My friend sat crouched in pain, no longer the young man I knew but more an injured child. Black stitches like giant centipedes covered his abdomen. Here and there flesh had been stripped to the bone and black bruises discoloured his battered body. To talk was difficult for him but he needed to tell his story after all I was his mate and for him he needed me to hear this. It was to be part of his mental recovery. He had seen the dark shadow of death and it was still in his eyes.

A week earlier Richard had been in the Bangweulu swamps in the northern province of Zambia. We were working for Russ Broom then and his client Ed Conger was a jovial larger than life character whose priority for this safari was to be Sitatunga. We had been warned that Ed’s heart was a bit dickey and his wife had specifically requested that we do not overexert or stress her man in anyway. The hunt was a difficult one and typically the secretive Sitatunga were proving elusive. The hunters knew there were some big bulls in this area but the machan (raised blind) was badly placed and need to be relocated. It was decided the best position would be the more open fringes of the swamp where grass was shorter and visibility better.

‘I had left Ed in the car whilst the tracker and a couple of helpers poled me across the lagoon. I had to move the machan. I left my gun in the car as I knew it would hinder my work. My team dismantle the platform and we walking in single file and had not gone far, maybe a couple hundred metres and just gotten out of the reed bank, when a buffalo that had been lying up in the shorter grass got up on its feet. He was a superb specimen and a classic picture as he raised his great head. However the moment was all to brief as when it saw us it charged. And I remember he did not come straight but rather in a shallow arc.’

Richard was alone as his men had already scattered and like wise he also ran for the cover of the swamp. Zigzagging down one of the many tunnels for one brief moment though he had lost the buffalo and that is when the damn thing ran him over. Another brief moment when he thought it might continue on but this was not to be and on the remote piece of muddy ground was when the violence started.

Richard remembers his first reaction was try and hold onto the horns whilst keeping the wicked curves away from his head, but the power of the animal was enormous and he was tossed like a rag doll. He also remembers trying to play dead before it smashed into him again the horns scything deep into his stomach. The bull was furious in his assault and blew angry bubbles of froth onto its victim face as it stamped and crushed him into the mire. Thrashing and heaving the Buffalo used its huge bulk to pound the human into the watery grave. If the ground had been less forgiving it would have been at this point that death would have followed. The goring continued and then exhausted the Buffalo lay down. Together they lay side-by-side and the great beast snorting great gouts of fetid breath. Now and again it would force its muzzle into the young man’s face to see if there was still life. When rested it would start the onslaught again. The buffalo horns speared and ripped as Richard’s blood began to flow, and he realised that it was now only be a matter of time before a horn or hoof would inflict mortal injury.

‘I was angry with myself for not having my gun as I so wanted to kill this brute. (As an apprentice hunter) I had always been told to carry a gun in the field and I had broken this rule’.

Dazed and not knowing if his wounds were fatal Richard could only look at his adversary as once again it again lay to rest. Suffering from a poacher’s bullet the great animal was beginning to tire. My friend knew that he would probably not survive another goring. The buffalo had tossed him far this time and fortunately for him into a stand of papyrus. Through a gap in the reeds he witnessed the grim animal stand up as it searched for its victim again. Sniffing the ground like a dog the buffalo followed the man’s blood trail, this time away from where he lay. The goring had lasted some 45 minutes.

Ed had heard it all. It must have been very hard for him not being able to cross the deep swamps to help a fellow man in need.

The medical rescue unit touched down at Lusaka International where Richard’s father waited not knowing his son’s condition and fully expecting the worse. He was on the tarmac when the medics bought out the body out on a stretcher. ‘Its OK Dad it missed my balls’ bought an instant smile to his fathers face.

The aircraft that carried Richard out was the same that had bought in the respected professional hunter Austin Wienand, who was to continue with the safari, and coincidentally this was the very man who had advised the young apprentice to always carry his gun. Sitatunga was not on Austin’s mind when he stepped out of the plane that day. And he sought and slayed the beast. It is a brave man who can enter dense swamp and entice a Buffalo to charge him at close quarters. Unbeknown to Austin although this Buffalo was also wounded it was not the perpetrator. Two days later a party of scouts encountered the animal and shot it to death with their automatic assault rifles.

I was in Chikuni village when the great head (46 inch) was bought in and initially I was doubtful whether this was indeed the animal, but having it in my hands there was no doubt. Obscene ribbons of human flesh decorating the broad face of the buffalo. The maggoty boss had pieces of Richard in all its crevices. Luckily for the scouts one of the AK rounds had found it’s mark and had penetrated the brain. I remember this day well. It was the same day I was asked to dispatch an enraged hippo that had run amok in this small community. The scouts had spent their ammunition on the Buffalo and with some trepidation it was my turn to enter the dank recesses of Bangweulu. Sweating bricks I waded through this murky mire. Visibility was poor and in every shadow I expected an enraged Buffalo, a crazed Hippo. It was not to be and the hippo was found in a pitiful condition, close to death, two spear shafts protruding from its back.

Richards’s recovery was remarkable considering his abdomen was skewered in three places; one horn had driven through the top of his groin compacting up into his diaphragm. The doctors had remarked that it was a miracle that he had received no head injuries, no broken bones. They cleaned his internal organs and stitched him up and sent him on his way.

Dangerous place the swamps.

This surely has to be the longest recorded goring by a buffalo in history?

quote:

Obscene ribbons of human flesh decorating the broad face of the buffalo. The maggoty boss had pieces of Richard in all its crevices.

How the maggots missed out on the exposed ribbons of human flesh is a mystery.

quote:

Originally posted by kibokolambogo:

quote:

Obscene ribbons of human flesh decorating the broad face of the buffalo. The maggoty boss had pieces of Richard in all its crevices.

How the maggots missed out on the exposed ribbons of human flesh is a mystery.

Kibokolambogo

Thing is I am not a maggot so I would not know?

Never thought I would say this as I previously asked you to quit posting here.But, Thanks for another interesting piece.I enjoyed your account of what was surely a horrible incident. How did the old boy eventually recover? Completely I hope.

Thanks for another great story, Andrew -- much more detail than was given in ASG a few years ago. I'm hunting with Richard in July and have been interested in hearing more about that day.

quote:

Originally posted by sandyhunter:
Thanks for another great story, Andrew -- much more detail than was given in ASG a few years ago. I'm hunting with Richard in July and have been interested in hearing more about that day.

Probably the best choice you will make in your hunting career. There is a lot of stuff that I have not mentioned and there is a lot he can tell you.

quote:

Originally posted by eyedoc:
Never thought I would say this as I previously asked you to quit posting here.But, Thanks for another interesting piece.I enjoyed your account of what was surely a horrible incident. How did the old boy eventually recover? Completely I hope.

Three weeks later he was hunting buffalo in Mulobezi.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:


‘I was angry with myself for not having my gun as I so wanted to kill this brute. (As an apprentice hunter) I had always been told to carry a gun in the field and I had broken this rule’.

I would think that would have been my self loathing as well.

Even in Alaska I don't go to the loo without the 41 Mag Ruger blackhawk handgun in my shoulder holster, and in Africa, I never get down from the bakki even to look at spoor without taking my rifle down with me! I have a CHL (concealed handgun license)license and I never leave my home with out a concealed 45 ACP handgun, because the streets of most large cities are more dangerous than the African bush!

Well-written. Thanks...

The amazing thing is that I hunted buffalo with Richard (the subject of the goring) after this event and he didn't seem to be a bit hesitant to walk into the long grass tracking a buffalo. I never even saw him unsling his rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by eyedoc:
Never thought I would say this as I previously asked you to quit posting here.But, Thanks for another interesting piece.I enjoyed your account of what was surely a horrible incident. How did the old boy eventually recover? Completely I hope.

I was certainly interested in this story as well as the previous posting telling about the croc that grabbed the baby elephant. Not to start an argument, but why were asked to quit posting here?

Are these annecdotes part of a larger collection published somewhere else? Pretty good stuff IMHO

quote:

Originally posted by yellowstone:

quote:

Originally posted by eyedoc:
Never thought I would say this as I previously asked you to quit posting here.But, Thanks for another interesting piece.I enjoyed your account of what was surely a horrible incident. How did the old boy eventually recover? Completely I hope.

I was certainly interested in this story as well as the previous posting telling about the croc that grabbed the baby elephant. Not to start an argument, but why were asked to quit posting here?

Politics?

Are these annecdotes part of a larger collection published somewhere else? Pretty good stuff IMHO

No just stuff that happens in the bush.

quote:

Originally posted by G L Krause:
The amazing thing is that I hunted buffalo with Richard (the subject of the goring) after this event and he didn't seem to be a bit hesitant to walk into the long grass tracking a buffalo. I never even saw him unsling his rifle.

There is very little that scares Richard after that.

quote:

Originally posted by yellowstone:

quote:

Originally posted by eyedoc:
Never thought I would say this as I previously asked you to quit posting here.But, Thanks for another interesting piece.I enjoyed your account of what was surely a horrible incident. How did the old boy eventually recover? Completely I hope.

I was certainly interested in this story as well as the previous posting telling about the croc that grabbed the baby elephant. Not to start an argument, but why were asked to quit posting here?

Are these annecdotes part of a larger collection published somewhere else? Pretty good stuff IMHO

Fairgame initially fell foul with the hierarchy on AR because he asked questions that ruffled their panties and challenged their ill conceived ideas of how things work in Africa.

As is typical of this forum, if you disagree with the tight knit, ignorant and boring clique that post here and think that they know everything that there is to know about Africa because they have made a couple of champagne safaris over there, then you generally get called a troll, are abused and told to leave. That's just the way it is.

Occasionally, a few knowledgeable folk post excellent information and stories that are genuinely of value and those fellows are worth listening to. It's just a matter of sorting through and discarding the bullshit, of which there is plenty.

John Frederick,

I tend to agree with you here. I got a lot of flack from the threads 'cats and dogs' and 'what happens if you shoot your tracker' which I did honestly think were topics of more interest than 'I am planning a Blesbok hunt in Cape Town in four years time' etc

I am still trying to sort out the men from the boys and as you have indicated there are some very fine individuals that contribute to this site.