African Adventures and Misadventures: Escapades in East Africa with Mau Mau and Giant Forest Hogs

by William York

Overview

Bill York, who recently passed away, once said, “Most guiding for big game is pretty unadventuresome work.” However, when there is excitement, it comes in spades, and Bill York had his share of unusual encounters. From his early days in Kenya when he and a companion trekked alone through the desert of the NFD and had to fend off marauding lions that ate his caravan ponies to encountering a Mau Mau terrorist who took potshots at his victims with a stolen elephant gun, York gives an entertaining account of his life. York was there when the RAF bombed the rain forest to rid Kenya of the dreaded Mau Mau, and he explains how the bombing went awry—very few Mau Mau were killed but plenty of wounded and dangerously short-tempered buffalo were left to wreck havoc in the countryside. He gives an insider’s view to the funny and outrageous behavior of some his famous acquaintances--Eric Rundgren, Ken Dawson, Frank Broadbent, and Iodine Ionides. PH Eric Rundgren, for example, was so interested in getting himself good elephant tusks that he would scout out the best tuskers for himself and guide his clients to less desirable trophies! There are stories about how York found a cache of rhino and elephant ivory that J. A. Hunter had stashed before his death, and how John Boyes managed to exasperate British authorities with his dastardly deeds. There is an entire chapter on hunting giant forest hogs because Bill York spent a lot of time in their habitat, and there are encounters and adventures with crop-raiding elephant and ghost buffalo that could be seen but not killed. Then there is the story of a client who was so huge that York was not sure he could get the man a single trophy. As with York’s previous book, the pages are loaded with interesting anecdotes, fascinating tales, and well-written prose that give insight into East Africa and its more famous characters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571574848
Publisher:	Safari Press, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	877,488
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Born in 1933, Bill York had to wait until he was sixteen years old (an eternity to him) before he could pursue his lifelong dream of hunting on the African continent. After graduating from school two years early and with the support of his uncle, Bill headed to the Sudan to hunt elephant. After two years of roaming through the southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Belgian Congo, York returned to the U.K. to serve his mandatory two years in the British army. His service fulfilled, he again took up residence in Africa, where he did police work for a while. Later, he became licensed as a professional hunter and sometimes mercenary in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Italian Somaliland, and the Belgian Congo. In 1968 he left Africa when he realized the “new” Kenya was not for him and moved to America, where he became the wildlife director for a chain of wild animal parks. A self-proclaimed “frustrated” historian, later York made his home in Grant's Pass, Oregon, with his wife, Petrina, but he never missed a chance to return to Africa to study its peoples and visit the scenes of his early life. Bill York passed away in his sleep 12 November 2002.