Lake Kariba leaves one dreaming of lazy days fishing, game viewing and braaing in the evening whilst being serenaded by the sounds of the night.
Colin, my brother in law had won four nights in a raffle, so had invited my parents, Mike Freeman and myself to join.
Within hours of arriving we were blessed with a magnificent elephant interaction at our lodge before going onto the water for a game.
Later whilst eating dinner another bull came upto the lodge and we could have stroked its head it felt that close! Unbelievable… we really are spoilt living in Zimbabwe.
Following an amazing sea food dinner, which Colin cooked on the skottle, we sat around outside playing games. The cook was cleaning the dishes in the kitchen, with the kitchen door was open, so that he could get a bit of a breeze.
Suddenly, he sprinted around from the kitchen, past us, at an incredible a rate, followed by a series of monumental crashing sounds and roaring. We all assumed an elephant had become enraged, and lost no time in getting into the house and going for the stairs to get to safety.
I however, ran outside to get a better view of what was actually happening, only to see the slashing jaws of a hippo bull attacking the hindquarters of another one trapped at its front. Now a door frame is not wide, so picture an animal over one tonne squeezing through the opening into a kitchen that was not much wider than the door opening into it.
Imagine my surprise when I saw first a human hand and then a head peer with panic around the wall! Oh my God, someone is wedged in there with those two terrifying creatures! I dashed around and into the kitchen to see him attempting to clamber over the stove, which had now been ripped away from it’s place in the wall. I helped him squeeze and avoid those massive teeth – it was truly a wonder that he hadn’t been sliced to shreds.
The pandemonium and cacophony of sounds added to the sheer terror of the situation – however only with hindsight are these things appreciated.
Adrenaline has a habit of taking charge, allowing one to make informed decisions based on facts not feelings.
I then raced back towards the roaring and gnashing jaws of these massive creatures and started clapping and shouting. Even in my state of adrenaline induced action I thought – what the hell am I doing. I was sure they could not even hear me, let alone pay any attention to my presence Colin came to back me up and amazingly one of the hippo reversed, squeezing back through the back door – which was now splinters (even the security gate had been ripped from the wall).
The unfortunate hippo then forced its way into the dining room through the narrow opening toward me. Ripping the stove off the wall and causing a power outage. And then silence!
I legged it! I now had lost the advantage of at least being able to see the most dangerous creature in Africa before it ploughed its way toward me. So needed light.
Once I had my cellphone I slowly make my way to the point where I last saw the hippo’s using my phone torch to assess the situation.
The moment the torch light landed on the hippo he made a mad dash toward me. I wasn’t sticking around to see how quickly he could smash his way through the dining room table so AGAIN I legged it.
He made his escape through the open French window, destroying the Jacuzzi and heading toward the sanctuary of the lake.
The next morning we moved to a new lodge as the smell was terrible whilst there was a bit of a clean up operation which needed to begin.
IJReview alerts us to an upcoming television first.
Discovery Channel’s Eaten Alive is airing an episode in which wildlife enthusiast and filmmaker Paul Rosolie is consumed by one of the largest anacondas in the world. Rosolie wore a snake-proof suit that helped him live through the horrifying stunt.
Rosolie and his team searched through the depths of the Amazon to capture the monstrous snake so that he could performer the daredevil act. After Rosolie is inside the suit, he will be covered in pig’s blood in order to make himself more appealing to the snake, then will proceed to go head first into the mouth of the beast. …
During the stunt, Rosolie is connected to a cord, which his team used to pull him safely out after he was swallowed whole.
While the Discovery Channel is keeping most of the details quiet for obvious reasons, they have said the snake lived through the stunt and was not harmed.
The Telegraph has a story of the tables being recently turned.
A man in central India killed a venomous snake by biting it after he saw the blue krait slithering towards him in bed.
Rai Singh, from Chhattisgarh, told a local television channel he feared the venomous blue krait was about to bite him and decided to bite the creature.
“At nine o’clock in the evening while I went to sleep on my bed, I saw a snake and tried to shoo it away with a stick but it attacked me. I bit itâ€, he told a local television channel.
His neighbour R.S Singh described the incident as “astonishing†and said it was a “miracle that he survived since this snake is highly venomousâ€.
Kraits are one of the four poisonous snakes which account for the most attacks in India where 50,000 people are killed by venomous bites every year.
The krait is nocturnal and often wriggles into homes at night during the monsoon season to keep dry. Its bites rarely cause pain and often go unnoticed by their victims as they sleep.
They are, however, highly venomous and up to 80 per cent of their victims die after suffering progressive paralysis.
An already decapitated cobra head was still able to bite a chef twenty minutes after the head was cut off from the snake’s body. The chef died immediately before being given an anti-venom medication.
In preparing for a specialty menu, known as the Snake Soup, chef Peng Fan severed the cobra’s head, left it aside while he diced its body.
Twenty-minutes after his preparation, he picked the cobra’s decapitated head and plans to throw it in the garbage can. This was when the head bit him, and injected its poisonous venom into the chef’s body.
The incident took place in a high-end restaurant in Guangdong province, southern China.
Restaurant guests said that they heard commotion from the kitchen. The staff at the restaurant then called for a doctor but the chef was already dead when the medical assistance arrived.
It seems South Americans take their soccer very very seriously after all. Case in point, Chilean porn star, Marlen Doll who made good on her tweeter pledge of having sex if the Chilean team score at least three goals and win the match.
The text below promised that the Chilean porn star would have random sex for at least 8 hours from her twitter feed (since suspended).
Porque yo soy la cabala de Chile encomiendense a santa Marlen doll #laroja#Vamoschile por las 8 hr sexo!!pic.twitter.com/5941JxSc9V
According to TheEliteDaily, the translation of the above tweet goes something like this:
“I promise if Chile wins, I will have sex for eight hours with different men from twitterâ€
That tweet was noticed by several people following her on Twitter and was retweeted many times. Marlen went on to reiterate that she would stand by her promise, come what may.
Inquisitr tells not only did Chile triumph over Australia, they did it with a score of 3-1! The conditions laid out by Marlen Doll were met and people began asking if she had any plans to fulfill the promise she had made a few days ago. Being a woman of her word, Marlen Doll actually called in people to come in and “celebrate†Chile’s victory with her in a night-long party. Pictures of the party would go on to be posted on to Marlen’s Twitter account before the account interestingly became suspended.
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Apparently, Marlen not only fulfilled her 8 hours of sex promise, she went on celebrating for twelve hours.
Thrillist compiles the choices of 14 chefs. The most common overrated choices tend to be the most popular cuts of steak, particularly filet mignon. Underrated choices are all over the map. Several pick rabbit and chicken, but not Justin Warner.
JUSTIN WARNER: THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR WINNER, HOST OF REBEL EATS, CHEF AT DO OR DINE (NYC)
Most Overrated Meat: Bacon
“I don’t think bacon sucks. I use it in my restaurant and eat a decent amount of it. I’m just tired of it getting all the press. The Internet has turned what was once a humble breakfast treat in to the meme of meats. You don’t see people cashing in with ‘feed me tornados of beef’ tote bags. You don’t see country ham (which I believe is a better meat for us to be stoked about, as it is an American invention) getting its own ‘day’. Bacon has become the WWF finishing move of the American culinary landscape.”
Most Underrated Meat: Jellyfish
“Texturally, nothing compares. Malaysians say the texture is ‘music to the teeth’. So what’s it taste like? Whatever you want it to. Hot day? Mint, lime juice, olive oil. Depressed? Jellyfish Alfredo. Here’s the other thing: it’s plentiful as hell. I caught 90,000lbs in one boat in one day off the coast of Georgia. That ended up making about 4.5 TONS of comestible food. Of course, we shipped it right off to China to be used in a Foxconn cafeteria or something.”
Donald E. Miller Jr.’s future remains as murky as his past.
The Fostoria man attracted national and international attention this week after a Hancock County judge ruled that Miller is still legally dead, although Miller appeared and testified in court.
In 1994, Probate Judge Allan Davis ruled that Miller was legally dead, about eight years after Miller disappeared from his Arcadia home.
That decision can’t be undone, Davis said this week. Under Ohio law, a death ruling can only be changed within three years, Davis said.
Miller’s Social Security number and driver’s license have been canceled, Miller said.
Miller, 61, is stuck for now in legal limbo with few ways out.
However, a legally dead person could appeal the judge’s decision, said John Martin, professor of law at Ohio Northern University, Ada.
Legal aid services or an enterprising attorney would likely handle the case for free, Martin said.
“Just for the fun of it, somebody should take” the case, Martin said.
Ohio’s missing-person law is necessary to settle some estates and marriages, Martin said. But revising the law to allow a person to have a clean start after a certain period would resolve cases such as Miller’s, he said.
“Why they put ‘three years’ in there is a mystery to me,” Martin said.
Miller’s attorney, Francis Marley of Fostoria, told ABCNews.com that an appeal to a higher court will “probably not” occur.
“We may go another avenue as far as federal something, but we haven’t decided yet,” Marley said. “He’s obviously disappointed. Who wouldn’t be?”
