Warthog’s Revenge

It was at The Boma of Lokatula Lodge, Victoria falls that I had my first taste of roasted wild warthog.

Warthogs – those ugly creatures with features that only a mother could love – seem to endlessly fascinate me.   They look at once both frightening and amusing with those ugly warts covering their odd shaped faces and lethal looking tusks protruding from their jaws.    Their tails stick straight up in the air like little aerials when they follow each other as they race from danger through the bush.   Each time I see them I laugh at their antics especially when they drop to their front knees as they attempt to get closer to the new shoots, which are their favourite food.   At Lokatula Lodge, Victoria Falls, the warthogs roam freely and graze unhindered on the grass frontages of the chalets.  Now you would think that the last dish that I should order at a restaurant would be an animal that gave me so much pleasure to watch in the wild but I wanted to experience all the sensuous smells, sights and tastes of Africa and if I felt a twinge of guilt, it soon disappeared as I took the first delicious mouthful of the succulent meat fresh from the spit.

On the last evening of our holiday my husband and I were enjoying sundowners as we sat and watched the warthogs graze in front of our chalet.  Earl was busy at the braai when a particularly large boar grazed right next to his feet.   I took a photograph of the scene but coveted one of me with my favourite creature too.   But as I carefully walked toward the animal he spooked at my approach and charged.   I saw it coming and ran but his tusk tore into my jeans and I was lucky to escape with only a slight bruise on my calf!   That I mused will teach me to eat his friends.    Beware! If you eat a warthog – he might just get his revenge by trying to eat you!