Some of you would have had a look at the fine Lion that my European (no name) client has just taken with me in the Kafue. It was posted here by Aaron Neilson a week or so back. I relive this account as the happenings were unusual. The swearing has been replaced with more child friendly dialect. Note I have not had it proof read so excuse the grammar.

The hunter and let us call him Euro is one of Fred Duckworth’s most valued clients, so much so that one of Fred’s long time PH’s was also to accompany us on this safari. It was good to have another helping and experienced hand.

The first couple of hours of hunting saw us take a hippo and we managed to get out a number of baits that day.

To my utter delight the following day we had hits on three out of the four. A Leopard had fed and the other diners turned out to be a young male and a separate pride of females. The latter bait we removed and hung elsewhere and well away from the hungry harem. Green my tracker had also observed two big male tracks walking down the road in the general direction of the leopard bait. We dragged around a bit to point them in the right direction. This worked a treat, much to the disgust of our big spotted friend.

Morning. Green as always saw them first but we could only make out one and had but a brief glimpse of something dark and hairy. A couple of minutes later a patch of blond was seen circling to our right and this was presumed to be the second cat. This Lion was uncomfortable in our presence and lashed out his tail. It was broken about a foot from the tip. Still I had yet to see his head but Euro was equally uncomfortable so we backed off a bit. Duckworth’s mate was keen to get this over and done with and suggested we walk in and clobber one. His request was denied as in my opinion this tactic may well provoke a charge from the other and beside it was only day two and I really wanted to have a good look at both of them. There and then we quickly set up a rough blind. Euro wanted a machan (raised blind) but I convinced him that I just wanted to have a peek and if there was a shooter we could always make a better plan. And he believed me? We stood as there was no seating arrangement.

Broken Tail came out and fed on the bait. He was a lovely Lion but I still wanted to see his friend. It got dark and I called it off and besides earlier we had picked up another big track heading this way and I also wanted to have a look at this one hoping he was what we call the Hot Spring Lion a massive creature who we had to turn down last year as he was with a pride.

The following morning and much to my delight Big Track had hit a bait some ten kilometres west of Broken tail, however Euro was far from being elated as he had desperately tried to convince me he wanted Broken Tail and no other. He could not understand why I was bothering to look any further. My trackers also seemed concerned and I could hear them mumbling something about me not wearing a hat in the sun. PH number two said nothing and remarked later that he had been speechless and presumed it was a silly prank or something to that effect. Thing is I knew better than they and I was in one of Africa’s finest cat areas and could afford to be picky, besides there was plenty of time I explained. I was to later wish that I had never made that comment.

Again I convinced Euro that I just wanted a quick peek at this one also. We put some sticks and grass together and stood quietly behind the screen waiting for Big Track. An hour or so later a shadow appeared out of the long grass and a big hairy head appeared behind the bait. This was too easy I was thinking to myself and I motioned to my European friend to get ready to take the shot when I saw the break in the tail. This explained everything and Big Track and Broken Tail must be here together. I explained this to my exceedingly frustrated client and told him to relax and wait. We waited but to no avail and I now needed to replenish this bait. It was late when we arrived back in camp and it was decided that the hunters would stay and have some dinner and I would carry on with some bait arranging. It was pleasant evening and Mr spots and I greeted each other on our respective rounds. The leopard is a horse I mused.

It went something like this - ‘Bwana (said slowly) the Lion is in the blind’. My blunt reply to Green was ‘and how many times have I told you to close the door (grass and stick) in the blind’. He swore that he had? Well at least we now knew the exact location of one Lion, but where was the other and why so shy? The car headlights illuminated the front of the blind and eyes of burning coal shone brightly through the thin veil. I instructed Green not to mention any of this to my client and after having shooed Broken Tail out my blind we added some chairs and bound the door shut before returning to camp. Horse was still feeding and nothing seemed to bother this cat.

It was midnight when Green rudely awoke me and my response was very nearly to shoot him. ‘Bwana, two Lions fighting in camp’. Really? And Green what do you really want me to do about that? Break it up? Horlicks, let me go and have a quick look at them, so grabbing a light we poked around camp but all was now quiet, and sure enough in the dirt behind the kitchen was some evidence of a scrape.

It was about 2pm of the same morning when Green dared to wake me again but this now sounded much more serious and apparently he was claiming that the Lions were breaking into one of the houses. I was fully awake now and could hear some of my staff calling to each other as I ran towards them spilling cartridges down the path. Green pulled me back and pointed to the ‘house’ the Lions had now broken into which to my relief was only the skinning shed. We were soon to discover that these felines had not only pinched Euros festering hippo head but one of them had walked all over his salted Zebra skin. The rug mount was untouched so things were looking up and besides one cat had left behind some mane hair and it was long. The heavy gauge wire fence had been pulled up from the ground. We lit some fires and I brewed up some coffee whilst waiting for dawn. Needless to say we did not hear any more from our intruders that night.

The light of dawn lit up some tracks but not of two fighting Lions but one big male and the other a Hyena that by all accounts had received a very sound thrashing. Euro and his matey had now risen and were very sprightly and ‘very confident that they would bag a big Lion on this safari’. Seizing this happy moment I nonchalantly mentioned that during the night another big Lion had gone off his Hippo skull but assured him we were going to find it etc. ‘But that’s impossible it was locked it in the skinning shed ‘ he rightly pointed out. ‘Was the door locked?’ he further questioned me and I noted his tone not so sprightly. I murmured something and nodded at the same time trying to confuse the issue and hoped Green would keep his trap shut about the break in that occurred in the blind not to distant from camp. ‘Lets us walk in and clobber him’ the older PH snorted and who this morning was starting to annoy me a little.

It was a hectic morning. Firstly I could not find a volunteer to go and look for the hippo head and had to do everything myself, and check baits, and put up another for the Camp Cat. As we drove towards the blind, the one that had been briefly occupied by Broken Tail, I thought for a moment that Green and I might be able to disguise our little secret. That was until we saw the plastic chairs broken and scattered about the road. ‘What has happened here’ Euro asked? The sprightly tone had all but disappeared. Hurricane I surmised? Horlicks, matey snorted again, ‘flipping lion has broken into the blind. Lets walk him up and clobber him.’ I had to bite my flipping lip.

This bait had not been touched? Nor had any of the others. Nothing. The butterflies in my stomach started flapping. To add to this Euro was getting increasingly agitated, apprehensive and other words beginning in ‘a’ that best described his anxiety. He was now talking machan only or nothing and the design he illustrated to me resembled some sort of medieval castle.

Tonight was almost a carbon copy of the last night except the Lion did not take the hippo head and that was only because we had not recovered it. All baits remain untouched. More butterflies. Green remarked too loudly for my liking that this Lion was going to kill someone, which put us all at ease. I dragged everything I had in a swathe from the skinning shed to where we had hung the bait a hundred metres outside camp.

Notes
Another night and Leo strutting his stuff about camp. Staff now sleeping in the store room . Client wants to know if it has ever been recorded that a Lion has broken into a tent? Could not sleep. Morning. Camp bait untouched. Repair skinning shed again and now decide to track this Lion down the road and clobber him. Eventually find Lion at bait number two and try to clobber him. Euro is now of a nervous disposition and Lion still remains unclobbered. No time for a machan, build a blind. Euro refuses to sit. Doesn’t want to walk into blind in the morning either. End of notes.

I now had to point out that if we did none of the above then the chances of him taking a Lion would be probably less than one. He was not happy camper, and had not cheered up much when we drove into the blind during the dank hours of early morn. I used the vehicle to screen us between the bait and the blind and by doing so the headlights illuminated the bush around us as we parked the car into position. No Lion. Good. Probably thirsty and gone walk about.

Imagine bait, car parked in between and in front of blind. The three of us get out using the vehicle as cover, I am first to the walk to the back of the blind and find the flipping door open? Horlicks, but no worries, Euro arrives thinking it was me who opened it and quietly thanks me as he passes. Green mistaking this as my instruction to leave then drives off with the car taking with him any light we may have had. We were now standing in the darkness, no one dare to speak and I fumbling around trying to get everyone seated whilst the noise of the car was masking our movements. One chair was missing. I sat on the floor and thankfully Euro did not see that and was therefore none the wiser, but his mate soon found out because he had heard something behind the blind and went to put his hand on my knee (as a warning) only to find my head instead. Normally this would have been very funny but he would have felt that I was also sweating and yet cold. I slowly turned the double up and around to face the door knowing full well that gripping and firing a rifle like this would break my fingers, my hand. I now admitted to myself that I had made a mistake with this Lion and had not heeded or rather stupidly disregarded the odd behaviour he so openly displayed. No wonder Euro was scared shipless and quite rightly so. It was also difficult to control my breathing in this position and I was uncomfortable. The slightest movement from me sounded like the ripping of canvas.

Birds now taunted me with their morning song but still there was no dawn, no sunlight. There was however another sound to the front and I turned the gun about again and ignoring everything that AR taught me I put a finger on each trigger. The silence was now ear splitting. Only now did dawn wave her delicate grey fingers above the horizon and this morning she was slowly teasing me.

Now there was light, not much but enough to see Euro’s face and the bloody great hole in the blind that had gotten his unwavering attention. It was all but a few minutes before we could make out our Lion, sitting in front of us looking away and towards the bait. With his back to us and one flick of his tail confirmed what we already knew. The shot severed his spine and he quietly fell to one side. The story of Broken Tail was over.

Another spine tingling account! Very exciting!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Great story. Please keep them coming.

Well written.

Very good but not as good as my story of the charging rabbit.

Outstanding adventure and very well told. You and the Judge have become my favorite authors!

Andrew,

Great story and a great adventure. I was not there but I imagine I would have loved every tense minute of it. Although I do prefer those elevated machans.

Mark

Once again, great stuff.

Thanks for sharing the story.

It was a great read.

quote:

Andrew,

Great story and a great adventure. I was not there but I imagine I would have loved every tense minute of it. Although I do prefer those elevated machans.

Mark

Just read through it again and it needs some tidying up. There was some slight embellishment of the characters and note they were actually both very good sorts. Did it come across that Big Track was actually the same Lion? There were never two but the illusion fooled us all. Broken Tail covered great distances in an evening and would ignore one obvious bait to feed on another. I think my mistake was the cat had seen us build these blinds and sought them out.

The profusion of cats here is such that we do place name them and I am sure the Hot Spring Lion will make a mistake soon. If so it should be one of the most majestic Lions to decorate this post. Sadly and due to other more pressing commitments this may have been the last Lion hunt for me in the Kafue, but will keep you posted on what young Bell Cross takes out this season.

Sandyhunter is another who is going in for Leopard and I look forward to meeting him and reading his first hand account of this truly amazing and little known area.

excellent read. Only pic missing.

Mike

You will have to refer to the other thread. Or I can email it to someone? Also have a picture which shows the break in the tail.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
. . . ignoring everything that AR taught me I put a finger on each trigger.

Funny line in an othwerise riveting story. Well written, a good read. Keep it coming.

"horlicks"?

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
. . . ignoring everything that AR taught me I put a finger on each trigger.

Funny line in an othwerise riveting story. Well written, a good read. Keep it coming.

"horlicks"?

I had to tone down some of the language and Horlicks is a British sweet milky warm drink normally reserved for children. It was substituted for a word whose first letter is B followed by the letters O double L and ending in OCKS.