Fences and Guns

I'm asked often if I am armed when I am in Africa. I am not. And in all my days there I have only been around guns on a few organized night drives in open-air Jeeps. I learned long ago that either having the knowledge yourself or having a guide with the knowledge to avoid confrontation with the wildlife is safer than having a weapon because ultimately it is the ability to avoid confrontation that is the key to survival, not the ability to get out of trouble once it begins.


You must pay attention and interpret what the animals are communicating to you through their body language as well as their vocalizations. When you come across a lion or an elephant in the wild there may not be a fence separating you but there is a definite boundary. If you cross that boundary the animals will let let know; there is a whisper before the shout. Usually only those who don't hear the whisper get to hear the shout as trouble begins.

And everyone knows that trouble is not what you want to be in, in Africa.