As the elephants continued to eat, we drove abreast at about 50 yards.  A cow saw us and started toward us so we moved on. We arrived at the Bilili Camp in the late afternoon. It is a good camp with excellent accommodations, situated on a long pond containing crocodiles and hippopotamus.  Again, I haven't got the camera unpacked when two hippo rise up out of the water and start fighting. John said, "Don't go near the river bank without a rifle. We had just flown a man (John Isaac's of Chicago) to a hospital in Johannesburg badly hurt by a hippo". They were hunting bushbuck along the river bank when the hippo charged out of the thicket. Besides trampling his victim, the hippo picked him up in his mouth before the guide could shoot the animal. The victim had a split scrotum, fractured skull and other injuries as the hippo returned, charged and charged again before being shot.

DAY 2 - We are up at 5a.m. and on our way by six. Saw some sable, kudu and elephants but nothing shoot able. Shot a duiker for the table and a hartebeest for leopard bait. Went to track some buffalo, Saw four fair bulls, fair horns, passed them up. Some big elephant with small tusks near a water hole where we wanted to hang a leopard bait. As we approached on foot to about 75 yards when the elephants saw us and turned to come - got out of there fast and choose anotherr spot to hang the bait.

Another 10 miles further we spotted two eland about one-half mile distant, one was a nice bull. They spotted us at the same time, so off they went. John said if we wanted an eland we must track them, so we followed about 3 miles but could see by the tracks that they were turning every 300 to  400 yards  and were checking for us. The wind was wrong so we never did see them again and gave up the chase. Boy, was I glad to get back to the car, haven’t walked that far for a long time.

Another big elephant. John says the reason they eat so much is that they only half digest their food and it’s evident by their dung. When elephants die of old age, they generally starve to death because they cannot eat enough to keep them alive. An elephant has ten sets of teeth, each set lasts from eight to ten years. When one falls out, another replaces it, so conceivably an animal could live to 80 years of age, but records indicate that the greatest known age of an elephant is 60.

Drove on a few miles and picked up the track of some buffalo but the wind is wrong so we gave up at one mile and called it a day.

DAY 3 - John had told me about two lions with 5 cubs down by a water hole called Warm Springs. They had charged the hunting car on an earlier safari, and John had to go 40 miles per hour to get away from them. His client, a Mr. Andy Phillips, had a video camera and got pictures and sound of it all. Once in a lifetime thrill, I thought. We headed toward this area, about 40 miles distant. The place is a large plain of dried grass that they call a "dambo" with some green at the far end and apparently water in the center of the green. Dambo appears to be about a mile long and a half mile wide. John said on the other side was where the lions had chased him. Thought no more about it.

At the other end of the dambo was a big herd of buffalo, perhaps 300 to 400. Just a huge black mass in a cloud of dust. Glassed them to try to determine the direction of movement. Finally decided they were headed west so left the hunting car in the woods and started on a long circular stalk to try to get in front of the movement. Planned to let them come in to us while hidden in some bush and then pick one out. Just as we had about reached 90 ° with the line we had taken, we saw 5 buffalo going in the opposite way at about 150 yards. No good one there so stopped so not to spook them and let them go by.

By chance we looked to the left and spotted two warthogs at about 60 yards. In looking beyond them in a clump of bush another 15 yards distant was a lioness looking at us through a hole in the bush, and then another lioness, and another, and a bunch of cubs. John exclaimed, "My God, there are those nasty lions - that's bad news." Immediately one of the lionesses got up and walked about 30 feet toward us. John yelled, "Watch out, she's going to charge." With an angry snarl she charged full out and John yelled "Backup, Backup" as he fired into the ground in front of her. She skidded to a stop, snarled at us and looked back at the cubs and decided we had backed up enough, so she walked back to the cubs. The second lioness then came out and I guess we were not backing up fast enough, so they both gave an angry snarl and charged full out. I thought, boy, you've had it! They were coming so fast, not a pleasant sight! John yelled again, "Back up quickly" and fired into the ground between them. It flashed my mind that John has only one shot left. I am not going to shoot until she springs on me. The shot and yelling, and principally our fast backing up, assured the lions we were getting away from the cubs. They both skidded to a stop about 10 yards away, snarling a few times, and walked back to the cubs. The third lioness did not charge nor did the male lion, just stood there as much to say "that will teach you to get near those cubs."

I considered shooting the male, but reasoned first, the bullet may go through and hit one of the cubs. Secondly, lionesses may not move even when the male was shot. It would be suicide to try to get him. If wounded, impossible to follow in the high grass with lionesses around. Also, shooting may have caused the lionesses to make another charge, so angry that nothing would stop them. I considered the bravery of those lions who were willing to protect their family in the face of gunfire and decided to leave the field to the King of Beasts and we left the area.

DAY 4 - Hung out leopard bait and tracked some other buffalo. No luck, the wind is wrong so we returned to camp. Considered John's action from the prior day, on the lion very commendable. I am sure by myself, I could not have acted so quickly and would have been killed by the lions. That is the wisdom of having a professional hunter along.  --->  Next Day 5 - 8