Location: Tholo Botswana
PH: Riaan Taljarrd;
Rifle: CZ 9.3x62
Game sought: eland, kudu, zebra, impala, blue wildebeest, gemsbok, waterbuck—all of which were taken.
Animals seen: All the above, plus, white rhino, leopard, black wildebeest, springbok, sable, ostrich, jackal and probably some others that I have forgotten.
The flight was unpleasant. My first African flight on Delta, and it came in a distant second place to SAA. Thanks to the comfort and reassurance of Africa Skies “meet and greet”, getting guns off and on in South Africa was easy and a pleasant stay there introduced me to two of my fellow Tholo hunters-- Luke Hartzell and K.R. Their presence made navigation through the bureaucracy coming and going, much smoother given my shoddy hearing and lack of international travel experience.
The next morning it was on to Maun where we caught van to camp and met a couple of our professional hunters at the gate. Driving back into the Tholo property and our first good look at where we would be hunting. It was dense, thick thorn bush with little open space. Tim Herald had said that the shots would not be long and I could see what he was talking about. It is always good to remember what it is to see real Africa for the first time. Luke was a first time African hunter from Pennsylvania, and was having a ball. He began to impress me with his game eyes as he spotted zebra, gemsbok and wildebeest in the gathering twilight. It became evident that we were entering a new world.
Tholo camp was lovely and familiar. Our fully electrified chalets were laid out around a two acre pond replete with a pair of placid hippos and who honked and blew as we enjoyed sundowners and caught up with Tim Herald, the hunt sponsor/coordinator, had arranged to be in camp for both the first and second groups of hunters. Being in the latter, I gathered a bird list that dogcat, Ross Murphy had left for me. Both he and his wife are really world class birders and I used their list as a point of departure for identifying the stuff I saw. If what I saw didn’t match up with their master list, I had to really rethink what I thought I saw. Sundowners and dinner and then after eating we had the distinct pleasure of seeing a beautiful young female leopard sparring with honey badgers as she struggled to feed on a bait just across the pond. My God, it was wonderful being back in heart of Africa!!
Up and at it at 6:30 the next morning, the three of us went out and checked our rifles. My goals had been to shoot a good eland and, if possible to pick up a nice waterbuck, and let the rest of the hunt package work itself out. (Charles, our truly wonderful Bushman tracker, and Riaan Taljarrd, the PH were both first rate and quick to stop and consider any eland tracks that crossed the sandy road.
Riann and Charles, a Bushman from Northern Botswana had been hunting together for 17 years. They were constantly engaged in an on-going conversation that was absolutely fascinating to hear, if not understand. Much of it sounded like a typical African language except that it was punctuated and embellished with an array of clicks and tocks and chirps that they effortlessly inserted in their speech. It dazzled my ears. I tried to get them to teach me a few words. Their efforts were pearls cast before swine. I failed miserably. Fortunately both spoke English.
We chased zebra for a bit before lunch but couldn’t get in on them and they thundered off. Our efforts at eland were frustrated by wildebeest spotting us and running everything off. After lunch we went after and got in on what looked to be a decent kudu bull. Riaan said, “We can do better.”
The thorn bush was taking its toll on me. Being old, clumsy and having big feet, my presence in the bush was less than stylish. My hands, face and ears were getting a bit tattered. I was leaving strips of my DNA all over that part of Botswana. Despite the appearance, I really didn’t mind. I was on a tracking hunt in Africa once again and it doesn’t get much better than that.
Later we spotted a couple of white rhinos off the road a couple of hundred yards or so. Magnificent, they looked as unbelievable as unicorns and as out of place as dinosaurs.
On our way back it was getting close to dusk and we spotted a single gemsbok in the brush on the edge of a pan a couple of hundred yards off the road. The area was fairly open and we set the sticks 100 yards away and waited to see if it would come out. She finally stepped out and I knocked her down. A very nice old cow with worn teeth and horns and a fitting start.
Sundowners and snacks on the braai and then a formal dinner in the dining room. All in all, a lovely and uniquely African way to close out another near perfect day.
That night we were joined by the Berkovskies-- David, Julia and eight-year old Gregory. They were from Florida; they added a delightful family aspect to the camp setting.
K. who was bow hunting had had some luck and I believe had taken an impala and had to follow it up with his Bushman tracker leading the way. Having only hunted in South Africa, he was incredibly impressed with the tracking. Luke had a bad break and lost a kudu taking a quartering shot with his 7STW and I almost made a mistake of catastrophic proportions. Knowing that a kudu is an iconic trophy that everyone wants to take on their first trip, I offered him my kudu, if he couldn’t make a trade of his kudu for his eland. He was grateful, but fortunately Clive Eaton, Tholo’s owner, let him swap out and I still had my kudu option. In the morning we were going to Riaan’s family ranch which adjoined Tholo to look for a waterbuck. He said they had a lot of them and the males were starting to injure one another.


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We had just gone through a gate onto Riaan’s family place, when both Riaan and Charles spotted what they called “a big kudu.” It ran off a short distance into the thick bush and stopped and looked back through a small window in the dense cover. “Shoot!” All I could see was a bit of shoulder, its head and neck and the first curl of its horns, All I knew that based on that first massive brown curl of horn, this was the best trophy I had ever in my sights. At that moment, I was so glad I hadn’t traded my kudu away to Luke. The bullet went exactly where I held, but I should have held a couple of inches lower and tried to shoot through the brush. We heard the bullet hit and I lost the bull in recoil. Everybody jumped off the truck and suddenly we were tracking a huge, but lightly wounded bull through heavy thorn bush and, as Sherlock Holmes says, “The game is afoot.”
All told, I suspect the animal lost two tablespoons of blood immediately and only a speck or two more an hour later. I thought this would be quick, but I had evidently gone above the lungs and below the spine and chase was on. After the blood stopped, the only thing we had to go on was Charles’s definitive skill tracking. This became an adventure of the highest order. The sandy ground was entirely covered with tracks of indeterminate age and Charles’ memory of our bull’s tracks and the pattern of his footfalls kept us going. Twice the other two spotted the bull ahead, once lying down, but my color-blind, myopic vision kept me from seeing what they were seeing. After an hour, Riann retrieved his rifle to help with the follow up shooting. We resumed the track. On a couple of occasions we had to run as it moved off a few yards ahead of us, and finally nearly three hours in the process, Riaan got a shot off and slowed the animal down enough that we could close in and I got a couple more in him and he was down. What a brute! He was long but massive and his bases were absolutely huge. As I said earlier the best and most beautiful trophy I have ever taken. My original bullet was probably two inches too high or too low. If I had punched one through the bush instead of what was available the hunt would have been over much quicker. As it were, it had been an incredibly exciting hunt and Charles’s skill and our perseverance had led to a happy conclusion.
“Tholo” means “kudu” in Setswana and they aren’t kidding. According to an aerial survey, there are 5000 kudu on this property. We all shot nice kudu and after I shot mine we saw, two that were longer according to Riaan. Truly, I hunted plains game several places across Southern Africa and have never seen so many kudu and so many really good kudu in one place. Certainly, there are really excellent impala, eland, gemsbok, and waterbuck as well and the tough, thorny habitat makes the hunting as challenging and rewarding as it can be. This is truly plains game hunting at its best.
We called the recovery team and went on to Riaan’s family ranch. We were evidently too late to see all the animals he wanted to. His ranch was much more open and, at one pan, there was an abundance of game. In the open from the high seat we could see kudu, blue wildebeest, gemsbok, ostrich, impala, zebra and lots of waterbuck. I had taken a waterbuck 15 years ago on a fine hunt with Graeme Jones in Southeast Zimbabwe and any of the bulls I could see were clearly bigger than that one. But again Riaan had far too much integrity to let me shoot anything but the best. We looked for a long time and gave up. On the way back we stopped at the family home and met Riaan’s parents and, in another house nearby his lovely wife, Zecret, and darling three-year old daughter, Kiarra.
Back at camp, my kudu measured 56 and ½ inches long with 13-inch bases! I am not much of a measurer but with this guy, I had to know.
David had already shot his eland a long running shot and was working his way through the package while Gregory got shoot a few trophies as well while Julia photographed it all. David had already shot marvelous 40+ inch gemsbok cow and another great kudu bull as good as mine. Tim using his gorgeous Verney Carron .470 double was hunting by himself with a tracker and had taken a really nice kudu and another bull with a horn growing back in a tight loop into its neck—a mercy killing certainly. He and Luke, a childhood friend, spent time a good bit of time together and he got to be present when Luke finally took his very nice kudu bull.
The next day was cool and cloudy and we began it by taking an average blue wildebeest bull just as the sun was coming up. Then we spent a long, tough day trying to get in on an eland. We got close and were sitting behind a bush when three curious zebra came in on us within 15 yards. We passed, given that the eland were close and that was what we were after. At one point we had a bull on the other side of a bush 20 yards away but in order to shoot I had to step to the side and as I stepped over a small bush to get in positon, I stepped right on a stick the size of a lead pencil and the resultant snap sent the eland off in a dead run. As they took off, we tried another strategy. We knew the direction they were going so we headed back to the truck and pulled out on a road that paralleled the direction they were headed. They kept running almost in a straight line faster than we could and they confounded our efforts to out run them. On the way home, we took a good impala ram just at dusk.
The next day we relocated the eland herd and took off after two bulls that we could see had separated from the herd. We pressed them, and were gaining ground, when the rest of the herd which had drifted off from the bulls, got our wind and took off, drawing the bulls with them. We ran back to the truck and began another chase. We missed on the first two cross roads and noted that they had already passed us, but we could see them moving off from their last crossing. We made one more attempt and were successful. We could see them coming a good distance away and quickly moved to head them off. I was on the sticks and could see their horns flashing above the bush a quarter mile away. It looked as if they were going to cross a couple of hundred yards ahead of us. But instead of crossing in front of us, they turned left and were passing us at 150 yards out at a fast, swinging trot. I swung around and when Riaan said, ”Shoot that one!” I tried. I really never got up with them and missed high and was instantly devastated. I figured that was that was it and I had failed again. But at the shot, confused, they turned and came back by. This time, I saw the bull rear up and heard the bullet hit. Riaan and Charles took off after them to find tracks while Martin, the driver, and I got in the truck and tried to anticipate where the bull would head. We over estimated by a few hundred yards; Martin spotted the wounded bull coming our way and went into full-tilt emergency mode and we roared away. I hung on as best I could and lost my hat in the wind. We pulled up where he crossed the road at the same time the other two came up and we quickly closed and finished him quickly. He was truly a brute as well, and as big as any buffalo I have taken. Recovery was a bit harder given his bulk and we headed back for lunch, glad that the eland marathon was over.
After lunch we headed out ready for an afternoon tracking zebra. We headed down the road on the lookout for the hoof prints crossing the road. I had already noted that zebra could be every much as challenging as an eland and one could spend hours tracking a switched-on herd filtering through the thorns. I was not really thrilled about another marathon tracking session, given we had just finished one. Then someone yelled and there were four zebra out a hundred yards or so, poised to run. ”Shoot quick…” I recall mumbling something about not being comfortable with that long a shot off hand but somehow the crosshairs lined up and the gun went off. The sound of a hit came back and I saw it run off, and it fell dead after about 50 yards. A lucky day. A beer on the way home tonight for sure.
The next morning, it was time for another run at waterbuck. This day was not to be a demonstration of marksmanship and hunting skill, but instead, a fortuitous combination of Riaan’s patience and judgment and a bit of luck. We pulled up at that same open pan at his ranch we had visited on the kudu day, and simply stopped in the middle of a farm road and started glassing. Again the whole menagerie of game was spread across the landscape--impala, wildebeest, ostrich, gemsbok, zebra, and a number of waterbuck, again including several passable bulls. I was having a great fun birding and asking questions, while Riaan and Charles studied the isolated patches of bush in great detail. Given my low expectations, I knew I couldn’t lose this one. Riaan’s concentration was focused on one clump of bush. At last, he said, “There he is…” and we crept up on the brush and magically, a bull that was clearly much better than the others, emerged and paused. I was ready and when he finally cleared the rest of his herd, I made a simple shot and it was over, except for the exultant shouting. Riann said the bull was so big, he was getting cold chills and even to my inexpert eyes I could see that this one was exceptional. (Later it measured unofficially 32 and ½ inches. I guess I am a measurer after all. Jaco, David’s PH, opined that it was the best trophy to come off Tholo in several years.) Certainly shooting this animal was a wonderful opportunity and an incredible trophy but compared to the great brush-busting adventures of the kudu and eland hunts, it was merely taking another a fine animal. The first two will be the creatures that I will carry in my memory.
In the meantime, while our dance card was filled, K., on a bow-hunter’s high, had been sending a steady stream of animals to the skinning shed. Luke, who had inherited K.’s eland, was now getting chewed up Tholo’s stickers and thorns and avoiding imaginary mambas; I could sympathize. David and his contingent, despite starting day later, had finished their package as well and having a blast with Gregory potting sandgrouse and doves with a .22.
From here on out, we had time and did a lot of birding and some touristy stuff. I got to see such wonders as the lilac-breasted roller, African hoopoe, marabou storks and secretary birds—not to mention all manner of hornbills, whydahs, bulbuls and drongos. A wealth of ornithological wonders!
One last adventure, we visited a big spring-filled pool. Lots of water birds—African Jacana, Black-winged Stilt and Egyptian Geese, Red-billed Teal and hundreds of sandgrouse swirling by. The highlight was when Riaan found a pair of rock python sunning on the edge of the marsh and came back and got me to have a look. We slipped in and were almost up on them when he stepped on yet another python and jumped back and sent me tumbling. If it had been a mamba he would have had us both!
Suddenly, it was the last night. After drinks, dinner and a good bit of comradery, everyone else drifted off to bed, and I was left alone by what surely would be my last campfire on my last night in Africa. Sitting there with the embers floating off in the night sky and the gentle grunting of hippos so nearby, gave me time to contemplate the many other evenings spent by others fires across Southern Africa over the past twenty years. I drank a last toast to all of them and to the hippos and made my way off to my bed.

Perfect post. Even with help I knew I would screw up the pictures.

That is a serious waterbuck, congrats on a great safari.

Great rifle, great report, beautiful trophies. I wish I was back there. Thanks for the report.

Outstanding, Dick!

Great read Dick and great animals. I really enjoyed sharing campo with all you guys. I just wish I had of been able to stay until the end.

Great post. Enjoyed it very much.
Congratulations on some fine trophies.

Sounds like a great time and hunt.
Like Brad said...that is a Helluva WAterbuck.
Tim...looks like another successful trip with another nice group

Great waterbuck and the bases of that kudu are huge. Like my PH said about my buffalo, "so tight you can't swipe a credit card between them"

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Dick,

Very good read. Love your style of writing. Photobucket is out for maintenance at moment so I'll come back again later to look at the pictures. Thanks for the write up. A great read.

Charlie

Ps Photobucket up - great trophies ! Congratulations.

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Great Waterbuck and a fine Kudu. Nice write up. Thanks for sharing. Bruce

Dick;

You did well, congratulations! Botswana is truly a magical place (loved your account of birds ala dogcats tradition). Great trophies and report!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Awesome.

Very nice report, congrats!

Tholo sounds like a fantastic plainsgame adventure.

How many different birds to you see?
Any I missed?

Very nice!

I agree that is one heck of a Waterbuck!

BWW, thanks for the picture help. I am a hopeless Luddite.

Super waterbuck and eland!!!! WAy to Go!!!!

You are probably over thinking it.

When you open your photos, there a link about embedding in a page. It will give you the little 1s and 0s that you need to make it work. Just copy that and paste it into the page.

Easiest thing is to create a new post per photo. Not the best, but it works the easiest.

If not and you want to do fancy story telling, most people mangle the thing by deleting one of those 1s or 0s. I am speaking metaphorically about the 1 and 0. The computer has it's language.