In 2022 on my one and only African PG hunt in the Eastern Cape, we were hunting in mountainous terrain where every rock and lots of them seem loose. Second morning of a ten day hunt I misstepped on a rock walking down a small hill from a standing position and fell backwards onto the ground through a bush. My left leg got twisted falling through the bush and I severely pulled my upper left thigh muscle to the point where I couldn't walk without locking my left knee. I also had serious pain on my upper left side and was spitting up some blood (turned out I cut my lip pretty good falling through the bush). Anyway, we continued to hunt (shot a cull impala) after I caught my breath until the early afternoon when my PH said that we were going back to the lodge and seek medical help. Later, he drove me to the wonderful St. George Hospital in Port Elizabeth where they confirmed I had broken my #9 rib on my left upper side after an x ray. The very nice doctor wanted me to take a couple of pain pills and I told him I couldn't as I was hunting the next morning. He said, "Sir, you are in extreme pain and you need to take these". I took one in front of him so we could get out of the hospital and took the other one with me but never took it. I lived on Aleve I brought with me for the rest of the trip. Of course, it didn't help the pain much. To continue my "dream" African Safari, I would step on my PH's cooler with my right leg and crawl into the back of his Toyota Hilux (fantastic vehicle!) as I couldn't bend my left leg to get into the cab. When we went after an animal, I would get out via the cooler and walk as best as I could and follow him and the tracker. This went on for several days until I could walk without locking my knee and I could get into the cab. Then the "trail of a thousand knives" started. My PH was a young guy and liked to drive fast on the mountain roads. All well and good until he hit the two foot high drainage bumps on the roads. EVERY TIME he did it felt like a knife stuck into my left side even as I tried to brace myself. I finally had to tell him to slow down. I managed to eventually take all the animals we were after and only missed three times off sticks and a bipod. I know this was a long winded dissertation and pales in comparison to more serious injuries described here, but in all the years of hunting up to that point, I only sprained my ankle once on an elk hunt. Go figure! LOL
