Elephants
A NIGHT ADVANCE ON OUR CAMP: One one occasion I was camping on the banks of a small river when at about 7.30pm in the early night I was tinkering with my vanette about 300 yds away from the camp site when I suddenly heard a large herd of elephant approaching. I returned quietly to the camp and found my boys petrified, crouched behind a large log hoping that the elephant would pass by. This was the silliest thing that they could have done as it would inevitably have resulted in the elephant finding themselves in a human camp, and they would have gone beserk with panic, wrecked the camp and most probably have killed someone. I quickly shouted to the boys that they were to count out loud at the top of their voice 1, 2, 3, 4 etc and then to make a noise of talking and shouting. That was enough, the herd now about 40 – 50 yds away stopped, listened and ran off in a blind stampede into the safety of the bush. A disaster for all concerned had been averted by simple bushcraft!
FACE TO FACE: Whilst on the farm with Mike O’Neil on a lovely April day when the rains were over, and there was a gentle steady breeze. All around the bush was green, and the valley cool but we needed some meat for the boys and so we went together looking for a buck on foot . MIKE was a crack shot and was easily capable of dropping dead a buck at 300 yds with a .303 in his hand and nothing to rest on. We walked silently through the bush about 200 yds apart. We kept in contact by a series of whistles. One ‘up’ whistle meant ‘Where are you?’, a down’ whistle meant ‘over here’ Anything of interest requiring attention was a series of ‘up’ whistles. Whistles must always be answered and are used only by very experienced hunters, as in the thick bush visibility is poor and it is vital to know where your partner is to avoid accidents. Also it serves as a method of driving game from one side to your partner. Lions and leopards hunt in a similar fashion. On this occasion we both heard the unmistakable crash of an elephant knocking over a tree and we went to investigate. The wind was blowing steadily from the east so we made a detour into an old stream bed that led upwind towards the crash. There were a lot of branches lying about the stream bed and as I am much smaller than Michael I was able to move much faster. Within a few minutes I had reached a bend in the stream and climbed a bank about 10ft high ahead. On top I was thrilled to see an elephant about 8 yards away sideways on. He had huge tusks and unfortunately there a large bush hiding his head and I was not sufficiently experienced to even attempt a body shot with a light rifle. I waited for the beast to move, when suddenly Mike appeared. I put my finger to my lips to explain in sign language that an elephant was just ahead. He replied with a broad smile and a lighthearted play act of a cautious stalk as he climbed the high bank and did not look up until he was on top. He was now about 5 yards away and it was now my turn to smile as I watched the transformation on his face when he saw the huge elephant 6 yards only in front of him. Suddenly out of the bush another huge bull appeared and walked to the back of the first one, nudged it aside and headed straight for me at the sme time as the first one headed towards Michael. I saw him put up his gun but then quickly lower it as it was impossible to shoot at that close range with only light rifles, and the risk of them falling on top of us was so great that a quick alternative must be found in a split second. Big game must be faced fearlessly and toughly. Having made the decision I stood up, waved my palms outwards and we both advanced steadily to them now only about 4 yards away, shouting and ordering him to go away in plain English. “Bugger Off, Bugger Off” we shouted with all our breath. The first one looked deeply at me, thought carefully, hesitated for a second, and then both stampeded away into the bush. It was a close gamble with instantaneous death, and we both breathed a deep sigh of relief and lit a cigarette!