The Black Magic thread got me wondering.... What is the strangest event you have personally witnessed in Africa?

When the ( Honey Bird ) leads you to the (stash) of honey in the tree, and if you dont open up the stash for the BIRD to feed THEN it will lead you to where a Lion is resting so the Lion can (exact revenge) on behalf of the Honey Bird ..

This is not a Capstick story/tale .. it is gospel !!! Well maybe NOT the LION bit of the story, but then who am I to argue with the animal and bird kingdom, and the laws of the Jungle/Nature

REad this about the Honey Bird

Cheers, Peter

One of my last nightsa in Namibia, two young elephant bulls fighting over which was to dirnk out of the pool. They don't have huntable population on this ranch (no reason to fear hmans) and aparently they like the salt.

7mm. guy

I got chased up a tree by a black rhino. Not strange, but definitely eye opening.

Jeff

Ok. Here goes. It was embarrassing to say the very least. In 2002 Bwanna and I came across a goat outright humping a dog and the black trackers and skinners really enjoyed the show. I know that stranger things have happened in Africa...why just recently didn't we read about a man in Zimbabwe who had been caught with a goat and the goat had been declared as his wife for dowery purposes?

2003 in the Omay, Zimbabwe. We found a dead vulture in the dry riverbed. The tracker jumped from the truck and cut off the vulture's head placing it in his pocket.

Later, Blake Muil explained the trackers believe vultures dream where to find animals. The tracker would sleep with the head hoping to learn where the animals could be found.

2000, Chirisa Zimbabwe, a hyena ran in front of the truck at dusk. Trackers Amos and Farin were ecstatic that my husband had no desire to shoot a hyena. PH John Hulme explained that witch doctors ride the hyenas and the trackers want nothing to do with live or dead hyenas.

My trackers eating a baboon.....

In Rhodesia back in 71 or so there was a security team set up in heavy jess. It was getting dark and for some reason an Ostridge desided to use that trail. With only sound to go
on believed it to be a man. Getting himself set
he attacted with his knife. He got hold of the
bird who got hold of him and the sh## hit the fan. Would have made a hell of a video. No one
could get a clear shot for a min or 2 and then
several .45s and 9mm to sort things out. He was
not in good shape but all but his pride healed.

Waking up in the early morning hours and seeing Ganyana standing over my cot holding out a cup of tea to me while saying, "Wakey, wakey -hands off snakey."

But seriously, for me the strangest thing was seeing the mass of people (400 - 450) gather around my fallen ele with that longing look of anticipation for what was aboutto happen.

I'm going to concur with Use Enough Gun on the dog and the goat but only as to the second stangest thing I've seen in Africa. The first was actually from Use Enough Gun himself.

The first time that Use Enough Gun and I traveled across the pond, he was convinced that the best way to carry his money was to take it in traveler's checks in a money belt, hidden under his trousers and shirt.

Imagine my shock when, after a long flight all the way from Las Vegas to Kimberly, we were held up in getting off the SAA commuter flight. Just as I was getting ready to yell at Use Enough Gun to push the idoit off the plane who was holding up our disembarkment onto the Kimberly tarmac, I noticed the carpeting of traveler's checks.

Lo and behold. Use Enough Gun's fancy money belt had come open and turned upside down. There was 8 - 10K all over the floor of this SAA commuter flight! He later confessed it felt like a deck of cards sliding down his leg.

In the end, he was able to scoop it all up and hobble off the plane and into the Kimberly airport while holding the cuff of his pants to preclude any more loss. I met the outfitter in the airport and we waited for 20 minutes while Use Enough Gun counted his money on the back of a urnal in the men's room.

The strangest thing I've ever seen in Africa? The fact that, after the conglomeration of misfortune, he didn't lose a dime of his money. We went on to have a great safari and are both hooked on the Dark Continent. He's given up on the money belt.

The following was not just strange, but quite an eye opener for one's very first day in Africa in his life!

WE arrived in Vic Falls in the morning, and were picked up by our PH from the airport.

WE got to camp before lunch. Got settled in our rooms - we were at Rosslyn Safaris, where they had stone houses. The doors were split in two, so one can close the bottom half and leave the top open for ventilation.

In the afternoon we sighted in our rifles, and went out to on our first hunt.

We shot a waterbuck, and headed back to camp.

At the skinning shed, our PH and the man in charge of the staff at the camp - who was absolutely plastered! got into an argument. The result of which was Peter Johnstone, who owns Rosslyn Safaris, started whacking him across his face, and screaming at him. He had all those knives right there at arms length, and we were wondering how long it might take before he attempts to use one. In fact, he was threatning the PH with one, but said the only thing stopping him was the pistol the PH had - a 22 rimfire he used to finish off animls with.

Well, after we had our dinner, and got into bed, I had a loaded Ruger 77 in 25-06 Remington lying on side, and my girlfriend on the other. And with all the noises one hears in the African bush, we had very little sleep that night!

Tanzania in '92 coming out of the airport outside of Arusha...it is dark, I am worn out, jammed in the middle of the front seat of the truck and suddenly there are eyes in the headlights. Now I think I am finally in AFRICA! Turned out to be a damn rabbit...I flew all that distance just to see a rabbit as my first African critter...I got ranches full of the damn things.
Next night we are the first night in the bush. Middle of the night I hear rain on my tent. National Geo Atlas says little or no rain at this time of the year. I get up, get my flashlight and shine it out the tent door. The bare ground not turning dark brown as it should with all that rain. Seems the wind came up in the night and blew beans off the tree overhead and the noise was from beans hitting my tent fly.

We were sitting around the Boma in the evening having dinner. Me and the PH had wolked down a couple of plates of BBQ wildebbeast and Eland fillets, but my freind had a call of nature half way through the meal so was just starting his dinner.

Out of nowhere an almighty wind blew up. It was like someone had turned a big fan on and sparks were flying everywhere. With all the thatch about the PH rushed to douse the fire sending up clouds of ashes. We had all moved up wind of the fire except my freind who was busy eating his dinner on his knees. He and his dinner got covered in ash but the thatch was saved.

The thing was that the wind lasted for all of about 2 minutes then it stopped, the sky cleared and the stars came out again.

Crocodiles are sacred and thus protected in Burkina Faso. If the witch doctor dies the village croc dies and visa versa so if the village croc dies the witch doctor dies.

If you shoot a croc the village kills you because in their eyes you have just killed their witch doctor.

Anyhow at a village near the ranch there was a big pond with a croc in it. For a fee the witch doctor would call the croc out of the pond. So we used to take clients there to watch. It became a cottage industry for him.

The name for croc in that part of Burkina Faso is Kamba (exact same word means rope in Swahili and turtle in Zimbabwe). All the witch doctor has to do was call Kamba a few times and the croc came like a bullet and if we were 100 meters back from the bank he would leave the pond and come racing right up to our feet. But he would not leave the water until he was called.

The pay off for the croc was always a sacrificial chicken. It was a conditioned response but boy did it ever work. Apparently they do the same thing in Uganda
and some witch doctors there are able to lie right on the bacvks of enormous crocs and these are wild crocs.



VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Dear Fallow Buck,

The wind you speak of is common. It is the ghosts of the elephants.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Invader66,


Were you RLI when you witnessed the incident you described above? If so, PM me for a discussion off line.

Perry

hunting buff the tracker and 2 PH's and I were on a stalk of a dugga boy. When to our right out burst a black rhino who had been residing in a clump of bushes. Our hunt turned into a track meet. we ran for about 10 minutes and resumed tracking my buff. Saw the buff to our right I fired two barrels at the big boy and he took off. We began running with one of the PHs in front of me and the other PH behind me with the cam corder. Not ten feet in front of us out burst this same black rhino! He had stalked us for roughly a quarter mile. The video is a hoot, however there's only video of the ground and the tree the PH was climbing. Seems the camcorder dropped to his chest when we all started running and climbing trees.

In Nigeria, I was working for an oil well drilling contractor in the swamps near Warri. We were overrun by about 200 naked women demanding food, money and jobs. They stayed on the rig for two days before the local police chased them off. They stole everything not tied down except clothes.

It was not a pretty sight. My ex-pats from the US and Canada all needed "shrinks" to get them over the episode. Our local Nigerians thought it was funny.

Are you sure that was ALL that the 200 NAKED women demanded from you and the others? Like a herd of Buffalo, the police drove them off. . .And they stole everything not tied down, EXCEPT CLOTHES! Dogcat, I believe that you were definitely dealing with the OCCULT on this one. Strange, very strange. Just think what would have happened here in the U.S. if 200 NAKED WOMEN stormed an oil drilling contractor's setup. WOW!

Every morning my PH and I got in the safari vehicle and headed to another ranch to hunt something different than the previous day.....and every morning we picked up the trackers along the way....they jumped on as we rolled slowly past their "homes".....and every day the cook at the camp packed lunches for all of us and sandwiches often times contained meat from something we shot the previous day. I loved it except for one thing......there was never any meat in the trackers sandwichs.

I came to have a deep appreciation for those folks.....and was appalled they was treated differently from the rest of us.....

However.....I was in a foreign country....it's their business.....I said nothing

whiteboy telling the truth !!

vapodog,

Ever think the trackers knew how the meat had been treated? or perhaps what the kitchen looked like???

A bit more seriously, don't they wait until the rigur has passed before butchering the carcasses?

Regards,

Pete

Not all that "strange" but funny just the same. Last year we hunted RSA in late April. We had a number of heavy thunder showers pass through and one afternoon following such a storm the big black millipedes came out. If you've never witnessed them, the rain brings them out by the millions crawling all over the place. We must have run over a ka-zillion by the time we stopped to enter another farm. While the gate was negotiated I placed about a 12 incher on my leg for a photo-op for the folks back home (Americans love this sort of icky stuff!). Several more photos were taken before we got underway again. Soon I noticed that Stephen, our tracker who was now driving, was swerving all over the road. Closer observation reveled that he was trying to avoid runing over any more millipedes, obviously assuming they meant something special to us after the photo session!

vapadog ----- During my hunt in the Selous I learned much about the trackers, locals, etc. I don't know if the following incident answers your question about the meat or not, but I will offer it for the sake of additional information about Africa. ----- On the day I killed my Impala it was just prior to lunch. When we approached the animal on the ground and handshakes all around were finished, my PH asked me if the trackers could bleed the Impala, thus cleansing it for consumption on their part, he stated their religion required this. I said certainly, go ahead, one reason was I wanted to witness this. They cut both hams into thin strips and roasted them over an open fire for lunch. ----- Now it is possible that the trackers working for your PH refused the meat instead of it not being offered, your PH could probably clear it up for you. Sometimes what you see and interpret for yourself is not the real story, perhaps that was the case here. Good shooting.

Waterbuck in Swimming Pool
In Sept 05 I was hunting Numzaan Safaris at a large farm that also had places for rent.Early one morning we received a called that a Waterbuck was in the swimming pool. Well we drove by to take a look. We found a male with 28" horns and he was not a happy camper. He had broken the tile around the pool trying to ge out but was unable to get out. The vet was called and finally arrived around 10pm. He said the waterbuck may have run into the pool to excape from a bigger waterbuck.We darted him and relocated him to another farm. I think I posted pictures under my hunting report that is on page one or two of the African Hunting Reports.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
Are you sure that was ALL that the 200 NAKED women demanded from you and the others? Like a herd of Buffalo, the police drove them off. . .And they stole everything not tied down, EXCEPT CLOTHES! Dogcat, I believe that you were definitely dealing with the OCCULT on this one. Strange, very strange. Just think what would have happened here in the U.S. if 200 NAKED WOMEN stormed an oil drilling contractor's setup. WOW!

From what we could tell, they "ladies" thought they were protected from the police or militia if they were naked and they were ladies. In the past the police/militia beat or shot most of the local protesters. This happens frequently in Nigeria. The locals are jungle/swamp people and get no share in the oil revenue.

We were overrun several times and just waited them out. None of our folks were hurt but some of the locals on the rig crew got in trouble and beaten from time to time.

This would be up there on my list if I had seen it....

Hunting in Zim in 1985 a good friend and I toasted his buffalo to many times with sundowners in mass quanties. The next morning my hunting partner was in very bad shape. We climbed in the back of the truck to see if the cool air might revieve him. As we drove along a large bull elephant stormed out of the brush passing 20 yrds in front of the truck. The bull had been packing mud on his back to stay cool or to keep off bugs. As those of you who have hunted Zim know some of the areas have red clay and mud. Well this bull was covered in dried red mud turning him a pinkish color. My budy with the bloodshot eyes stiffed up right as the elephant crossed in front of the truck and crashed in to the brush on the other side of the track dissapering from view. "DID YOU SEE THAT?" he exclaimed. Did I see what I calmly replied. The look on his face was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The best drunk and pink elephant story and I got to see it.