Hunting in the Bush & Taking people into the bush.
intestines and he will quickly die. When a Rhino sees, hears or smells you he would quite likely charge blindly in your direction. Invariably they charge through thickets, bushes and dense scrub and I wonder if this is not a protection that they take against lion trying to bite his neck. By going through these dense thickets with his horny hide the lion would get quickly swept and knocked off. When however they do charge it is quite a serious spectacle as they go in an absolute straight line very fast and very hard. The thing is to keep you nerve and at the very last minute move quickly and jump to the side of his path as he sweeps everything in front of him. He will continue for another 30 or 40 yards and he may stop and go away, or he may turn round, paw the ground up, snort and turn back in the direction that he came from, and then you have to repeat the act by jumping again to the side. It is rare for him to charge three times. In spite of the fact that rhino do these charges unexpectedly and unprovoked I have had little trouble from them. I do not think that they have such grumpy characters as they are made out to have, but there always is the chance that they will attack vehicles that they do not like. But I have never known one make a nuisance or charge my camp in the middle of the bush. They presumably would smell us and make a detour. Otherwise they could have charge us many times, but having said that one can never be too sure with rhino. If you are in Rhino country, beware, treat them with respect because there is always the off chance that there is a really cantankerous bad tempered old devil out there, and with his head down on a charge….Watch Out!
4.Buffalo
There are two types of Buffalo in Africa, one is a small beige or red coloured beast that is said to be the most vicious, but I personally have never met it so I am unable to comment. The one that most concerned me was the large black one that inhabits the Luangwa valley in huge herds and when I was there it was estimated that there were around 100,000 head of them . Each adult weighs in at about 1,500 – 1,600 lbs or so and is a hefty animal to be feared especially on the charge. The meat is good to eat if not too old, it carries a lot of fat, but even an old one is excellent if the meat is dried and smoked, and the African boys love it, fresh or smoked.
The first time I met a buffalo I was out with Mike looking for some food for the boys, and as we walked along through the bush we saw a buffalo about 50 yards away sitting under a tree. It was a lone bull, probably an outcast from the main herd, and we decided that we would shoot it. I fired at his head approximately where I thought his brain would be from slightly behind at a range of about 40 yards and under normal circumstances he should have been killed instantly. He jumped up and ran away from us and we went to the spot where it had left a very small trickle of blood . Before pursuing it we decided to light up a couple of cigarettes to allow time to pass before we started to follow the trail, as to follow a freshly wounded animal would be looking for very serious trouble. On the other hand by waiting he could either settle down a bit or even if the wound were serious he could have bled to death. We had only smoked the first cigarette , when suddenly out of the dense bush he charged! He went straight for the place from where I had fired the initial shot. Well luckily he did not find us there as we had moved round to the opposite side of the glade. We instantly both spun round grabbed our rifles and both fired at him sideways into his heart and lungs and he fell immediately stone dead. A frightening experience which could have been fatal to us. On examination of his head we noticed that the shot with my .303 had hit his head fair and square, but although it was a solid bullet it had ricocheted straight off and had only made a slight graze to his head. The skull bone of a buffalo is very thick and his head is very hard, and also in front and above
