In 1986 on the Terai in Nepal (below the mountain ranges of the Himalayas there are plains where there is jungle where the Rhinos and Tigers lived (but most Rhinos are gone now).
But then, we left our kids up a tree where they would be safe from rhinos and tigers while we tried to get pictures more up close of the rhinos during mating season there. However, we almost died trying to get pictures and never wound up with any good pictures but we managed to not die or go to the hospital. I think the nearest hospital then likely was very very far away and there were no cell phones then either (or any phones at all that I knew about then there either).
As we closed in on some white rhinos the male noticed us and so we had to run for our lives and I pushed my wife up one tree but there wasn't room for both of us so I ran to the next big tree and got up (almost dislocating my right arm because of the speed I had to do this in) but somehow I managed to get out of the rhinos horn range enough to keep my trunk and head safe from harm and he missed with his horn also my quickly moving legs. Then he rammed the tree repeatedly with his face and horn and I wondered whether the tree (over 1 foot in diameter) was going down from the weight of a car or truck (the rhino) being thrown against it repeatedly. But, finally he got frustrated because he couldn't knock me out of the tree or the tree down and gave up and snorted and tromped away angrily. However, in all the commotion my wife had our camera and I had my life and that's all I needed to make it here to today to write this for you.
Earlier, my 12 year old step daughter had gotten freaked out by what the ranger guide had told us about rhinos and suddenly ran up a tree to the top. I said to her, "You weigh too much to be on branches that small which were smaller than the diameter of my littlest finger on my hand. So yes, that branch broke under her weight at the top of the tree and she fell screaming head first towards me and the base of the tree 20 or 30 feet below her. I thought I was going to have to break my back stopping her fall but luckily for the both of us her hips got caught between two branches that came out of the tree sort of like a Y shape so all I had to do was to prevent her head from heading the tree and splitting her head open and killing her. So, once again God had saved her life and mine too while traveling in Asia and the Himalayas. And she hadn't been seriously impaled by any of the broken branches and wasn't bleeding that much either. So, she survived all this okay and so did I.
Note: This is what the ranger guide had told us. Basically, all kinds of stupid travelers from all over the world died all the time there (the 1980s and before) by not realizing how dangerous and quick rhinos actually are. Their method of killing people is pretty much like how buffaloes here in the U.S. kill people too. First, they split you up the middle with their horn from crotch to head, then when you fall down they stomp on your head and chest with their front legs until you are flat as a pancake and stop screaming and moving. This is what they do. This is what sent my 12 year old stepdaughter running up a tree.
However, if you are in the bush it's good to know the ACTUAL dangers you are facing otherwise you are soon just dead. However, I and my wife were upset at my stepdaughters extreme reaction that almost killed her.
By God's Grace
When I was 37 you can see all of us were very adventurous and somehow we all survived both ourselves and all our adventures in Asia and the U.S. at that time. But, likely none of these things would I do now here at age 71. But, that's another story.
White rhinos from Google images:
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