January 9, 2025
My son, Chris, had the 30-06 Ruger Hawkeye rifle steady on the sticks, with Robin giving extra support with his left shoulder, his well-worn floppy hat shading his eyes from the slanting sun rays. It was just after 10h00 and we had been following different groups of springbok since early morning.
January 9, 2025
There is a sense of sovereignty that comes from atop a mountain, a perception of privacy and isolation, even of dominion. I love the painful cold of the morning, the brittle new frost beneath my boots, the breathless clarity of the sky. Put both of these together, combine space and time, weather and opportunity, and possibly there culminates a moment where a kudu hunt embarks.
January 10, 2025
Many times it doesn’t end this well for clients. Animals are wounded and lost or never seen. The professional hunter receives, and often accepts, the blame despite bearing none of its responsibility. The teamwork needed for success is the result of the PH and client giving one hundred percent. Hailing from around Southern Africa, I asked three of those who make their living taking hunters into the bush what clients can do to ensure they get exactly what they are pursuing on safari.
January 10, 2025
On a hunt earlier in the season we had witnessed from a distance how a leopard (we had four leopard sightings in broad daylight on that safari) had tried to snatch a young baboon on the granite ridge on which we were sitting now. When the rest of the baboons noticed what happened they quickly turned against the leopard, chasing him around between the boulders and crevices. It was a huge commotion with lots of screaming from the baboons and growling from the leopard.