In the African Bush nothing goes to waste

The African natives waste absolutely nothing when an animal is taken and I mean nothing. When an animal is cleaned the ONLY thing that is discarded to the vultures is the small intestine. The reason the small intestine is discarded is because that is where E-coli bacteria is stored in the body. They empty and wash out the stomach then use it like a suitcase to carry the liver, brain, kidney, large intestine, heart, and so on, including the bone marrow.

On some hunts there are a couple animals taken that are not edible such as the hyena and baboons but even they are not allowed to spoil or go to waste. Instead they are kept in a safe place until they can be taken to be fed to Nile crocodiles. After all, the crocs must eat too and besides, Nile crocs are another part of the chain of food and delicious.

One day my trackers took me and some baboon meat, bone and all, down to the river to feed the Nile crocodiles. It was so amazing to watch as they took a large steak of meat from me complete with bone and break it in two as if it was a piece of candy and then swallow it whole. One of my trackers showed me the large scars on his leg where a crocodile had gotten hold of him while getting a drink. Many would have died trying to get away but he had been taught early on how to get away should he ever be caught. He simply forced his hand as far into the croc's mouth between his leg and the croc's teeth and then as far into his throat as he could reach. This causes a croc to have some sort of gag reflex and in doing so the croc released him long enough to drag himself away. Native children may not have to worry about playing near the freeway or talking to strangers but life in Africa is most challenging.

What's black & white and red all over?

Well let me tell you, while on safari in Africa it's not a newspaper. I went on my first African hunting safari during my 50th birthday and before I left each member of my family gave me a birthday gift that was not to be opened until the exact day of my birthday which just happen to be the day I took my first Zebra. After the natives celebrated the life and gift of this Zebra bestowed upon us by none other than Mother Africa herself I opened a sealed birthday letter written by my beautiful daughter, Charmagne and read it out loud as my cameraman filmed it. I will always remember that moment as I attempted to read the letter and tried to hold back tears of compassion and true love. When I was finished I looked at the camera, smiled and said, "Well Charmagne, guess what I got and what I'm bringing home to you. I'll give you a clue... It's black and white and red all over. Well it was until the trackers cleaned him all up. It's a beautiful record book Zebra stallion. I love you." One of the things that made this stallion so special is not just his majestic beauty but the fact that he had large scars on his rear quarters where he had escaped the grasp of a large lion.

Payback

Take a stand or run

From the time we are old enough to walk we find challenges placed in our paths. Sometimes we run from them, sometimes we work around them and then there are the times we meet them head on. For all men challenges vary. For some just finding and keeping a job seems to be a challenge. Some men can't seem to find big enough challenges to fulfill their needs. Other find solace in the simple challenge of day to day life. Each man has a desire to accept whatever challenges he deems to be challenge and if he chooses to ignore it that's his right too.

Hemingway wrote, "There are people who love command and in their eagerness to assume it they are impatient at the formalities of taking over from someone else. I love command since it is the ideal welding of freedom and slavery. You can be happy with your freedom and when it becomes too dangerous you take refuge in your duty. I was bored with this since I knew myself and my defects and strengths too well and they permitted me little freedom and much duty."

Regarding challenge, Theodore Roosevelt wrote, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out where the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood. At best, he knows the triumph of high achievement; if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I have lost some challenges in my life and I have won some but what gives me great satisfaction in not whether I lost or won it was the fact that I chose to try. Africa was one of the greatest choices I ever made and it was filled with many challenges.

Dreams of a boy from Bandon

When I planed my first African safari it was important that it be a traditional hunt and not just a few days spent on some one's private property amongst fences. My vision was one of the days long past when porters, cooks, trackers came along into the African bush to make the experience as pleasurable for the hunter as possible. One such tradition is an old English custom of not only having a mid day meal but more like a formal affair at large. As custom would have it the meal is typically set overlooking some panoramic view whenever possible so that one can watch the awesome wildlife while having a spot of tea. All table arrangements are indeed formal considering it is taking place hundreds of miles from civilization. Nice tables and chairs are the norm as well as a formal table setting complete with white napkins, wine and a full setting of utensils.

Traditionally lunch is taken under the shade of an Acacia, Baobab or if you're lucky a blooming Jacaranda tree and served by immaculately uniformed staff. Everything from the chilled wine to the freshly pressed napkins serve to remind you that, in the bush, very little has changed since the first safaris over a hundred years ago. After lunch, if in the camp, with the African sun at its hottest and whilst most of the game rest up in the shade, I would often retire to my tent for a siesta or spend the afternoon sketching, or entering notes into my journal. For me these were special moments when I could reflect on having grown up with a true love for all things nature and now finding myself living the dream that I had growing up.

It is equally as important to dress well for these occasions which also means having enough supplies to wash in the field and dress appropriately. Dinner is even a considerably more formal affair but in the end the experience is one that can not be forgotten. Prior to dinner it is a custom to take part in Boma and then retire for a shower and to dress appropriately for dinner. Boma is not at all unlike sitting around the fire reminiscing the days events over a good glass of scotch on the rocks with the company of the guide, cameraman, driver and friends. Each evening at boma the camp dog named Micky because of his black and white colors took a liking to me and insisted on sitting in my lap. It may have had something to do with the bone I gave him. One afternoon as a gag I placed an elephant thigh bone in his dog dish. He just looked at me as if to say, "Are you kidding me?"

Welcome to our village Bwana Gary

As is the custom while on a traditional hunting safari enough meat is kept to feed the hunting party and all the rest is given to the nearest native village to thank them for allowing us to hunt in their province. On my birthday my PH (professional Hunter/guide) took me to a native village to spend the entire day. It was awesome and a great way to get out of the African bush for the day and unwind. I was escorted all over the village. I was shown their huts, the way they used fire to make tools and weapons, taught many of their customs and basically welcomed into every one's home. All day the villagers spoke Swahili and my guide translated for me while my cameraman filmed the entire day on both video as well as still camera.

At one point in the day the chief came to meet me and while we were talking via my guide as is the custom I asked my guide if he would ask the chief if I could stand next to him for some photos. After some discussion the chief motioned me over to stand next to him. As soon as I was standing at his side he was talking to all of the natives standing around watching us while my cameraman took videos and some still photos. As I leaned in closer to the chief for a good photo op he said, "Do you know Lake San Antonio?" Then holding his hands spread apart he said, "BIIIG Bass Lake San Antonio." I looked at him with such a shock that I almost fell over. "WHAT! You mean to tell me you speak English!" At that time everyone lost it and we all had a real belly laugh for several minutes. While everyone was still laughing at me I asked, "And do you mean to tell me you have been to Lake San Antonio in Texas? How come you never told me you could speak English?" The chief said, "You not ask."

It turns out the chief had never been anywhere and especially the United States let alone Lake San Antonio. Some time before another American hunter from Texas had hunted in the area and told the chief about the big bass back in his home-town lake in Texas. What a great day and talk about great food! My goodness, nothing better than Ostrich goulash cooked in a pot over a fire.

I was truly honored by being the guest of the cheif and was invited to sit and watch the natives dance as they explained the meanings and customes of each dance.

If the lion gags to death on a man he is eating, who killed who?

One hot afternoon while hunting along the Limpopo River in the Northern Province of South Africa I happened upon a baby Cheetah whose siblings had been killed by lions. Somehow he managed to stay hidden avoiding a most certain demise. Lions killing young Cheetahs is a common occurrence in the food chain since they are only trying to eliminate any other predators that may attempt to share in what the king of beast feels belongs to them.

I tossed my coat over him while he instinctively lay motionless under some thorns but to my surprise he seemed to welcome my touch possibly he had some ability to detect friend or foe. Equally as surprising was learning that Cheetahs are the only large cat found in Africa that are considered to be great pets. Cheetahs are the only member of the large cat family that not only can be easily domesticated but will not turn on humans as they get older unlike lions and leopards.

As I took him back to camp my guide and gun bearer took great pleasure in my compassion for the amazing gift Mother Africa had laid at my feet and allowed me to become a guardian for albeit temporary as it was. He slept with me in my cot the next night and the following day we drove to a nearby village where I was introduced to a native family that I was told had other pet Cheetahs in the past and knew exactly how to care for them. When asked what I had named the baby Cheetah I realized I hadn't given it a thought but they told me since it was I that had discovered him tradition made it my responsibility to do so. After a few moments of careful thought and remembering the Cheetah is one of the fastest land animals in the world I told them his name was Sydney. Sydney was the first police officer that ever gave me a speeding ticket. Now Sydney was in fact was the local policeman in the small town of Bandon Oregon where I was raised and although he wasn't really known for being all that fast he was very friendly just like this amazing creature.

In these two photos taken by my cameraman you can see how dark baby Cheetahs are when young to help camouflage them. I love the photo with me holding him. He seems to be looking at those awesome, large hind claws as if to say, "Hey what are those? I bet I could use those things to get some great traction!"

Some day it would be nice to visit the same village to see how Sydney has grown and even better if there was a way to know he could remember me.

I did not want to die and discover that I had never really lived

Hemingway was of course a man that loved adventure in the truest sense of the word. I have been most fortunate to have fished and hunted on safari in many of the exact locals as he. Considering he took his long African safaris so many years ago it is remarkably unbelievable to me that I was able to accomplish something that he sought for so many years. One of Hemingway's most sought after trophies was a large Greater Kudu something that he wrote of in depth in "Green Hills of Africa". While a record book sized Greater Kudu would require his magnificent spiral horns to be at least 55 inches long that was the largest that Hemingway was ever able to take. I was very fortunate to have taken one of Africa's largest Greater Kudu taken in the last 45 years with horns measuring an amazing 62 inches. What a magnificent old bull he was indeed.

Without any doubt Hemingway was one of the greatest men that ever held a pen and he wrote, "Writers are the biggest damn thieves in the world." And if you keep your eyes open you can notice it more and more often. Case and example... In an interview I did while in Africa someone asked me my favorite African quote. I said "That's simple. It was made by Hemingway and he has used it often. He said, "I went to Africa because I did not want to die and discover that I had never really lived."

Since that day I loved that quote so much in fact that I often used it being sure to give proper credit for it as something Hemingway said. But one evening I was the guest speaker and there was a question/answer session where people in the auditorium would ask me questions. There was a well read gentleman who introduced himself and pointed out he was a professor from Stanford. He asked me if I knew where Hemingway had taken his quote from. I was taken back with surprise and asked him if he knew something I did not, which got a pretty good chuckle considering he was a professor and all. He suggested I should read Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond where Thoreau said, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Then he suggested I look up Thoreau's date if birth and then ask myself, Is it just a coincidence?"

While I agree with you that often we laugh when we tell each other we think so much alike, but with this example, I have no doubt in my mind that Hemingway liked it and used it.

Who said it first?

I have enjoyed most of Hemingway's works and have been most fortunate to have fished and hunted in many of the exact locations as him. Considering how many years ago he took his safaris into Africa I find it almost unimaginable that I bagged Hemingway's most sought after prize of all... a record breaking Greater Kudu. Even by today's standards a record size Greater Kudu's horns would need to measure 55 inches but my Greater Kudu's horns measured 62 inches, one of the largest Greater Kudus taken in Africa in the last 45 years.

Without a doubt one of the greatest writers of all time, Hemingway wrote, "Writers are the biggest damn thieves in the world." And if you keep your eyes open you can notice it more and more often. Case and example... In an interview I did while in Africa someone asked me my favorite African quote. I said "That's simple. It was made by Hemingway and he has used it often. He said, "I went to Africa because I did not want to die and discover that I had never really lived."

Since that day I loved that quote so much in fact that I often used it being sure to give proper credit for it as something Hemingway said. But one evening I was the guest speaker and there was a question/answer session where people in the auditorium would ask me questions. There was a well read gentleman who introduced himself as a professor from Stanford. He asked me if I knew where Hemingway had taken his quote from. I was taken back with surprise and asked him if he knew something I did not which got a pretty good chuckle in it's self considering he was a professor and all. He suggested I should read Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond where Thoreau said, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Then he suggested I look up Thoreau's date if birth and then ask myself, Is it just a coincidence?"

While I agree that often we laugh when we tell each other we think so much alike, but with this example, I have no doubt in my mind that Hemingway liked it and used it.

Africa and it's dreams change a man

Since I was a boy I had dreamed of going to Africa to go on a traditional hunting safari. Now that that dream has become a reality my world is a far better place.
Upon my return to the States I did something else I had always dreamed of... I wrote a book titled "I SLEPT IN AFRICA and other short stories by Gary Faules". I am honored that my book has now made the FORBES BOOK CLUB. Here is what they had to say, "This book will change your life. The author really has a captivating way of bringing you into the story as if you were right there. His outlook on life gives everyone hope for a better tomorrow no matter what hardship you are confronted with. Simply amazing."

I SLEPT IN AFRICA comes in hardcover or paperback. If you would like a copy you can order an autographed copy from me at this site or it's as simple as contacting any book store and asking for it by name. All book stores can order it for you and in most cases will have it within a few days. If you have a BARNES & NOBLE nearby they can get it for you or click on AMAZON.COM. You can also GOOGLE the title I SLEPT IN AFRICA by GARY FAULES.

About the Book
This edition of short stories by Gary Faules is a compilation of a number of stories based on some of his experiences. They began with his childhood and expand to adventures that took him around the world.

Several of his stories are set on his parents’ ranch in Oregon during his youth. He seems to be able to express a positive vision and he even shows that good can come of death. You will cherish the affection and passion that he has for family and nature as characters spend time with each other in places like the dangerous bush of Africa.

His stories are adventures that include hilarious moments about a boy’s wild ride in the country and how it affected his future. Another thrilling story is about a dangerous charge from a wounded wildebeest! He writes about a father who has not shown his true affection for his son and what happens when the son finds out the truth. Faules is able to convey his insight into the reality of the essential meaning of his writings.

Gary Faules’ stories range from humorous to reflective to apprehensively horrifying, and are meant to make you laugh, cry and hold your breath.

Gary’s stories are based on personal experiences and his cast of characters is based at least partly on fact. His encounters with family and friends are the inspiration for his best writing. The varieties of subject matter are as diverse as his life. Gary Faules’ stories will leave you laughing or crying but never untouched.

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Thomas walked along bent over, looking for sign, while holding his hands clasped together behind his back, very intent in what he was doing. I had given up looking an hour ago. I could not see any of the signs that were so obvious to Thomas or the other trackers so I was just aimlessly wandering along behind, wondering when or if we were even going to find my bull. By now I had my doubts, and I was beginning to lose hope.

While I was looking around, not paying attention, Thomas saw something in the thick cover. He gave a small whistle, which got my attention, and as I looked in his direction he frantically waved for me to come. As I began to run to him, he waved with both his hands for me to move very quietly and slowly. When I finally got to his side, he grabbed my shoulder and pointed into the thicket.

Very softly, he said, "There, Bwana. Can you see him?"

Then I could hear the other blacks and Henk whistle, letting us know that they could also hear or see the bull hiding from where they were. Thomas pointed to my rifle and said, "Be ready, Bwana. Big bull very dangerous."

I still had not seen the bull and was not even sure he was really there. "Can you see him, Thomas?"

Putting a finger over his lips, he said, "Bwana, be very quiet. Bull very close." He motioned to me to follow him. As we moved slowly forward and to the right, I was looking down to see where I was stepping. All of a sudden, Thomas froze and startled me by quickly grabbing my arm near my wrist. "Don’t move, Bwana!"

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest, and as I looked over his shoulder, I just caught a glimpse of a large black mass as it jolted through the thick undergrowth. It had disappeared by the time I looked up to see what it was, and before I could make out his outline, he had vanished. It was like a ghost it was there and then it was not.

Thomas whistled and there was nothing in return, just silence. I bolted a shell into the chamber and released the safety as Thomas looked into my eyes and returned the concern in his. I assumed he must have been asking himself, "How good is this guy?" Or maybe, "Is he a coward?"

Then it happened. It happened so fast that I never had time to be afraid. Out from the thicket the bull was coming and it was not at all where I had expected him to be. He was charging from behind and he was coming fast! I swung towards him, all the time realizing there was no place to hide. He was at full speed and was less than fifty yards away, advancing head-on. I will never forget the look in his eyes. They were the eyes of fear and yet those of a warrior. They were the eyes of attack and I was the target. I heard the thunder of his hoofs and I could hear each deep, raspy breath that he took as he charged. As I looked, I could see blood dripping from his nose.

I brought my rifle to my shoulder and instinctively found the bull’s chin in my cross hairs. I pulled the trigger but the charge still came!