Ishmael wakes. The lions have not come in the night. He heads to the shower but there is no water when he turns the handles so he dresses into his hunting clothes and proceeds to the dining hall. There is hot water awaiting which he pours from a thermos into a cup, stirs in the coffee granules and tops it off with a shot or three of Bailey’s and then stirs again.
“Damn, that’s good” he thinks, “I wonder what the po’ folks are doing right now?”
Lin appears and they head to the lone cruiser. Mr. Steal your Girl and the client have left during the night for hyena. If I may go all James Joyce on you for a minute - never bring your wife or girlfriend on safari for she will see how competent your PH is in the bush and how incompetent you are and she will fall. Please don’t take offense but this is Africa and you could do his job no more than he could do yours in America by running your business or drilling screws into an elderly ossifying spine or proving a capital murder case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Or having to preside over one, making damn certain no errors are committed by uttering one of only two words and, then knowing which mitigating factors must be met before a Defendant’s death can be ordered by simply hitting the print button on your government-issued laptop computer.
We head to the place where the buffalo tracks have been so plentiful; however, there are no tracks today. Entering the bush in an attempt to cut one also proves fruitless and we end the half day with Lin taking the cruiser down narrow trails frantically searching for and trying to produce a buffalo that doesn’t exist. We see other animals though in this non-plains game area - animals like klipspringer, steenbok, warthog, jackal, kudu, impala, and bushbuck; however, when Lin asks Ishmael does he want to shoot any of them his answer is always the same.
“They’re just not here today. It’s hit or miss,” Lin says.
“I thought you said this wasn’t a plains game area”
“We’ve gotten very lucky,” Lin says and Ishmael agrees.
“Lin”
“Yeah”
“I think I want to go see the falls tomorrow. Let this place rest. Maybe they’ll move back in in a day or two”
“OK but there’s buffalo at the Zambezi camp. They’re wild - I’m telling you. Nothing is guaranteed”
“But I like this place,” Ishmael tells him, “we’ll see the falls tomorrow and then I’d like to come back here if OK.”
“Yes, of course”
After a quick trip back to the photo camp for their things, they begin the three hour trip back to the Zambezi with Ishmael drinking water and Lin wondering why his passenger was being so stingy with the bear claws. The lead ones. And for once, I am gratified to report, this was not an economical decision.