Dec 21 1988
My current job is working for Xugana Camp flying an Aero Commander 680FL. |
| An Aero Commander like the one I flew for Xugana |
There are many Game Lodges and hunting camps in the Delta. Most of these have short, dirt strips to get clients in and out. There are no roads. Xugana was a very high priced fancy 4 star Photographic Game Lodge. Rich people came from all over the world to stay there. Seeing the “Big 5” (Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, and Rhino) is sometime just a morning's game drive. The clients fly from Johannesburg, South Africa to Maun, and from there a small Cessna usually flies them into the Delta. Xugana has two pilots and two aircraft. Myself with the Aero Commander, and Lee, flying a Cessna 206. I would bring clients from Johannesburg to Maun for Customs and Immigration, then take them to Xugana. After a few days Lee would fly them to other lodges throughout the Delta. They would end up again in Xugana a week later, and I would take them to Maun and then Johannesburg so they could catch their international flight back home.
On one trip, after leaving my fiance in Pretoria South Africa, I again flew clients to Maun and Xugana. On decent into Xugana I noticed the left engine was running rough. I landed and during the taxi to parking I tested the magnetos, and that convinced me something was wrong with the left engine ignition system. Lee was there with the boat to take us all to the lodge for lunch. During the dry season we would drive from the lodge to the airport. The annual flood was just coming in, and while still possible to drive the 2 miles between the airport and lodge, we had started to use the boat. I stayed to work on the engine. Lee and I agreed he would come get me before dark, after I had hopefully fixed the engine.
I changed clothes into shorts, t-shirt, and flip flops and opened the cowling of the left engine. I quickly saw a loose ignition wire. and put it back on tight. I ran the engine to make sure, and it was fixed. Now I had a 6 hour wait till Lee would come get me by boat.
It was a beautiful day, and the water between the airport and the Lodge was only about 6 inches deep, if I cut through the tall grass flood plain.
I left the airplane carrying only a South African newspaper for the staff to read. From the airplane I walked about 100 yards through an Acacia forest. The Acacia trees were of different types, but all had large thorns, and I had to watch carefully where I walked. On reaching the tall grass flood plain, I saw many animals. I was very conscious of the Letchwe, and Impala. They seemed very relaxed and just grazing, so I convinced myself there were no predators about.
I stepped into the water and was slowly walking toward the far shore. After about 30 yards, a buffalo stood up about 2 yards in front of me and charged.
He hit me in the chest with his horn boss knocking me on my back in the shallow water. He then put his nose close to the ground and stepped forward swinging his huge horns trying to hook me. Fortunately he was an old male, and his horns were blunt. His left horn horn hit me right above my right knee and he swung his head. The rough, weathered horn scraped skin off of my leg, stomach and up to the center of my chest. I now had my left arm gripping his left horn, and my right arm was around his left front leg. My feet were between his front legs. He was swinging his head and jumping up and down trying to crush me with his front feet. The force of his swinging head threw me aside, once again I landed on my back. He put his nose to the ground and charged again. This time both horns got under me and he flipped his head. I went airborne over him and landed on his bum, falling off behind him with a splash.
He didn't seem to know where I went. I guess a measly 200 pounds bouncing of his ass was such a minor thing he didn't feel it. I looked up, and saw a poo covered Buffalo ass, and off to the side a big ant heap.
The termite mount was cone shaped and about 10 foot tall.
I limped, ran, and splashed toward it. Arriving just before the snorting buffalo. I was able to keep the ant mound between me and the buffalo. He chased me around it a few times.
Some times he would stop and get a look on his face like “What was I doing?” Then he would smell me and snort, bellow and charge. I was doing a quick step dance keeping the big cone between me and the snorting beast. I looked around, and saw the Acacia trees. Once when the buffalo was wondering what was happening I ran for the trees. He figured it out real quick, and ran around the ant heap and charged.
I was running at Olympic speed, and ran right past a fig tree, but before my brain recognized it as a good climbing tree I was past it. I could here snorting and feel the earth trembling through the now dry dirt. A big tree jumped up in front of me and I went up it with skill that would make a monkey jealous. Of course a monkey would have been smart enough not to rapidly climb up a thorn tree.
The buffalo crashed to a halt under the tree stomping his feet and snorting. I remember thinking what the chances were that I found the only buffalo in the world that can climb trees. But he couldn't. Then in a brain dead state, I climbed up the thorn tree farther, why I don't know. Now I could only see right below me, and could see the head of the buffalo.
I was gasping air and the shock was diminishing, but pain was getting stronger. I was at least sure I would live, even if I sat here till Lee comes in about 5 hours. He should be able to hear me yell from the boat dock when he comes. As the pain grew, I realized I was not all that healthy. Breathing hurt. There appeared to be some broken ribs. I loosened my death grip around the tree. The pain was growing steadily at a fast rate. My feet hurt real bad. I looked at them and saw that there were numerous large thorns sticking up through the tops of my feet.
My flip flops were gone, my shorts were gone, my watch and my underwear were gone. All I had on was a t-shirt, and it had a huge hole right in the middle of the chest. My glasses were still on, and appeared undamaged.
The strip of missing skin between the inside of my right leg went all the way to the middle of my chest. The skin under my left arm looked like it had been filed away. and was a mass of oozing blood. Already there were flies on the wounds. The buffalo was snorting. I looked around in the tree to see if I was alone, and to see if there were any better perches for me. The missing skin was starting to burn, and I had trouble breathing, the ribs were very painful. But my feet hurt the worst. They were already swollen to about twice the size of normal.
About 3 years earlier I had been stung on the outside of my left foot by a scorpion. The poison had destroyed the lymphatic drainage system of the leg, so that leg is always swollen. The doctor says that the reduced circulation and water retention in that leg, along with the lack of a lymphatic system means if I even get infected there it can easily lead to amputation. I think of that now with thorns sticking out through the tops of my feet. Bending over to be able to reach my feet is very painful on my ribs, but I manage to pull all the thorns out of my feet. The longest was about 2 inches long.
I work my way down the tree to see if the buffalo is still there. I don't see him, but I hear him. The feeling in my feet, my ribs, and the missing skin all make everything hazy. I sort of doze/passed out for awhile.
Sometime later I move lower in the tree looking for the buffalo. I don't see him anywhere. From under the leaves and branches I can see my shorts laying about 20 feet away. I finally get to the ground, and standing is almost impossible. With extreme vigilance I make my way to my shorts. I stick my feet into the pockets, and start to shuffle toward the airplane. That was a very long walk. I knew if the buffalo reappeared, I could not run. I finally got to the airplane, and sat inside.
I got out some of the emergency drinking water, and started trying to clean the wounds. But breathing was a terrible thing to do. The only thing worse that breathing would probably be, not breathing.
I was in a lot of pain, and took quite a few aspirin out of the first-aid kit and drank them down. Pain makes me not think so well. I was starting to feel a bit embarrassed also. Here I was the great bush expert, and I had almost tripped over a sleeping buffalo.
I thought about calling on the aircraft radio for help, but I was out of range of Air Traffic Control, and on different frequencies than the camp used to communicate with Maun. Pain finally made the decision, to try to get hold of any aircraft that may be flying overhead. I powered up the airplane, and listened on the radio. About 5 minutes later I heard a buddy, John on his way from Maun to Shakawe. I asked him if he could relay to Air Traffic Control in Maun. I told him what happened, and asked him to have the tower in Maun call the Xugana office in town, and have them call the camp on the HF radio, to come get me at the airport. Within minutes, all of northern Botswana knew that Dan had stumbled onto a buffalo.
I thanked John, and waited. About 5 minutes later I hear the roar of the Land Rover splashing through the water on the flooded road. I see them turn onto the far end of the runway. Lee is driving and Pauline the camp manager is holding a bunch of first aid equipment. One of the bandages is being drug behind the Land Rover, and I see it is growing longer as it unwinds. Lee slides to a halt by the plane, and I get out on very sore feet.
Lee looks a bit funny, and Pauline is not looking at me. Lee points to my groin, which is visible beneath my t-shirt. I grab the hem of my t-shirt and pull it down to cover myself. Pauline looks at me and laughs, then turns away. I had lowered the t-shirt exactly enough to show my groin through the big hole in the chest of the shirt.
Lee took off his shorts and helped me put them on. Now Pauline got into nurse mode. She first wrapped my chest with the muddy, wet, bandage that had been dragged behind the Land Rover, then sprayed my missing skin, then washed my feet. Lee picked me up into the Land Rover, and we drove back to the camp.
Later that day Lee flew me to Johannesburg, and my fiance took me to the hospital. The Doc was most concerned with spleen damage. I spent 2 nights in Hospital, then went home. The Civil Aviation Agency pulled my medical straightaway, so I now had no income.
We could not make the payments on our new house, so after a week, we moved into a friends spare bedroom so we could rent out our house.
I got my pilot license back after 4 weeks. My ribs still hurt, but I faked through the medical. My feet healed with no infection, and my ribs slowly got better. The skin grew back. The only lasting damage was a swollen spot in the middle of my chest about the size of my fist that is numb without any feeling, and a bump on my left back where the ribs had tied to come out.
I met Lee at the Johannesburg airport and asked him what happened to the buffalo. He said they got in some Bushman trackers in to help find the buffalo. One Professional hunter was translating what the trackers were saying as they followed my spoor. They had said something like this:
"The idiot walked through the trees for a short cut instead of staying on the open road.
Then the fool stumbled on a sleeping Nare (buffalo), then the buffalo played with him a bit, and then he tried to hide behind an ant hill, then he ran past many good trees till he found the worst tree for many miles, and then climbed it.”
They found my flip-flops and underwear, and what was left of the newspaper. They either never found my watch, or kept it.
They found the buffalo, and shot it. They said it was to close to the camp and airport where clients were walking around.
One thing that sticks in my mind, is the fact that mankind is a real poor animal. We are slow, thin skinned, and have poor senses. I can think of nothing that would have helped me once that Buffalo stood up. I didn't even have time to hit him on the nose with a newspaper in my hand. A shot gun or bazooka, or hand grenade would have been useless.
Humans are the wimps of the animal kingdom.
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