http://allafrica.com/stories/201110100308.html



The Day I Looked Death in the Face
Elisha Mayallah
8 October 2011


opinion

Encounters with animals that roam the vast Tanzanian wildernesses are, to many people, through photos. But a more real, often life-threatening experience while on a game walk, game drive or hunting safari is what many of us need to discover the great mysteries of wildlife.

I had joined a small group on a hunting mission in the vast wilderness of the Maasailand, near Lake Natron, which is a two-hour bumpy ride from Arusha. And after the gruelling trip, I hoped to spot the elusive big game and find a little more adventure and excitement.

This was a guided hunting safari for me to experience the wide variety of wildlife and terrain in the hunting zone (game controlled area) while getting closer to mother 'nature' and experience its own ties.

We left our 4WD Landcruiser parked at a short distance. And for nearly two hours, we trekked through stretches of open land passing near the vicinity of Lake Natron. But despite our brave tracking - we did not find anything - no animals. The bush was quiet.

Horrible barking

Then suddenly we heard a horrible barking sound. "Buffalo, buffalo," said the patrons in the group, in squeaky whispers. A barking buffalo reminded me that we were in the heart of animal land. With a rapidly charging buffalo approaching, I started wondering whether I was going to make it back to Arusha. My sixth sense suggested that this could be my last-minute and hour!

"Be careful he is a wounded buffalo," warned one professional hunter in the group. But the real shock was when he advised us to distract the charging buffalo, without which, we would all be dead meat!

I looked at other people in the group. They were all terrified. The hunter encouraged us not to panic. Yet he provoked the buffalo with a stick, and the animal came at full speed to attack him. The hunter ordered us to run back to our Landcruiser, about 200 metres from the scene. It was the only way for us to survive, he told us!

Ferocious buffalo

We ran back, leaving the hunter struggling with the ferrous buffalo that was closing in on the man, ready to attack. Eventually, when he had made sure that all of us were safely seated in the vehicle, the hunter motioned to the driver in the vehicle to drive the car towards the buffalo. What a trick?


It was then that the buffalo gave up the chase. It suddenly stopped, but still threatening, and looking straight at the hunter, the animal kept on barking. It watched furiously from a short distance as our driver revved up the engine to 'knock him down'. It was a mock attempt.

Meanwhile, from the vehicle, we looked at one another as I felt blood flowing in the veins of my head. And after he had joined us in the vehicle, the hunter looked at me sternly, as tears ran down my cheeks. He spoke with some difficulty, "Mungu ni Mkubwa!' Literally, 'God is great'.

It took almost 10 more minutes before the buffalo finally withdrew and walked away in anger. After a while, I realised the hunter was a man of his words, and one could trust him with his life, which we did.

To me, the hunter is one person that passed the test of nature and now glad (at long last) that I have experienced a very unusual travel adventure.

Heck! I stayed up half of last night listening to what I thought was my neighbor's Labrador barking. If it starts again tonight, I'm going to get my .450 Nitro double out and get that damn noisy buffalo... or I may just poke it with a stick.

Photo hunter should have gone to lake for the Flamingo pics...

I thought I had seen everything, but I have never seen a barking, ferrous buffalo.

Still, the writer holds the hunter in high esteem and that's good enough for me.

quote:

It took almost 10 more minutes before the buffalo finally withdrew and walked away in anger. After a while, while I was scraping stink mud out of by boxer shorts, I realised the hunter was a man of his words, and one could trust him with his life, which we did.

To me, the hunter is one person that passed the test of nature and now glad (at long last) that I have experienced a very unusual travel adventure.

Nice

"and I shalt now go to CITES meeting and insist Buffalo should be considered our friends"

Someone is very confused about what exactly they experienced, the sequence of events and the corresponding timeline. Or perhaps this is simply a fantasy.

Concur entirely with lionhunter. From what Kathi submitted for our perusal, I have no idea what happened.

Very odd.

Sam308.... Those little birds are really eagles. Glad you are safe.

Ski+3

The fantasy thought struck me as well if a charging buffalo gave them enough time to run 200 meters and drive the vehicle back while the hunter was strugling with the ferocious buff.

"We ran back, leaving the hunter struggling with the ferrous buffalo that was closing in on the man, ready to attack. Eventually, when he had made sure that all of us were safely seated in the vehicle, the hunter motioned to the driver in the vehicle to drive the car towards the buffalo. What a trick?"

Von Gruff.

Hilarious. I want one of those barking buffalos. They are apparently pretty slow, given that a hoard of tourists can run 200 yards while the PH distracts them with a stick.

BARKING BUFFALO?? gotta admit, never seen( or heard) one of these ferrous creatures and i sure as hell wouldn't fend him off with a stick!

The author is probably writing in his 3rd language, never been in the bush facing wild animals and at least has nothing negative to say about hunters or hunting! So from my perspective, kudos to him for trying to write about an experience he shall never forget.

What a load of shit.
The fact that this supposed "Journalism" is allowed speaks volumes for the inferiority of modern publishers and their fly by night journalists.

I would put money on it that this persona has never been to Africa.

I do not suppose that it could have been a bull mastiff-great dane cross? Snorting, barking? Just thinking.

quote:

Originally posted by African Hunters Quest:
What a load of shit.
The fact that this supposed "Journalism" is allowed speaks volumes for the inferiority of modern publishers and their fly by night journalists.

I would put money on it that this persona has never been to Africa.

I am giving you the chance to swallow your pride....and save some $$.

The author IS from Tanzania and as I said above, probably writing in his 3rd language (tribal language being first, followed by KiSwahili).

Can you write a similar article in zulu?

I agree that he probably has not been in the bush much or not at all.

I concur that the translation probably doesn't much correspond to the actual events and, since my only "second" language is Guallah, I'm sure I'd do worse..... but it is funny as heck how it "came out".

I had the fortune? of having a young, female Tanzanian student accompany us while on safari in Tanzania. She was about 20, bright and attractive. Apparently, as a part of her studies in game management, she had to "shadow" a game scout for a week or two and was assigned to our camp and our scout. She walked every foot of our buffalo hunts.

It was a hoot. Her eyes were as wide as a marsupial's. I don't think she had ever been out of a city. The hippos grunting down in the river at night terrified her (at least for the first couple of nights), she'd never held a gun (much less even shot one), most all the game we saw was the first of the species she'd experienced and when leopard tracks were found outside of her tent, she wouldn't come out in the mornings unless escorted (by the camp chief named Moses).

In other words, Africa, like the U.S., has it's city folks who are more in tune to asphalt and concrete than to antelope and elephants. I'd imagine buffalo were as foreign to Elisha above who "faced death" as alligators were terrifying to Fernando de Soto's men (ever read of their first encounters?... and they were writing in native Spanish).

All that said, as Retriever will confirm, "our" visiting student fell in love with the bush that week.... and the camp chief, marrying him! (Maybe he did a bit more than just "escort" the lady from her tent ).

Good for the fledgling student and good for the pilgrim who heard the "barking" buffalo. I doubt that either still believes that "The Lion King" is a true story.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:

quote:

Originally posted by African Hunters Quest:
What a load of shit.
The fact that this supposed "Journalism" is allowed speaks volumes for the inferiority of modern publishers and their fly by night journalists.

I would put money on it that this persona has never been to Africa.

I am giving you the chance to swallow your pride....and save some $$.

The author IS from Tanzania and as I said above, probably writing in his 3rd language (tribal language being first, followed by KiSwahili).

Can you write a similar article in zulu?

I agree that he probably has not been in the bush much or not at all.

Good job, Judge. You gave us some good infomation and reasons to be a bit more open minded. That's always a plus on AR.

I greatly admire and enjoy your posts. Would love to share a bushcamp and sundowners with you some time.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:

quote:

Originally posted by African Hunters Quest:
What a load of shit.
The fact that this supposed "Journalism" is allowed speaks volumes for the inferiority of modern publishers and their fly by night journalists.

I would put money on it that this persona has never been to Africa.

I am giving you the chance to swallow your pride....and save some $$.

The author IS from Tanzania and as I said above, probably writing in his 3rd language (tribal language being first, followed by KiSwahili).

Can you write a similar article in zulu?

I agree that he probably has not been in the bush much or not at all.

just re-read the article for the third time. there is more bullshit in it than a south Texas feed lot. "wounded buffalo". "distract the buffalo with a stick". "we ran back leaving the hunter struggling with the buffalo that was closing in and ready to attack". "when he made sure we were all safely seated in the vehicle, the hunter motioned to the driver to drive the car toward the buffalo". "the buffalo gave up the chase. it suddenly stopped but still threatening". "the buffalo finally withdrew and walked away in anger"( so the GWH let a wounded buff walk away)."our driver revved up the engine to knok him down"... this isn't a language problem- it's a credibility problem. 10 pounds of bullshit in a 5 pound bag. a more believable tale could have been concocted on the veranda of the Sea Cliff in Dar.

quote:

there is more bullshit in it than a south Texas feed lot.

That be the truth.
I still stand by what I said, this article should never have been published other than in the creative writing section of a dime novel.

I cant write in Zulu, I only speak Xhosa. But I know my limitations and as a writer I would never ever publish a pile of shit like this as it is simply not done.

If you want something to be translated then do so properly from an original text and get a competent person to proof read it.

When the buffalo puts its head down to eat some more grass, its really scary, one never knows if it is going to charge next, or eat another mouthful ...

It reminds me when I too looked at death face-to-face after missing the sale at Saks.

I look at it like some of you guys, what she saw and what happened was probably two very different things. The hunter probably told them "this buffalo could be wounded, so go back to the truck while I keep an eye on it" and she took that as him saying it was charging and he stopped the charge with the wave of a stick (who knows what really happened there, I don't have enough imagination to justify that). Like others have said, she didn't denounce hunting, actually encouraging it in the first paragraph of her "article". No harm no foul as far as I'm concerned, she even said everyone should experience Africa, whether it be hunting or otherwise.

It's all a matter of perspective, and being written from the perspective of a woman who has never been in the bush or out of the city for that matter, that's probably exactly how she saw it. However, there's no doubt that what she saw and what actually happened are two very different things.

By the way Will, I got a pretty good laugh out of your comment above!

I have danced with a wounded buffalo. If you are going to run 200 yards while distracting a buff you will have around 3 to 5 seconds. This means you will have to run between 40 and 70 yards in a second. Sixty miles an hour is 30 yards a second. Wounded buffalo don't hesitate, they come with everything at about 15 yards a second. (If you don't believe me ask Mark S.) A healthy, in-shape, young human can run for a short distance at 8 to 10 yards per second and not for 200 yards. This account is a total fabrication, but I do like that hunting and hunters were not run down. There is another possibility, the buff was Elsa, a tame buff cow.....Tom

no, no. I promise you it really happened.......

I suspect that the "guide" was having a bit of fun scaring the city folk who have never been in the bush. He gave them an adventure to remember - think that has ever happened on a hunt - and one of the people wrote it up and got it published. Nothing to get one's panties in a knot over.
The only difference between this story and the ones often told around the campfire is this one didn't start "NO shit - there I was....".

I understand the language barriers and the city dweller issues. It's still funny.

Will: Now THAT'S funny! I've had the very same experience!

I don't know what mind-altering substance those boys and girls were smoking but it had to be some really good $hit!

Seriously, I am changing my trophy bucket list as we speak to add the rare Lake Natron Barking Buffalo...

I thought if the buffalo was barking it wouldn't bite...........or was that wagging it's tail?