a few angry lionesses. Well, you couldn’t blame them, a lion had just stolen their dinner when hunted it together. Further on was a brown scaly rhino, who was determined to knock down the thin long pole, which had some English explorers clinging onto it.
We went through a crystal-clear waterfall. Sitting near the window, I was splashed again. I turned around a little angrily because it really hurt this time. But when I saw what was in front of me, I gasped and felt my jaw drop. We were going through on an old Buddhist temple and at the front was a huge head of a man completely carved from one huge stone. The man’s hair, I saw, was none other than the roots of a towering tree. We went into the mysterious temple and everything was silent for a moment. Suddenly I heard a roar and turned my head slowly as if dreading what I saw, but when I really saw it, I breathed freely again. It was not a great evil spirit that I thought before but a gorgeous tiger, its orange and black coat gleaming in the darkness like a coat of pure gold. We went on to find some brown long tail monkeys sitting on statues of Buddha.
We emerged from the darkness into a pool of water where some big elephants were bathing their babies. A baby elephant raised its trunk to spray water onto us and I got wet again! “Why me?” I murmured unhappily. The front was the legendary basilisk, winding its thick patterned body around the tree. We drifted slowly towards the restaurant “Polynesian Terrace”. Our journey was to end, I thought, I was right. We came to a stop; people were watching our boat eagerly. I hastened towards the stairs. Bye, bye, jungle!
I’ll never forget that journey, I never will.