ME & MY SPEAR VS LEOPARD

AGE – 15

This day started off as a very despairing days, then became one of my most dangerous moments, and finally one of my most remember-able days of survival.  It all started on a Saturday, during the morning, I started searching for my certificates.  The best ones were in frames, and I knew where they should have been.  But I searched for hours and hours and every place possible.  I never found them, including my 1st place national chess award. I knew I was never going to find them, and I never have found them.  I just picked up my steel spear and left our property.  

This was no ordinary spear; I made it, cruel, and effective.  Made completely out of steel and it was light. The pole was hollow but very strong; at the one end I welded a solid reinforced pole, two centimeters in diameter and completely sharpened at the end. I walked across the field and through the electric fence.  There was a man sitting under a tree at the old house to the right, maybe the owner, maybe a worker, I didn’t care that day, I just needed to do something extreme, anything, even climb a mountain in the African wilderness.  I needed this to get the grief off my mind.  The man was watching me but I made it clear that I was going straight through his property.  I was angry and I was armed, this was probably why he just watched, didn’t do anything but sit in his old wooden chair and watch.  The grass became higher and the trees and bushes became thicker.  At the speed I was walking I had to think fast which way I was going so as not to reach a dead end.  A dead end created by thorn trees and thorn bushes.  This was good for me because it distracted my thoughts.  The trees became so thick; I was walking in complete shade.  There was always the chance of venomous snakes in the long grass but I didn’t care, I had thick boots, and I just kept on walking.  Shortly after, I saw a large fence approaching, an African wildlife fence, there was a small gap at the bottom and the wire was strong steel.  I threw my spear through the fence and picked up the speed.  By the time I approached the fence, I was already running.  As I would do in the soccer matches, a sliding tackle, I did the same to get under the fence. 

After my legs passed the fence, I grabbed the bottom wire; I lifted myself slightly and shrugged my body through completely.  For me this was the first, I did not even slow down a single second to get through the fence.  Once I was through, I had enough speed to lift right up, walk two step, grab my spear and kept walking.  I never stopped and I never slowed down.  I even smiled a small grin for that.  Now I felt a bit better.  After a few more yards I crossed the railway lines, I was entering the real wilderness.  I had to walk through a small open field and then thick trees, long grass and then the beginning of the mountain.  There was allot of red wasps flying around. 

They were always angry and always upset.  There must have been water around because there were so many red wasps.  The mountain was steep but there was no cliff that I couldn’t scale.  A very long climb but not impossible to complete in one try.  I didn't want to stop for a second until I reached the top.  When I reached the top I could finally relax, I think it was the exhaustion that calmed me down.  I noticed an old grave to the right. There’s was no name on the grave, the steel name plate has obviously been removed.  More likely stolen.    I sat down next to the grave and watched the world pass by, I could see the capital city 20 kilometers away, the closest tar road to where I sat about 10km's away.  The wind started picking up and it was very welcomed, but the sun started going down, I had to leave soon. If I started leaving now at the same speed at which I arrived, I would be home about half an hour after the darkness has arrived.  When I started descending from the mountain; I was no longer angry and so for the first time I noticed the large boulders and rocks between this mountain and the neighboring mountain.   Obviously this would be a snake haven, or something’s haven.  If there were not large snakes it had to be something that did not fear them.  I did not have enough time to search the area, all I had time for was walk through this area.  There was many shelter areas, shelter from the rain, from the blistering sun and sometimes the terrible wind.  There was thick sand at the bottom of the boulders and evidence of much movement but nothing that could really indicate who lived here. 

I had thought it was a cheetah due to the spotted coat, the size of the cat and the round ears.  Then I realized no cat could jump over a thorn bush that high, it had actually jumped out of the tree, right into the grass.  It must have been a large leopard, I have seen them before and only when I saw my first wild leopard held in captivity, did I stop under-estimating its sheer speed, power, and entirely muscled body.  I always thought dogs like large Great Danes, Rottweilers and Pit Bulls might put up a good fight against a leopard, but not after I saw my first wild leopard.  In that split second, I realized – I had run past a leopard. A young boy clumsily running past a leopard is like a bal of string rolling past a cat. I knew I am  under attack. I immediately slammed the back of the spear into the ground, lowered it as much as I safely could without risking it from being pulled out of the ground when under attack.  I crouched a bit to use right leg to stabilized the ground on top of the back of the spear.  The reason that I slammed the spear into the ground, was simply because did not have enough power to make a defensive thrust when your talking about a leopard.  This way, if I get attacked, the animals speed and weight will impale itself.   As I have experienced before, when major injuries occur, you might not even feel it at first, the animal might impale itself and continue the attack until the animal realizes something’s wrong.  I realized I had to be prepared for the leopard’s teeth and claws to keep coming even if I did manage to impale it.

I would have to sacrifice my arms and my facial figure to protect my neck from this leopard.   A fully grown lion could easily kill a young boy even while it has a spear through its chest.  In the end you would very likely die from the attack, and lions don’t usually attack alone.  Leopards luckily are smaller, solitude, and usually hunt alone; here I would stand a small chance of survival.  I waited 5 minutes for the charge, and it didn't come.  Those 5 minutes felt like hours, I could feel by heart pumping, second after second.  This might have been my longest 5 minutes.  Maybe the leopard was waiting for darkness.  I knew exactly were it was, and now I only had enough time to walk across the open field with light.  After that, the rest of my walk would be in darkness. 

I shouted at the leopard, "Come, come, your not going to eat me today!" :-)  Still he did not come.  So I un-pegged the spear, held it low and slowly walked backward, still crouching.  When I was a good 50 meters into the open field, I lifted up my spear and started walking.    Only looked back a few times.   And then I heard a small twig snap.  The leopard jumped out of the bushes, I turned around, pegged my spear in the ground.  Luckily he wasn’t charging, he was simply making small silent steps in my direction.  My blood was pumping completely; I could almost feel my heart in my throat.  I thought I was surely going to die, right here and right now.  I had to stand my ground.  Then the leopard slowed down and stopped, he was probably wondering why I wasn’t running.  I knew that it is good that I just hold my position and wait for him.  The sun was going down and the dark was creeping in, it was the small remain of the sunset and the darkness that made his eyes glow.  His tail was whipping sideways, we stared at each other for a good minute, and then he just turned around and disappeared into the dark.  As soon as he disappeared, I lifted my spear and started walking home.  It was like two solitary warriors, standing our ground, and neither with murderous intentions.  I had never experienced a time like that.  And will never again. 

I crossed through the fence and slowly walked home with a very good memory.

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