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Let there be no doubt that there are still man-eating lions, infant-stealing leopards, rapacious crocs, hyenas that bite people's faces (and other tender parts) off and bad tempered members of the pachyderm tribe! The number of photo-tourists who get eaten every year is one of the best kept dirty little secrets of the Dark Continent. The number of native Africans who find themselves not on the top of the food chain is frightening. You can disappear there. I personally haven't met any PH's with a story-telling ability to compare with PHC's but a fine, stalwart bunch they are, indeed. Just keep this in mind. Do no try to go to Africa once "to get it out of my system". It won't work. Africa becomes an addiction every bit as expensive as illegal drugs. Fortunately, it isn't in any bad for you. Even in the unlikely event the beasts win a round, as they occasionally do, can you think of a better death for a hunter? Otherwise, you will become legend in your own family.

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Every morning I was up at 3AM to go and visit our hyena blind. I heard all kinds of crunching and slurping sounds and lions and leopards and dogs and god knows what else while quitely sneaking into our little grass blind.

Walking by startlight, just you and your PC, not making a peep as you crawl into place, you can easily imagine the eyes looking at you as you move. I've never had a feeling like that in a deer blind!!!

The bones, the vultures, the way they tore up our bait and ripped through heavy wire to get a scrap of meat....

I asked my PH what the chances were of a man surviving the night unarmed in the Zambezi Valley, and he said, "With a fire and a big tree, 90% chance. With just a tree, 30% chance. Not good at all."