[For this long comment to your post I am starting a new new Blogger Page - [might be called page two!!!., don't know what I'm going to call it yet, it's still in it's experimental stage at the moment, a new look for me. I am going off into the paid adverts again hopefully I will be more successful this time].
I read many Good Blogs which I would like to comment on but when I have written a reply they are always so long that I feel that it is in appropriate, I'm not one for the one line answers, a good written post deserve a good comment. My main page, Mick's Page is being revised with a new look]
I was riding shotgun in the back of an open jeep in the Kuala Langot area [perhaps not the right spelling, if memoir serves me correctly a mango swamp area] moving at speed, 60-mph, as one did in those days, [less of a target for the the CT’s] a long straight stretch of good tarmac road when we saw a water buffalo 300-mtrs ahead walk calmly out of the bush from the left to cross the road, ‘it’ stopped in the middle of the road.
Why on earth my driver didn’t slow down remains a mystery, we collided with ‘it’ broadside on, the next few seconds after the collision can’t remember what happened other to know we skidded from side to side down the road landing up in the ditch some 150-mtrs farther on, the rubber scorch tyre marks on the road proved that. I looked back to see the water buffalo facing the way ‘it’, [we must have spun it around] had come from down on ‘its’ front knees, thinking that it was in pain and ‘it’ was damaged so much that it couldn’t move, walked towards ‘it’ with the intention of putting ‘it’ out of ‘its’ misery. As I approached it, it stood up, I got to within about 50-mtrs when it turned his head and looked at me, its sorrowful eyes saying what the hell, you bloody fools. Immediately my mind went into top gear, “What should I do if it charged”, Run, I thought NO for I knew I wouldn’t be able to out run it although in those days I was young and fit I remember very clearly - ‘Shoot it’.
You know as I do the water buffalo with it huge horns has a massive thick skull but with my high velocity jungle rifle hopefully could dispatch it with a head shot, what would I do if my shot ricochet off, I might just have time for another shot. Well thankfully that wasn’t called for. With one last glance at me, 50-mtrs away amble off in to the jungle. The only damage to it that I could see was a 3 to 4-inch small gash to its rib cage.
Walking back to my jeep found the front bumper bar hanging off, the front wheel station bent back at 90-degrees and underneath the chassis, radio’ed for recovery, sometime later when they arrived they ask, “What did you hit?’ when we told them, a water buffalo they asked, “Where’s the body?” when we told told them it walked away I just know they didn’t believe us.
My advice to any one is that wild animals have the right of way, lets face it they have been there longer then we have and the country side belongs to them.
I could tell you another story about how a Giraffe wrote off a land-rover of mine in Kenya.
Note: I feel sure I see brown bears in your photograph - [I never saw any bears in Malaya] OK, sorry, no criticism intended, I see the analogy here, Bears verses Buffalos on the road.
I read many Good Blogs which I would like to comment on but when I have written a reply they are always so long that I feel that it is in appropriate, I'm not one for the one line answers, a good written post deserve a good comment. My main page, Mick's Page is being revised with a new look]
Your post ‘Watch Out’ reminds me of the time I was involved in a
TA with a Water Buffalo.
TA with a Water Buffalo.
I was riding shotgun in the back of an open jeep in the Kuala Langot area [perhaps not the right spelling, if memoir serves me correctly a mango swamp area] moving at speed, 60-mph, as one did in those days, [less of a target for the the CT’s] a long straight stretch of good tarmac road when we saw a water buffalo 300-mtrs ahead walk calmly out of the bush from the left to cross the road, ‘it’ stopped in the middle of the road.
Why on earth my driver didn’t slow down remains a mystery, we collided with ‘it’ broadside on, the next few seconds after the collision can’t remember what happened other to know we skidded from side to side down the road landing up in the ditch some 150-mtrs farther on, the rubber scorch tyre marks on the road proved that. I looked back to see the water buffalo facing the way ‘it’, [we must have spun it around] had come from down on ‘its’ front knees, thinking that it was in pain and ‘it’ was damaged so much that it couldn’t move, walked towards ‘it’ with the intention of putting ‘it’ out of ‘its’ misery. As I approached it, it stood up, I got to within about 50-mtrs when it turned his head and looked at me, its sorrowful eyes saying what the hell, you bloody fools. Immediately my mind went into top gear, “What should I do if it charged”, Run, I thought NO for I knew I wouldn’t be able to out run it although in those days I was young and fit I remember very clearly - ‘Shoot it’.
You know as I do the water buffalo with it huge horns has a massive thick skull but with my high velocity jungle rifle hopefully could dispatch it with a head shot, what would I do if my shot ricochet off, I might just have time for another shot. Well thankfully that wasn’t called for. With one last glance at me, 50-mtrs away amble off in to the jungle. The only damage to it that I could see was a 3 to 4-inch small gash to its rib cage.
Walking back to my jeep found the front bumper bar hanging off, the front wheel station bent back at 90-degrees and underneath the chassis, radio’ed for recovery, sometime later when they arrived they ask, “What did you hit?’ when we told them, a water buffalo they asked, “Where’s the body?” when we told told them it walked away I just know they didn’t believe us.
My advice to any one is that wild animals have the right of way, lets face it they have been there longer then we have and the country side belongs to them.
I could tell you another story about how a Giraffe wrote off a land-rover of mine in Kenya.
Note: I feel sure I see brown bears in your photograph - [I never saw any bears in Malaya] OK, sorry, no criticism intended, I see the analogy here, Bears verses Buffalos on the road.
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