What a terrific narration of your trip, thoroughly enjoyed it! That’s the closest I will ever get to that part of the world
Thanks for the comments everyone. We radioed the guys to come for the eland with the "meat wagon," to take it back and start processing. The meat wagon is a single cab land cruiser with a gate that lays down to form a ramp that helps hold the animals as the winch brings them onto the bed of the truck. We drove around the rest of the morning and had some other unsuccessful stalks, then went back to camp. As with most hunting everywhere else, the hunting slows down midday. So everyday we took a break for lunch from around 12-3 or so. Eat lunch, take a nap somewhere, or just hang out. I only took a brief nap the 2nd day. Trying to shake the little jet lag that I had. Back at camp we got word that Steve and Luke still haven't gotten anything. Jaco couldn't believe it. I couldn't either. I was having all the luck . I started to get an uneasy feeling. Luke had quite a long list of animals he would like to hunt. Even though hunting was fantastic there, it's still hunting, We went back out looking for wildebeest. While driving it seemed we were seeing eland and gemsbok around everycorner. Jaco commented he didn't know how the other guys didn't see anything the previous day. But that's hunting. We were in an area that was really thick when Little Panga spotted a wildebeest by himself. How he saw it, I don't know. He was an old bull. Jaco said only chance is to wait for him to go through an opening for a shot from the truck because it was so thick. At that point the bull started to run and he stopped in the opening to look back. Around the fire the night before the PHs were saying how tough wildebeest are. They seem to be born sick and each lead pill makes them healthier. When I fired a cheer rang out from the bushmen. The wildebeest dropped where it was. The monkey was off my back. He was scarred up and getting thin. If it wasn't for the good rains bringing abundant plants, Jaco figured he probably would have died this winter. I thought Panga was 10-12 years old. He's actually 17. He has a great sense of humor and would make comments. Translated from bushmen for me of course. During the afternoon Steve finally connected with a kudu. But at dinner Jaco was really talking $hit to his other PHs. I was wearing a shirt with an eland on and he asked me to show them, so they would know what an eland looks like. He said the A team will have to help them tomorrow.
Day 3. 50th Birthday. Usual morning routine. It was decided that all of us were going to hunt the main property and the "A team" would look for fresh tracks and call the other guys on the radio. It wasn't long before we came across fresh tracks in the sand of some eland bulls. Jaco radioed the other guys and I don't think he was even keyed off when Quentin answered. I was feeling bad for Quentin. I knew of him before and he is a good PH. Just wasn't working out for him. We waited for them and then we made our way to another area of the property. All the standing water is from the rains and run off from when the pans overflowed. Jaco said at one point 50% of the property couldn't be accessed. At some points the water was up to the hood of the land cruiser. It was pretty wild! Hard to believe it's the Kalahari. We saw some really nice gemsbok, but thought it may interfere with Quentin even though we were a few miles away. So we carried on. Jaco got a call from Quentin. I asked if they caught up to the eland, he said no. He lost his driver and couldnt get in touch with him! Jaco told the trackers, and we all started laughing. Not only do we need to find animals for Quentin, now his driver. Poor Quentin. I knew the abuse was on the way. We drove around trying to reach the driver by radio. We actually found his tire tracks and caught up to within radio range . While waiting we were off the truck and Jaco was laughing. He said the trackers were trash talking the other trackers and were saying wait until they were at the fire to really give them $hit. The lost driver finally showed up. When he pulled up all the trackers and Tossie jumped on his truck, laughing and saying stuff to him. I could only imagine whay they were saying. Sounds like he took a left instead of a right and got out of radio range. While he was pulling away Little Panga was giving him hand signals like a crossing guard. It was a sight. We continued and found some other eland track. We followed but the wind switched and they thundered off. While waiting for the truck we heard some zebra. After an hour of tracking them we caught up but they were mixed in with eland and wildebeest. Too many eyes and noses. After lunch we went out and found some impala rams running together. They were following a herd. The ram with the herd spent his entire time running around chasing off other rams, which just let others sneak in for the ewes. Defeating the purpose. Two rams already passed through and another was standing off in the bush. I waited for him to step out into a small opening. Walking up we found him piled up in a huge camel thorn bush. We moved him out into an opening. While taking pictures we could hear other rams vocalizing and fighting. The rest of the afternoon was quiet until right at dusk. We saw a busted up warthog and Jaco said for me to take it for the camp staff. That night another delicious meal and the best birthday cake I've had. I wish I recorded Godfrey singing happy birthday. Wasn't quite the happy birthday song, but I loved it. Had several adult beverages around the fire. Talking about all things hunting and life while under the Southern Cross.
Thursday Day 4 At some point on wed Jaco asked what I had in my initial package when I booked. I told him it was a kudu, eland, wildebeest, and 3 cull animals of eland, wildebeest and zebra. He asked if I wanted to switch out the 3 culls for another kudu. Quick math, and I said of course! So thursday we went to another cattle ranch. Jaco considers this his kudu honey hole. Everything is low fence and true free range. I hunted this property in 2023 Im not sure of the size, over 100k acres. It has a pond on it from when the govt was quarrying stone for a highway. Jaco asked if I wanted to fish in it since we got off to a little later start. Sure. How many can say they fished in the Kalahari? On the way we stopped at his Jaco's home to steal some fishing gear from his son. Hard to fish with the high water level. Couldn't get to the edge with every bush seeming to have thorns. Tried some crankbaits. No luck. So I changed up and put one of those ugly corn crickets on. We only fished for 30 minutes or so when Jaco said lets get out of here. We're here to hunt. So off we went. Driving we saw some jackal and kudu bulls run in the brush. It was thick! Then went to a pan that was probably 8 miles across. It was full of warthogs feeding on the sprouted grass. We walked in a tight single file when Jaco said there was a big pig next to a bush. He asked if I wanted to get closer. I asked how far and he said 150 yards. I said Im good. With a shot the pig fell and trackers cheered. It was closer to 180 yards. Warthogs are pretty big. I would say this guy was 200-230# It was close to lunch, so we hung out under what I believe was an umbrella thorn acacia tree. I could get use to this lifestyle.
