Willem and Jonie du Randt
Robbie Hughes
in the East Cape, RSA, Omni Safaris http://www.omnihuntingsafaris.com/

Each of these gentlemen will work their tails off for you. They have the kind of deep understanding of the game that comes from hunting them since early childhood. They do understand and appreciate that hunters DO want a sense of connection with the game they're hunting, and will bring them into the hunting as much as much as the hunter can let them -- it isn't just "there he is -- shoot him on the shoulder."

Willem is a go-getter, wants to DO it much more than talking about it before hand. He will explain things in process. He set up an excelent three-team drive for mountain reedbuck with his brother, Jonie. Robbie will teach you as you go, give you some prep. Does some excelent stalks!

The “Moscow on the Hudson†coffee subplot opens with Robin William’s character joining a long line in cold rain and sleet for a chance to buy something good. He talked with a stranger wondering what might be at the end of that line, how it might be shoes, or toilet paper, but probably nothing so good. Still, it was worth waiting three days for something good. Deer hunters are familiar with that – they go into hunter-crowded woods in sleet and rain, sometimes for a three-day wait. Some places, hunters will be skunked for the season.

Robin William’s character defects to the USA and seeks asylum. He finds a family to house him for a short while. After a few days, they ask him if he would go buy coffee. This is a very scary proposition: it could mean days in line. But, what can he do? They have taken him under their roof. So, off he goes to the supermarket. Unable to find the coffee line, he is directed to the coffee section, rows and rows of brands each displayed hoping he will choose their product – and faints saying “Coffee! Coffee! Coffee…†So it was when I went on my first African plains game hunt.

My luggage was delayed for several days – only my rifles came through, and the clothes on my back. But no ammo. First morning out was primarily devoted to getting size 14 boots capable of handling hunting. Amazingly, we got them. Then off in the afternoon after re-sighting my rifle after the trip using borrowed ammo. We drove around, past termite mounds with holes dug by aardwolves. There were prickly bushes. I’d seen ant hills and prickly bushes in western Pennsylvania near Tidioute when I was a kid, but the termite mounds were much more numerous and much higher than I’d ever seen ants make back home, and the thorn bushes were bigger and more serious. Even the grass was much softer. There were places where a mint-like scent wafted through the air. Everything seemed almost familiar… then we spotted a hillside with groups of 5 kinds of antelope. “Coffee! Coffee! Coffee…†That is when the shock of Africa truly set in for me.

The carrying capacity seems to be 2.5 to 5 times larger than “crowded†Northeast US deer woods (by which I mean 35 big game animals per square mile), and numbers that can exceed 40 times that which boreal forests support. Yet, the land is primarily grassland – open terrain. You can SEE many of the animals that are out there, unlike US woodlands – and they can see you. The issue of cover primarily involves using little folds of lands and bushes. The animals will use their resources to their best advantage, and you try to use them to your best advantage. Upon spotting those animals on the hillside, it was clear that getting to them without being seen by at least a few of those several hundred eyes would be impossible. The way my PH, Robbie Hughes, skinned that cat ended up being to retreat, and come up on the other end of the hill side, but in a fold in the land where the right most group of antelope – the impala – could not see us or smell us with the cross-wind in the right place. The other animals moved away, but the impala were unsure how to respond to the danger that they, themselves, could not see. As they followed the other animals, they walked into range of where we’d set up our shooting sticks in the shade of some brush that obscured our outlines. There was a good male in that group that we got to take home with us. Robbie shook my hand and said, “Welcome to Africa!†He pointed out that the horns showed different amounts of wear. Antelope tend to be left or right handed when it comes to fighting with their headgear, and one side will show more wear than the other.

When it is time to go out and find some particular species, it may be some time since any particular group may have been sighted. The animals are living in wild terrain using their cover and habitat, breeding as wild animals do. It had been a while since that group of impala had been seen on the day we had gone out. There is always a mix of luck and skill – knowing generally where some species have settled in and exercising care and skill to maximize the odds of connection, but also simple good luck, and a lot of inventiveness to take advantage of the good luck that skill has promoted. Robbie Hughes was a great gentleman to hunt with: I greatly valued the insights he shared about the animals we hunted, and the explanations of what had been going on in his head when he tried something. He is a natural teacher – if you’re willing to listen.

Lots of Americans are used to the idea of getting permission to hunt private lands, or to pay for leases for private lands. The condition is similar in the East Cape province of South Africa. Ranchers have been providing access for meat hunters for years. During that time, they’ve hunted their own lands looking for indigenous game, such as springbuck, wildebeest, and other antelope. Now, many are realizing that it is worth releasing other species onto the same land, allowing them to run wild, and to provide enclosures to satisfy game management regulations, meeting carrying capacity regulations, and many of the other burdens that such an effort brings. Other opportunists simply see an opportunity and try to jump into a business they have never had any core experience with, hang out a shingle as an “outfitter,†and try to get business. Good quality PHs have been there their whole lives. They tend to enjoy the more challenging animals, such as mountain reedbuck, kudu, and bushbuck, that are masters of using terrain and available bush for cover and evasion, that tend to return to or remain within their home territory, very much like whitetail deer. These outfitters get deeper into the business, develop connections built on trust, obtain concessions on some other lands for big-five animals, some for some of the more expensive trophies, such as sable, or animals that live in very challenging terrain, such as bushbuck. But they are marked by their love of hunting.

Springbuck are a special animal beloved of South Africans. Their delicate brown, chocolate, and white bodies that flash as they leap over the grass are the epitome of African beauty. Drizzle had been falling off and on all morning the day we went out to find some springbuck. We spotted a group on a rock outcrop, and the weather seemed to have soaked into their bones. They were hunched up and apparently not so interested in running or feeding. We began our stalk up a stream, hidden from sight of the animals on the outcrop with the wind in the right direction, until we got to some brush. Robbie went ahead through a thick stand of brush fed by the stream, and spotted them. He came back and collected the trackers and myself. We headed up through the brush to where Robbie had already gotten the shooting sticks stationed. A good male was standing with his rump facing us. Robbie said to wait until he turned, and shoot. As they expire, the hair just above their tails stands up, and they release a scent that smells surprisingly sweet, just like flowers. Just prior to this, rubbing the area produces a scent more like hops used to make beer. As I stood in the drizzle, with the smell of the perfume still in my nostrils, I knew Robbie was right: this stalk through the stream and the memory of that beautiful symbol of South Africa would stay with me for years to come.

Mountain reedbuck are challenging little antelope that are masters in using cover. A group typically includes a number of ewes that move in a group, followed by the dominant ram. If pushed, they will use cover effectively, only grudgingly allowing any opportunity to get a shot. They are territorial, not traveling far from their home range. They stay near watercourses at night, retreating to outcrops and brush during the day. Near noon, they can be expected to be bedded down, with a good view of their down-wind approaches, with no direction free from surveillance by sound, scent or sight. We pursued these animals over several days. The first chase, set up by Robbie Hughes, involved an ambush and a drive. The drive moved some reedbuck, but we never got a good shot.

Another effort, on another day that was grey, cold, and windy, showed some reedbuck moving along a dike about a mile away. They spotted us glassing them, and moved to the other side of the brush-line that ran along the top of the dike – ever careful and ready to use all cover available to elude even the hint of pursuit.

On yet another day, Willem du Randt was acting as my PH. We went out at noon on that sunny day. In the strikingly dark shadow under a bush, just above the grass, were two spikes that would turn once in a while. Given the large amount of rain they had received since January this year, the grass was high, and those two spikes of darker black against the shadow was the only hint that there was an animal there. Upon being spooked, only a female followed by the male went up the hill. The male was very good – but I did not connect on the shot… another African hunting experience. Hunting in South Africa will provide opportunities that will challenge anybody’s shooting ability.

That afternoon, we were joined by Jonie’s group of hunters. This group included Scott Conlee and R. L. Birk, with whom I’d traveled to South Africa. Jonie du Randt is Willem’s brother – and they’ve been hunting that land since they were children. We’d passed that way looking for wildebeest and warthog on earlier occasions, and had seen some good reedbuck there before. Jonnie and Willem negotiated a complicated three party drive that pushed reedbuck in two or three directions. We were positioned near the top of a ridge with a funnel at one end allowing the reedbuck an escape route past our position, and another funnel at the other end. Scott, Berkie, and Jonie were positioned in view of a cut that offered an escape route that ran past the other end of our ridge. One group ran past Birkie at Jonie’s post, who got a good animal, and then that group split, each running past our stand in two different directions. We had a bit of running back and forth between shooting positions before we determined that the group with a good ram was going to be coming towards our left, and that we needed to move about 75 yards to get our chance. My first shot missed (why was I having such a hard time hitting these animals?), but, as is typical of mountain reedbuck, the ram stopped after running about 100 yards to give me a good second shot – finally.

Black wildebeest are my favorite animals – not because they are difficult, but because they are so comical. They have a facial crest of hair that makes them resemble bottle brushes. They have white eyelashes, and white horse-like tails. When excited, they start swinging those tails around, and then take off running in circles. Even alone, they’ll run in circles. They have been called clowns. Yet, they have forward sweeping horns with bosses that resemble a cape buffalo, and can be dangerous under appropriate conditions, earning another nickname: poor-man’s buffalo. The day we pursued my animal, we saw a large group, composed mostly of young males and females. Upon spying us, they began to run in circles. Robbie said we could do better.

We then went to a favorite cliff-spot that affords a good view to glass, not far from the place I would later take my reedbuck. On this trip, I had opportunities to glass on hunts for black wildebeest, warthog, and mountain reedbuck. I saw zebra, gemsbok, black wildebeest, and impala in one view while glassing from that spot. Near the base of that cliff were 5 wildebeest: two females and three males. The three males formed a line, with the largest in the middle. Even from that distance and height, it was quite clear that that one male was significantly larger than the others, and quite special. Robbie said that was the one we were looking for. We went down a steep trail that Willem had blazed years before, to a sandy bottom with basalt, other magmatic rocks and sand that had been washed down-stream, and came upon the small band of wildebeest. They began swinging their tails in circles, then to run in circles, and then took themselves over a low hill out of sight. We went around the hill, and there they were – not more than a few hundred yards away. But there was no cover, no way to do a simple stalk… and that beautiful bull was standing there watching us. Well – what can you do? We had no stalk. Robbie figured maybe to just try to approach. If they spooked and ran away, we might get a better stalk; if they stayed, not quite believing we were after them after all… During the whole approach, Robbie was whispering “we’re not hunting you… we’re not hunting you… Well, maybe they’ll believe us…†They didn’t spook. They just watched us get within 100 yards. The bull faced us, getting nervous. He began to swing his tail in circles as Robbie set up the sticks saying “shoot him under the nose.†Up till then, Robbie had been impressed with my shooting. I’d taking three animals with nearly perfect shots. He’d said he would not have trusted me to take that shot without having seen the other shoots. The fourth didn’t disappoint. It was to be my last good shot for a number of days. But we got that beautiful bull right at sunset that day.

For an American hunter, who has pursued deer for years, learned by long hours in rough weather how to find their own animals, and for whom the shot is, in the end, a small part of the hunt, the African experience may chafe a bit at the start. Even the notion of making your “list of animals†you want to hunt feels alien to a hunter whose big game options were focused on a single species for a multi-week trip. Hunters in Africa, just as in some western US states now, must be accompanied by their PHs to hunt. The PHs are going to do their best to get you on your animals. There’s a huge diversity of animals in Africa, each with their own habits and ways of using their habitats. Along the way, if you listen and participate, you’ll learn how those animals are hunted, and you get a chance to become more of a participant in your hunts. Skills that are required to take deer with traditional muzzleloaders or archery equipment don’t translate so easily for a first African trip. For the most part, your implements will primarily challenge the hunting skills of your PH more than it will challenge your own skills.

The better PHs are guys who get out and “do it.†They’ll get an idea they want to try out -- and after years of experience, it is likely to work – or it may simply end up being a really interesting experience. Struggling with your PH isn’t going to help you get closer to your hunting experience. Do what your PH says, and you’ll learn faster, have a better time, and get to participate more as the things you see and report become more useful.











Dan

Dan,

Congratulations, looks like you had a great safari. Thanks for the photos and report. Would it be possible to downsize that next to last photo? It is a bit big.

Regards,

Terry

Thanks for the great report!

Congratulations! Sounds like a great hunt! I just had my first Africa hunt, and it's all I think about anymore. I can't wait til next May!

It looks like you had a great time but you have to take the ball point pens out of your pocket when you are hunting in Africa!

Hey - I *like* my ball-point pens -- and as much as my rifles did, THEY made it to Africa! My ammo almost didn't (luggage problems...).

I trimmed the size of that 2nd-to-last pic.

Dan

Dan,

Fine looking trophies...and you look like you had a great African experience...

Mike

Thank you everyone! I did have a great time!

I found the learning experience to be a blast -- and was happy my PH's had the patience to put up with me when I dug in with the questions.

Paul, it looks like you also had a great time! Its that time of year!

Dan

Great story! I still have a camp in Tidioute (as do most people from Erie) And hunt whitetails every year there.

Spinedoc,

What part of Erie are/were you from? Grow up there?

Dan

Dan,

Excellent safari! Just reading about it gets me going!

You have some great trophies and a lot of memories there! treasure them!!!

Then do it again!!!!

Thanks Widowmaker416 -- you'll note I called it my *first* safari -- I'm already anticipating my next trip. But yes, I have some wonderful memories -- I don't want to dig into the next trip so fast that I don't savor the one I just took!!

Dan

quote:

Originally posted by Charles_Helm:
It looks like you had a great time but you have to take the ball point pens out of your pocket when you are hunting in Africa!

The pens are for signing travellers checks ... vital part of the hunting equipment!

Looks like you had a great hunt. Tanks for the report!

Mr. EP,

What calibers and bullets did you use, and do you have any recovered bullets pics and stories for us?

My luggage got delayed 3 days. The only thing that showed up on time was my gun case, and what I was wearing. In the case was a .30-06 and a .375H&H. The PH's had a few boxes of '06 ammo that had been left by previous hunters. My rifle shot one of the loads well -- I have NO idea what bullets had been loaded in those cartridges.

The bullet passed through the animal on all shots -- except maybe for the wildebeest. The wildebeest was facing me when Robbie said to shoot it under the nose... which I did. I hate to say it, but I did not try to recover that bullet (didn't think of it -- it was getting dark, another gent in our party had gotten a kudu, and was calling for help [by the time we got going, they'd already gotten that kudu back to the abattoir -- and it was dark). All I can say was I was extremely impressed with the performance.

The last animal (gemsbok) was shot with my .375H&H, loaded with 270gr failsafes. There was no evidence of expansion in the exit wound -- went straight through the animal... no recovered bullet.

Also went bushbuck hunting on the Kubusi River gorge, near Komga, at Gareth Howe's place (Clifton Grange Safaris). I'm rather nervous about heights -- found some aspects uncomfortable. I was guided by Willem -- saw a pretty kudu cow through thick stuff, got a peek at a baboon sitting sentry -- too far to take. I noticed some odd trees, looked like stacks of pancakes with leaves sticking out of the top few cakes. I counted stacks. If they grow a stack a year, those would have started growing before the Boer wars. Willem said it was a spekboom -- but it doesn't look like pictures of that plant that I've seen on the web. Its sort of like an aloe, but not quite -- more like a kind of aloe palm tree... weird thing. While I was up on the ledge, I got a view across the river near a small shack (looked like it had an equipment shed of some kind) were a couple of clearings with duikers in them -- two pale, and two darker colored. They were fun to watch for a while.

We got on a bushbuck. Willem got me to sit on a rock, and I tried using a bipod... couldn't seem to get down right, and the bushbuck that was sitting near an aloe got up. He was about 70 yrds down at a 40 deg declination. I aimed for the shoulder, and he floped over with his feet in the air. Willem got the video. Our trackers got down to the critter while we were going down the hill on this awful track down the edge of the cliff (we'd been gingerly going up and down that in the 4x4 earlier -- this time we flew).. only to hear the trackers say they had gotten within 9 ft and the beast got up and ran away barking. Not much blood. Must have just caught some meat at the top of the back (too steep downhill..). We hunted that animal the rest of that day and 1/2 of the next. Willem spotted him eating. He would have been a good animal to keep, and it busted my confidence for a good bit. Until then, I'd managed to build this great reputation for my shooting... one shot, one kill... Huh. Didn't get that bullet, either.

Dan

I should clarify that the order of the descriptions of hunting the animals wasn't the order they'd occurred... I'd tried to align the presentation according to the flow of my thought in illustrating various points, not with the flow of time.

Another thing that struck me on this trip was that I didn't see all the dust that I somehow expected permeated many places in Africa, and which I expected would be in my rifles, food, optics, etc. Instead there were all these little round stones that were just big enough to twist your ankle on. Those boots I got in Bergersdorp did not have the ankle support I craved, but the protected the soles of my feet. They are pull-ons secured with elastic stretchy cloth in the divets. My luggage came after I took the first 4 animals (in order: impala, blesbok, red hartebeest, black wildebeest). With them, my blessed boots.

The afternoon that the luggage came, we went out to get my springbok. Robbie Hughes really hoped I'd take one -- they're the national animal. They have this perfumy smell that comes from the region of hair that stands up when they die... but I've already mentioned all that. It may not be clear from the picture, but the weather was drizzly. You can tell the luggage came: I'm wearing different clothes, and I have a different hat. It was the start of heavy rain that lasted for the next 3 days -- the whole time we were away down near Komga. However, the weather was pretty good for us while we were in Komga... but Robbie, who didn't join us because he needed to do work on some fences to pass inspection, didn't get to work on those fences either during the rain -- or afterwards, either. After the rain, the trails and fence lines were way too muddy.

The weather had turned nice -- that was the day we went out for the mountain reedbuck. Willem and I went out by ourselves to start with -- then we were joined by the others. That was when that impressive effort was put on to get the reedbucks to move. I've already described that.

We had plans to go down to try to get a warthog on the last day, but that place was a mud hole. We went after my gemsbok near the end of that day, and were warned that we couldn't leave the tracks too far from a dyke because it was all mud. We had to haul that animal over that dyke. Robbie had been worried about my ankles then, but my normal boots had come in the luggage, so those little round rocks didn't bother me. After the gemsbok was down, they didn't chase me away when I took a corner of the tarp they were using to slide/drag the animal, and helped drag it up over the dyke.

The area around Komga and the Kubusi River was not filled with little round rocks.

One thing I found startling about my hartebeest is that my animal's eyes teared up, and tears ran down its snout, when it died. I never saw an animal do that before. Later, I've read that there are a few old myths about hartebeest tears, so it must not be uncommon.

Another thing I found interesting -- took me a bit to get used to... Robbie wanted me to keep the bolt half-closed as a "safety." To shoot, lower the bolt handle the rest of the way.

Oh yeah -- I love Bovril!!! I'm fond of vegemite, but really, really like Bovril!

Dan

Dan,

Congratulations on your hunting trip and nice trophies.


hamdeni

Hi,

I have some new pictures that were e-mailed to me. They show some images I didn't get good views of in prior pics (the horns on my impala, the bottle-brush on the snout of my wildebeest -- picture taken in fading light, the animal was darker, but the pic is colorshifted, the turn of the horns on my springbuck, the space between the horns at the top of my hartebeest). Most important: there's a picture of Robbie, my PH.

Dan

Thank you for the wonderful accounting of your hunt, sir.