TRUST YOUR GUT INSTINCT

There had been two occasions in my life where my ‘gut instinct’, for want of a better word, had most probably saved my life. Some may call these feelings a ‘sixth sense’, or simply intuition. In my case I just experienced an incredibly strong ‘feeling’ that something unpleasant was about to happen – and thankfully I had the presence of mind or good fortune to react to them.

THE FIRST TIME

The first such experience took place during the Rhodesian bush war. At the time I was a veterinary science student on my June/ July vacation. In those long-ago days, Rhodesia’s success was based on a vibrant agricultural economy, despite a Marxist-backed terrorist war being in full swing to overthrow the Smith regime. The country’s teenage school leavers and farmers bore the brunt of the fighting. Rhodesia’s farmers fought the ‘bush war’ on a six-weeks-in, six-weeks-out basis, i.e. the farmers would go for regular six-week call-ups and then return for a similar length of time to keep their farms running. During these away periods the farmers’ wives would keep the farms ticking over. But as the war escalated and the security situations on farms deteriorated, it became too dangerous for wives