Blog # 8: Grumpy Buffalo bulls!
Our first bush walk had exceeded all my expectations and as the morning moved along, so did our number of encounters, with wild animals!
We were ambling quietly through a large area of tall thatching grass, looking carefully everywhere and scanning our surrounds for any animals. This beautifully picturesque setting included a fairly large slow flowing river to the East of our position. Our Trainers’ mentioned that a few Buffalo bull’s or Dagga boys as they are commonly known as, had been seen in the area earlier that morning. Of course the bush, is not a zoo, so the likelihood of finding them nearby was not guaranteed, unless they were ruminating and therefore might be lying down on some grass or in the river while they regurgitated their grass again and again. The classic Dagga boy name evolved because the bulls often lie in the river mud to cool down and this mud that also protects them from parasites, is called Dagga by the local Zulu people of the area (and in many other languages in Africa)
Buffalo are one of the most potentially dangerous animals on foot and we were about to find out why! As we approached the nearby river, it was obvious that we were all a tad nervous but totally focused on the moment. We walked quietly and slowly in single file behind our one trainer, on high alert should anything happen or if we needed to obey any immediate instructions.
Then, without warning, it all happened in a flash! We heard a few furious snorts, then the sound of showering splashes, followed by a cloud of visible dust flying and with that, two angry buffalo bulls came charging straight towards us.
We immediately heard the anxious, but calm shout for us to retreat hastily to a fever tree that was a few meters away. A buffalo covers fifteen meters per second, so although the tree was close by, it was far away relative to the pace of the rapidly ensuing Buffalo bulls. We stood behind the big tree, taking cover, and freezing at the same time. There was to be no running, but maybe climbing and although it was a terribly frightening moment, we all held our own and prayed that the buffalo would keep on running past us.
Luckily for us, the two bulls kept on running, stomping the ground, and tearing up any bushes in their path. They were angry old bulls with bad attitudes, and we were extremely fortunate to have not met with their ill-tempered wrath.
After a few minutes of regaining our breaths and trembling composure, we sat down and chatted about what had just happened. After playing out a few various scenarios, we decided that we must have been upwind from the Dagga boys so they would have smelt us and maybe even heard us first, before seeing us. They lay waiting for the right moment and were having none of us upset their relaxing river time, so did what they do very well – charge! They could have also run off in another direction, but that day, they decided to give us a fright and a fright they did give, with some change!
We learnt a great deal that morning, having come across white rhino, an elephant bull and the two dagga boys. Three out of the big five on our first walk, was amazing and it made us realize just how unpredictable the bush could be and how important it was to understand animal behavioral patterns. Knowing these patterns could save a life of our guests or the animal one day and more importantly could ensure that we never got into a compromising situation intentionally. Normally the goal was and always will be, wherever possible, to view the animal without it knowing that we were there and to leave without it ever knowing that we were there. Obviously exceptional circumstances would throw us curve balls as we learnt more every day, but we would always remember to treat all animals with the utmost respect and to never forget that we were the guests in their habitat.
Our Trainers’ decided to call it a day and suggested that we head back to camp, a few kilometers away. Upon our return we had a scrumptious and healthy lunch, followed by an afternoon in the boiling hot classroom. We would all rather have been outside, but understood the necessity of books, lectures and learning the basics and some theory. It would be one of the ingredients that would help mould us into for filling our ultimate dream of becoming professional and knowledgeable guides one day!……