First Aid Training Pays Off

This trip to South Africa was very significant for me in many ways. I had some really amazing experiences and I saw some fantastic sights while we were there. The trip also provided some firsts for me. One of the more memorable first-time experiences happened after we completed the Argus Cycle Tour.

Sam and I have been fans of a South African band called Goldfish for a couple years now. Sam’s brother Brett put us on to this duo and we’ve been enjoying their music ever since. Their music has a lot of energy with a beat that makes you want to move your feet. Needless to say, we were thrilled to learn that they were playing a concert after the Argus at the Kirstenbosch Gardens Amphitheater. This beautiful venue hosts a summer concert series in Cape Town and the scenery is even more amazing than the tunes.

The stage backdrop features incredible views of the back side of Table Mountain, and from the looks of the foliage they must keep the gardening staff running full speed seven days a week. The stage faces a huge grass hill where attendees spread out blankets and picnic baskets to enjoy the show. Everyone drinks and snacks and generally has a great time. We had enlisted the help Sam’s parents to score some of the only shade available on the hill. They had gotten to Kirstenbosch hours earlier with Melinda and Valerie to ensure our comfort after our long bike ride.

We arrived before the music started and got into position on the hillside under the coveted shade trees in the shadow of the towering mountain peaks above. It truly was an epic scene, and I hope the pictures give you a good sense of the majesty of the moment. Goldfish took the stage and quickly got us all tapping our feet and fingers. I had brought some pretzels to snack on, so I passed them around to the group. Everyone took a few and I settled back in to watching the show.

After a few minutes I noticed that immediately to my right Van was sitting up and seemed a little uncomfortable. I watched his profile for a minute and I could see that his eyes were starting to water behind his glasses. He was sort of moving his head back and forth like a bird trying to swallow a fish. I tapped him on the shoulder and, shouting over the music, I asked him if he was alright. He turned his head and looked at me with real fear in his wide open, watering eyes and shook his head “NO!” He actually looked like he was holding his breath.

I paused for a moment to comprehend what was happening. I had asked if was ok and he said no. No? People rarely say no. They always say yes. Something was wrong. It took a couple seconds for me to comprehend. Then I asked the more important question.

“Are you choking?”

Unable to speak, he frantically shook his head “YES!” with the same fearful look as before. I had my answer and much to my surprise, I sprung into action throwing my leg around him to move into position for the Heimlich Maneuver.

Now, I actually had to look up how to spell “Heimlich” but I knew how to perform the maneuver. I have been through numerous first aid classes and they teach this life-saving trick in every one of them. I just never thought I would have to actually do it. It’s amazing really how training can kick in before you actually think about things.

I reached around Van, locked my hands together and gave a big thrust. Nothing. I did it again, and this time, he put his hand up as if to say, “ok, that worked.” I relaxed a little to reflect on what was happening, but before I could let go of him, he frantically waved his hands again to signal that he still couldn’t breathe. This time I gave him my best shot, thrusting hard up into his diaphragm. It worked just like they said it would! The pretzel was dislodged and he was able to breathe normally again.

Satisfied with a job well done, I moved back onto my blanket and resumed watching the concert. Van leaned over and thanked me for the maneuver. I told him he was very welcome and that was that. Everything was back to normal. Neither of us seemed to want to make a big deal out of it. It was a little surreal actually. Everything was going on like nothing had happened, but in reality, we had avoided a tragedy. Both of us had done just what we were supposed to do in that situation. He answered the questions correctly. No, he was not alright and yes, he was choking. I had done what I was told to do in my first aid classes. It happened like it should have. It actually seemed to happen very quickly.

Little did I realize that while Van and I were having our little experience, the others in our group thought I was clowning around. They thought I was just being silly when I jumped in behind Van to give him a big hug. They must have really thought I was being stupid when I started heaving on him. It took the others a few minutes to realize what was really happening. I imagine that there was a point when the smiles turned into frowns as the reality of the situation sunk in. Luckily, no one made a big deal out of any of it.

After I went back to my own blanket and Van regained his composure, people started checking in to confirm what they had just seen. It’s not every day that you see someone doing the Heimlich maneuver and I think everyone wanted to know if they had really just witnessed the procedure. Of course, everyone wanted to make sure Van was ok, and he was. I didn’t ask him later if there were any long lasting effects from the experience, but it didn’t seem to me that there were. I didn’t break any of his ribs. He seemed to be fine with eating and drinking food. Everything was great. I was thrilled that Mr. Heimlich’s procedure had achieved the desired results, but I don’t think I was quite as pleased as Van.

I don’t tell you this story because I want to make a big deal out of it. I tell you this story because I want you to realize that the things they tell you in first aid training really do work. So, pay attention and learn the basics. All of us should be able to do what I did, just as I did it. That is the first time I have actually had to do the Heimlich maneuver and I hope it’s the last.

Bafana Face to Face

I’m hoping that you are getting the right impression about our game drives at Thula Thula. They were very fun for us all and often filled with excitement. Sometimes the excitement was the scenery we were seeing, sometimes the animals and sometimes it was exciting inside the actual truck.

The last night of our stay at Thula was a little bitter sweet. We were having a great time, but we realized that this was the last time we would get to do a bush adventure…for this trip anyway. I think there was a great energy in the atmosphere as we loaded the Land Cruiser for the last time. There was the threat of rain again, but we knew that wouldn’t dampen our spirits as we headed out to find the elephants to say our goodbyes.

We headed south this time towards the border with the Zulu village looking for signs of huge pachyderms. Victor was in his trusty bumper position sniffing the air or doing whatever he did to find the beasts. I’m betting he used a mix of visual clues and some radio chatter to locate our prey. Whatever it was that helped him along, he did a fantastic job of finding animals for our viewing pleasure.

We were on some new trails that we hadn’t been on before but the scenery was much the same in the area of the thickest bush at Thula. There were trees and shrubs so thick that you felt like the elephants could be just on the side of the road and you might miss them.

I’m not sure about the others, but by this time, I fancied myself an honorary tracker at this point. I had spent several days on the farm and I was starting to think I could pick out the animals on my own. I’m sure the others felt the same way because we all took turns pointing out the first things we saw. I had my eyes peeled sharply as we motored slowly through the trees, sometimes on trails that looked like they hadn’t been used in quite a while.

Andre was doing a great job piloting our chariot, but the previous day’s stream crossing adventure had added an element of uncertainty to our last excursion. This apprehension was probably part of the energy I said I could feel as we loaded the truck. Everyone wanted to see those elephants, but the thick bush kept us from seeing very far.

Victor and Andre had told us that we should tell them if we saw something in the bush. We were instructed to whistle or snap our fingers or something if we wanted them to stop. Those signals probably worked well for some groups, but ours was far from quiet in the wild. We were constantly chattering on with each other and running our mouths about this or that. If we were going to stop the car it was going to require more of a yell than a snap.

As we were descending a heavily routed hill, we were all started as Randall signaled for a stop. It was more like, “Owe! Owe! Owe! Can you see it? Get it out! Get it out!” Andre stopped as we all turned to look at Randall. He had pulled his over shirt up and was asking Teenie to kill whatever was stinging him on the back.

Now, Randall is as tough as nails, so the first thing that went through my mind is that some big African spider had jumped down his shirt and bitten his shoulder blade clean off. We had seen numerous versions of these nasty looking meanies and I was sure one had claimed its first victim. Randall might have had similar thoughts as he struggled to relieve the pain.

Luckily there was no huge spider or any other African beast, but Randall was in real pain. There was some discussion about what anyone behind him saw and Wayne said he saw something fly away when he pulled up his shirt. After a quick check Teenie noticed that he had been stung twice by the flying bandit. Victor immediately reached for some leaves on the tree right in front of him. He instructed Randall to crush the leaves in his mouth and apply to the area.

When Randall questioned him, Emily combined her extensive vocabulary and newfound bush skills and instructed him to masticate the leaves. Well, this is when the jokes started flying to alleviate some of the tension in the situation. Eventually it was determined that Randall should chew the leaves because mastication will not make you go blind and he did as he was told. He chewed the leaves and applied the mush to his stings. I’m not sure if it was the actual leaves themselves or the fact that we had just done our first Zulu medical treatment, but he seemed to get a little more comfortable as we set off in search of elephants again.

Suddenly, we rounded a bend in the road and there stood one of the biggest and oldest male elephants at Thula. Victor had warned us about this guy before. We had given him a wide birth the first day because he was apparently ready to mate with anything and everything…including our Land Cruiser. He stood there eating some leaves as we backed up a little to give him more room. Victor said this was good because the other elephants would be near by, but we had to get past this guy.

He wandered off into the trees a little and Victor signaled Andre to pass him quickly. I was a little worried that Zulu quickly and Steve Baker quickly would be a little far apart, but I had to trust our guides. My pulse quickened as we started to pass the old man, but things really got exciting when he set off in pursuit of the truck. Victor’s hand signals got a little more frantic as we leisurely passed by the giant not 10 meters to our left.

Suddenly the elephant started trotting (can elephants trot or do they jog?) after us as Victor gave me the impression that Andre was a little slow on the throttle. Everyone was turned around in their seats watching this huge elephant crash through the trees as we accelerated away to safety. Luckily he stopped pursuing and resumed grazing. I managed to get a shot over my shoulder during the pursuit and it still raises my blood pressure when I remember the excitement.

We proceeded to drive down a hill, turned left through a huge mud puddle and back up a ridge to where Victor thought the other elephants would be grazing. We sat still for a few minutes talking about what had happened and laughing at the fact that during the excitement Randall had picked up Teenie and put her in the middle seat where he was sitting to shield her from our pursuer. That was when I realized I was not the only one sensing the gravity of the situation we had just experienced.

After finishing some drinks and snacks that we had brought along for the evening, we heard something crashing about in the bush up ahead. We drove up the road to get a look. Standing just off the road was Bafana, a young male elephant. He as working his way up the road feeding on the trees and brush near the sides. Being a male, he was interested in showing off a little and he started in with the traditional elephant boasting. Ears flapping, trunk raised and mock charges all intended to intimidate other males or seduce females. It seems to me that they use the same behavior for both situations.

Bafana got closer as we just sat still with Victor, our elephant bait perched on the front bumper of the truck. Bafana was getting closer as Victor readjusted his grip on the hand rails beside his seat. He gave Andre the signal to back up a little and we eased back as Bafana approached. The ear flapping and trunk rearing were quite impressive on a beast this big. He wasn’t the biggest elephant in the jungle, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. He felt plenty big to us as he got closer and closer. I snapped some pictures trying to believe that we were not in danger of being assaulted by an elephant. I want to say I was comfortable, but I have to admit I did question our close proximity to such a large wild animal. It was all very exciting.

Eventually, Bafana lost interest in us and turned to feed on some sweet leaved trees very close to the truck. He wandered off the road and into the bush giving us a clear path. We decided that we would move along out of the way to let another truck of visitors get some time with the elephants. Victor had radioed our position to the other vehicles so they could give their occupants the same kinds of thrills we had received.

We headed back to camp laughing and talking about the great things we had seen on our last night in the bush. Luckily we were getting in before the rains would hit. Overall it was an amazing experience to be so close to so many great animals. It is such a thrill to see these creatures out in their natural habitat. If you ever get a chance to visit a game farm and take some game drives out into the bush, do it. You won’t think about your world the same way again.