CAMPFIRE TALES
Stories from the Life of a Professional Hunter in Zambia and Tanzania
by Rolf Rohwer
2011 Long Beach, 391pp, drawings and color photos, 6x9, hardcover, dj
Volume 71 in Safari Press’s Classics in African Hunting Series
Ltd. edn. of 1,000 numbered, signed by Carole Rohwer, and slipcased copies.
Rolf Rohwer was a well-known PH who hunted throughout Africa but extensively in Zambia and Tanzania. It was there that he guided such luminaries as Jack O’Connor, H.I.H. Prince Abdorreza, Ted Williams, and Warren Page. But this book is not a run-of-the-mill account of derring-do hunts with famous people—it is a synthesis of all the interesting, funny, unhappy, and outrageous events that occurred to Rolf and his clients over four decades of hunting in Africa.
And, yes, Rolf once got horribly mauled by a lion, but if he were still alive today he would prefer to draw our attention to the story of “Derek the Hippo and the Bag,” in which he tells the tale of how he and a colleague tried to dart hippo at night with a flashlight. In “Kalimalilo Leopard” the author and a fellow PH follow up a wounded leopard in reeds so dense that they actually find the leopard by stepping on him! Not all things that fight or bite you on safari are big or hairy or have a thick skin: Wait till you read how a water-ski accident leads to the discovery of something called Loa loa disease, not pretty but interesting. Once when bongo hunting in Zaire, Rolf encountered a chief in a village with fifty, yes fifty, wives. Imagine the headache. Every story is an interesting vignette—a window into a kaleidoscope that is safari hunting. Only this picture is punctuated with ninety-plus-pound elephants, buffalo gorings, and the soft cooing of doves early in the morning.
Unfortunately Rolf Rohwer died recently, but his Campfire Tales will forever serve as a tribute to this fascinating man. Foreword by Tony Dyer and introduction by famous wildlife artist David Shepherd; illustrated by wildlife and military artist Mandy Shepherd.
