Week 8 – Dangerous Animal Knowledge

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Last week I faced down a charging lion; I shouldered my rifle shouted clear instructions to my guests to stand still, dropped to one knee and fired a brain shot, quickly followed by an insurance shot. Gladly the lion was just a picture on a sled pulled rapidly towards me from 30m away. It’s all part of our assessment for Trails Guide rifle handling, which is a requirement for being able to guide people on foot in dangerous animal areas.

The rifle was a .375 H&H which could take down an elephant and definitely feels like it could when you fire it. My shoulder aches from days of practice drills and exercises, Sandra has a massive bruise on her shoulder. Amazingly by the end of the week we both passed, if you’d told me on Monday I’d be able to shoot three shots, one of which was a dummy to simulate a misfire, reload and fire again hitting a 7cm diameter target 3 times all in 24 seconds, I would have said you’d be having a laugh. Just goes to show what you can do if you focus and practice. Sandra even has a perfect score for the second exercise, 3 shots in 20 seconds at 15, 10 and 5 metre targets. She hit the bulls eye (a 7cm diameter circle) each time. Now I know I definitely have to zig-zag when running away.

Over the weekend we were on tracker duty at the lodges, I went out on two drives on Sunday and Sandra did one on Saturday. Basically this involves interacting with guests and trying out some of our interpretive skills. As well as helping the field guide spot animals and tracks. I had a honeymoon couple from Germany on Sunday afternoon, it was really heartening to see the excitement in their faces as we came over a rise to see a white rhino cow and calf which I’d spotted from on top of the ridge and moved us slowly towards. We keep the sighting quiet by using Xhosa names for the animals, it helps to preserve the sense of excitement when your round a corner and see the animals. I got a real kick out of seeing the guests faces and remembering how excited I was when I first saw an elephant.

We walked out this morning to learn more about approaching animals on foot, we were able to get close in sightings of a white rhino and elephant before we stopped for lunch next to the river. We were all just discussing correct placement for a brain shot on a charging rhino when one appeared over the top of the ridge and checked us out offering us the perfect opportunity to check out his brain positioning. In case you ever need to stop a charging rhino the brain can be found by drawing a line from right ear to left eye and vice versa. Where they meet is the rhino’s brain.

We also had a number of eastern green snakes around camp over the weekend. As Friday was quiet hot we counted four in the bush outside the main lodge door. They are really beautiful snakes pencil thin and expressive eyes. They are non venomous and are relatively placid to handle, not that I’m confident enough to do that yet but its nice to observe them in their natural environment.

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Photos

A leopard tortoise
One of the 'small 5'

This is what you find under rocks
Not to deadl..... Big pincers, little venom, small pincers, lots of venom!

'Dagga boy'
He was the one that terrorised us the other night, while we tried to eat our dinner

Comments

[Dave]

Think the shooting knowledge will stand Sandra in good stead when she goes back to inner city teaching!!