Well aside from the dangerous game that’s most often the focus of a safari , we had a very interesting experience today and employed a well known but non conventional method to get close to our game –

I was hunting with John C, who wanted a Thompsons gazelle , as you may know these beautiful little animals inhabit the very most open of plains , they are skittish and very aware of their surroundings BUT , and I emphasis the but_ they live where there are lots of massai .

Well early in the morning we spotted a small group , there were two males with the group , one a little larger than the other – Then from atop the vehicle we watched from about a Kilometre away as a massai walked within 50 yards – now I will tell you this , on foot you are lucky to get within 300 yards so I decided to try something I had only ever used on grants and wildebeest –

Off we went to the massai market 15 minutes away - returning with three shukas ( massai red covers that look actually like tablecloths)- one for me , one for john and one for samueli , my tracker.

Me and samueli in our massai shukas !


then instead of trying to use cover , stalk carefully and stay out of sight as one would normally we do - we just wandered out there – not straight towards the group but at an angle that would get us within shooting range.Our luck was out and as we got on the sticks at about 100 yards the one male decided to chase the other and in what seemed to be a blink of the eye they were out to 6 or 700 yards – again we just walked towards them and again got within shooting range but this time a herd of cows in the background made it impossible to shoot ,fraustrating as he just stood there at 80 yards shaking his tail ! then suddenly he was off again, this time after a female he fancied !

third time lucky, this time about 110 yards and here he is – I am not sure that we looked like massai but the tommy thought we did !!! and given the surroundings it was the perfect camo !

Very interesting. I enjoy these stories of folks being creative. I saw an episode of Under Wild Skies where they were using black umbrellas to approach buffalo and that seemed to work too. The hunter is left with a neat experience and a cool souvenir to boot.

Neat! Just proves the 'when in Rome' methdology really works!

quote:

I am not sure that we looked like massai but the tommy thought we did !!!

....and that is what MATTERS.

Keith

That's brilliant! Thanks for sharing.

Wonderful story and a great way to improvise!

What a memorable hunt! There will be some good stories to tell.

we did the same thing in tanzania for zebra back in 2005. it would have bneen nice to launder a little of the odor from it before using.

Did the same thing with my PH Francois Loubser in 04 taking a Grant's. He used red blankets right out of the bag, so we were sure they didn't have any critters living in them. It was great fun!

We used to call that "going native" and it was a sure indication that one had been there too long.