Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Ed's 1950 Safari - Part 14

"We were there just at the break of day. We left the hunting car at the native village. The same local native was with us. After he had walked three or four hundred feet with the rest of us close behind, he turned to the right, went around a clump of bushes where he pointed ahead, and there stood two rhinoceros not 250 feet from us. They were right out in the open , at what the natives call a 'salt lick' which is nothing more than a hole in the ground where the animals dig for salt. Both rhinos were out in the open and we walked right out in the open and stood and watched them for a few minutes, making certain that the wind was in the right direction, so that they couldn't smell us. Inasmuch as their eye sight is very poor, they could not see us even though we were within 250 feet. The guide, one of the gun bearers, and the Doctor walked around to the left, around some bushes, where they thought they could get a better broadside shot at one of the rhinos. Of course they picked out the biggest rhino and found that he was pretty tough, as they had to shoot him four times to stop him. The second rhino was only about three fourth grown, and was evidently a calf, following its mother. We were informed that the rhino calf follows its mother until another calf is born, regardless of its age and size. However when another calf is born, the mother chases the older calf away.

The smaller rhino stayed around. Inasmuch as it was only shortly after daybreak, there was not enough light to take any pictures, so we waited around watching him until there was light enough to get our pictures. We then had the problem of getting rid of the second rhino, so we could get our trophy. We finally took the hunting car to try to chase him away. Part of the the time he was chasing the truck and part of the time the truck was chasing him. Finally he took off into the brush, and we saw no more of him.

After removing some of the skin, which we wanted, which skin is 1 1/4" thick, and taking the feet and horns we stopped for our breakfast, having taken our cooking equipment and cooks with us. They had cooked our breakfast while we were doing the hunting.

After breakfast, we went to the spot where I had shot my rhinoceros, and much to our surprise we found the second rhino was still there, so again we had the problem of getting rid of a rhino so we could get the trophy. It seemed that the live rhino suspected that there was something around, as he immediately started prancing around. We were all ready with our guns to take care of him in the event that he had come at us. All of a sudden, he decided to go the other way and disappeared. We then skinned the rhino, took the feet and horns, and headed back for camp."

Enjoying your posts 5s. Makes me think I was born 50-years too late. On the other hand, I've been able to see how rapidly "Africa", at least Namibia and Botswana have changed over the past 15-years and to some degree find myself thinking the mid "2000's" were the good ol' days.

That's one of the reason I always tell people that if they have any interest in going to Africa go and go now as it is honestly slipping away, far too quickly.

Where are the first few parts?
I just found this and wanted to start from the beginning, but can't find them.

I started off up in the general forum before it was suggested that it would be better to put them down here in the Africa forum, which I should have realized from the start. (Thanks, hatari!) They would just get buried in the daily avalanche of threads up there. If you look back a number of days, you should be able to find them. I also did a whole series on Ed's 1951 safari that were up in the general forum as well, so a further search would dig those up as well. They included some background information on Ed as well. Wish that I had been smart enough on my own to think about locating them in the Africa forum in the first place. Thanks for your interest and happy hunting. Best, John

OK, never being accused of being quick on the up-take, I just figured out that the best way to find them is to search for the word Ed's in the title with the much-maligned search function.

5,

how about reposting the first segments here so they all are in one place?

Very interesting and enjoyable reading.

Thank you for your effort to share these.

That's a good idea, but I'm not smart enough to know how to move them.

Just copy and paste into a new thread in this subforum is quick and easy or send Rick a note and ask him to move them.

Sadly, my statement of intelligence stands. I have appealed to Rick via PM.