Looking For Gemsbuck
As we leave the lions behind and head down the road we're looking for gemsbuck. My partner wants one as he didn't get one last time. BTW, it's a little harder for him as he is somewhat older than me and not as mobile, can't hike too well. Finding them is NO problem. They are everywhere we look. Ones, twos, flocks, herds, hundreds. If you look on Google Earth and find the big dry pan up north of the camp you can imagine anywhere from 100 to 500 gemsbuck on that pan every day. just that pan, not counting the hundreds in the surrounding sand dunes. We saw maybe 3-400 of them filing into the pan one day from a dune top about 2 miles away. Now finding a good one that my partner could get up on on foot is another story. Jamy did find a group of 30 or so that we could sneak up on behind a dune and Bruce (my partner) belly crawled in the sand for 50 yds and got a good shot off at about 200 yds. The animal dropped in about 50 yds. Turned out to be over 39 inches and big bases. In the Kalihari there are more gemsbuck than I've seen. like I said, hundreds and hundreds seen every day along with springbok. Try sneaking up on 400 eyeballs and see how hard it is not to be seen by 2. Red heartebeest were there but not by the hundreds and elan were there also but hard to find as elan generally are tough to hunt anyway.
Back to camp for the evening meal. The chef did a fantastic job every day. Very nice breakfast (eggs most mornings), lunch was a full blown affair with a well designed hot meal and cold drinks. Dinner of course was outstanding. This time we had a special request for a particular wine that my wife and I had last year and Jamy went way out of his way to find it stock up on 4 bottles for us. Very much appreciated.
Next on the List-Eland
As I had picked up a great eland in Zimbabwe 15 yrs ago I didn't want another but Bruce had one high on his list this year. Of course when you want one they aren't around. We look and look the next day and can't even find fresh tracks. Miles and miles of driving and glassing from every high point-nothing! Jamy says he likes hunting them because they are difficult. Difficult, how about gone, vanished, poof, disappeared. All day long it goes until just before sunset we round a hill and there just 100 yds away are 7 big bulls. Jamy and Bruce pile out and start a sneak, the sticks go up and then nothing happens. They are looking into the setting sun but still, 100 yds and no shot fired. I can see Bruce struggling with his lineup. The time ticks away. I want to yell- SHOOT DAMN IT! Finally I see the bulls getting restless and away they go. And you know how eland go-forever. They get back to the truck and it turnout Bruce couldn't see them looking toward the sun. Oh well, that's hunting. Back to camp for another great meal, a shower and to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
The clock rings, we're up and go to feed our face. It's hell being catered too.
Off we go, past the lions again
And past the giraffes
And off to find eland again. We drive and we drive and we drive and still no eland or even tracks. We wind up right at the South African border, looking over the small fence into that country. Just more of the same. We get to a fairly good sized hill. We stop and climb it and out pops a big Steenbuck. I have the rifle up and Jamy says take it-BOOM! It's down. Of course a 30/06 at less than 50 yds has the desired effect on something that size.
At just over 5 inches it's seems to be a very big steenbok. Bigger than my other 2 by a big margin.
Lunch time and the need to get the steenbok back to the skinning shed makes us head in. More good food. This is getting to be monotonous.
Out After Lunch and a Siesta for More Eland Fun
Back to the "back fourty" so to speak, only it's 12 miles away. We check out an area even Jamy hasn't been to yet For you Google Earth folks 25 26.82S 19 57.18E. Now we find springbuck by the hundreds along with hundreds of gemsbuck all in the same small area of maybe 500 acres. You can't count the number of animals but again NO ELAND TRACKS! BUT we do find something else, more lion tracks. Seems there's another big boy and a female around in this area following this big herd of animals. Didn't see them but the tracks told the story. Now we're traveling north again and Jamy and the tracker (Peter) think they want to check out a hill top more than half a mile away across the brush so we stop in the shade and those two take off at a brisk walk and we see them several minutes later on the hill glassing. All of a sudden they duck down and start heading our way. The have seen something! When they get back Jamy says they have found the previous days herd of eland bulls but they are a mile away and Bruce can't walk that far. So a plan is made to see if we can drive to with in a half mile and maybe Bruce can go slow and make it that far. We wind up in a depression in the dunes and Bruce, me, jamy and Peter all pile out for the stalk. Jamy has it all figured out up to about 300 yds (which is from one dune to the next). We very quietly sneak up to the bottom of the sand dune we want to shoot from and then we get to "swim the red sands of the Kalihari" to slither up to the top of the dune for a shot. Jamy sets the rifle up for Bruce so he knows exactly which eland Jamy wants to shoot and Bruce gets into a prone position and lines everything up. Bruce is shooting a .308 so 300 yds is a long shot on an eland wit that caliber. It has to be a good shot first time out. The eland is sleeping under a tree as Bruce squeezes the trigger. Boom goes the rifle and thump goes the bullet as it strikes home. A good shot it was. We did have to track the eland a ways and it took a couple of finishers to put it down for good but Bruce got his eland. It is an old one, on the down hill side of life with broomed horns and losing weight (1600 lbs) so it was a good one to take.
Now how do you get a 1600 lb animal in the back of the lorry?
Back to camp for ANOTHER excellent meal and drinks all around at the boma.
Now with the eland and gemsbuck in the salt we will head out for Panorama in the morning as the lapa has been reroofed (managed by Jamy's wife Rencha).
But that's another story for later TTFN
