I was on a Naturetrek trip in South Luangwa. Lovely fine morning, both Land Rovers proceeded in convoy into the park, along various tracks and eventually to a spur where after a quick check for lurking park staff, we were permitted to debus for some on foot birding close to the vehicles. We were warned not to get close to the nearby river and lake banks because of the crocs - and hippos, one of which had already scared the hell out of us bursting from the bushes just in front of our L/R as it made its panicked way back to the safety of water.
One vehicle, full of mammal watchers (which, then, didn't include birder me - how times change!) then went off in search of furballs, while the rest of us carried on birding. Our drivers, however, had changed over from their original mounts in arranging this split of the party, and when we came to mount up our new driver discovered the other one still had the vehicle key in his pocket, so we were stranded out in the park! Naturally we had no means of contacting either our companion vehicle or the park HQ. The script for a Michael Crichton film was unfolding with us in it...
This left the only options being to stay put or walk out. Our leader asked if any of us would like to walk out with him, but we all preferred the apparent security of the vehicle. To add insult to injury the spur he'd brought us along was a long peninsula, at the end of which was a very narrow, shallow channel to the next solid ground, with a ranger station only a couple of km beyond - but a 10km hike back round the track in order to stay on dry land.
Our noble leader went and surveyed the banks and the water surface, but one step too close and several splashes heralded eager crocs preparing for his crossing, so he gave us a wry grin and set off the other way. We carried on birding, though taking much more care than before to keep our lines of retreat to the Land Rover short and clear. We really did feel quite vulnerable!
Needless to say every rustle of the bushes resulted in huge blasts of adrenaline and people making for the car at Mach 3! Personally I think we would have been wise to reinstall the roof hatches, too - normally a couple of us sat on the roof with our legs dangling in as we drove around. Any passing Lion could have just jumped onto and into the vehicle even if we all made it inside.
We had to wait about an hour and a half before a beaming team arrived in a cloud of dust to rescue us. No real dramas then: but we had seen a couple of groups of elephants pass near, and when Rob got back he confessed that all the way back to the ranger station he kept finding loads and loads of Lion scat all over the place and he was quite glad he only had himself to worry about.
Throughout the remainder of the trip any proposal to split the party led to full interrogation as to the whereabouts of car keys.
John