Deadly Botswana Cape Buffalo
The most rarefied air on Earth is the painfully thin atmosphere between you and the malignant stare of a wounded Cape buffalo. The tiny bit of oxygen on the top of Mt. Everest must seem like molasses by comparison. You are connected in a wild, primordial way, as he...
The Guinea Worm
Pursuit of the tiny African parasite had fallen to his drinking buddies, who found it an amusing— though quite dangerous—game. Wait a minute!” said Bucky Blackrod. “I can feel it moving now. Get ready. Okay, nail the bastard!” A group of drunks lunged at his hairy...
Wounded Comrade
It was 1913 when renowned hunter and sculptor Carl Akeley created his most famous sculpture, "Wounded Comrade." Inspired by an actual event Akeley witnessed on his first trip to Africa in 1896, and encouraged by fellow sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor, he sculpted...
Bowhunting Walkabout
Mum always said everything happens for the best. Who would of thunk a conked-out Cruiser could lead to so much bowhunting fun? Standing alone in dry, desolate outback, I feel first rage, then fear, then can do nothing but laugh out loud at my predicament. I had blamed...
Two for Two: Selous’ Double on Elephants
The author makes a perfect double on elephants during his famous African wanderings.
This Hunting Tale’s No Croc!
Motor softly and carry a big stick when you’re in croc-infested waters.
The Chowgarh Tigress
Jim Corbett’s adventures with man-eating tigers have made his name famous in tiny villages of the Kumaon Hills in India. The man-eater is the rare tiger, usually one so weakened by old age or wounds that it cannot do its usual hunting and is forced to prey on human...
Song of the Kalahari
In the latter part of her life, Karen Blixen wrote wistfully of her one-time home in East Africa. The story became the book, Out of Africa and the movie of the same name. Africa still called to her decades after her departure. And I think I understand. Unlike her, I...
The Least of Your Worries, Pt. 1
A safari full of parasites, crocs, stampeding buffalo, and terrorists with automatic weapons and mortars.
Death in Sidamo
May 1979 Ethiopia, much like Nicaragua, ain’t what it used to be. It’s the same problem of Marxist incursion that has so altered life there that the country I knew really was a last horizon. There is still safari hunting in Ethiopia, but I think things have a very...