Eight roan in the first ten minutes
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Five o'clock start every morning, Felix tells me. Ten minutes out we see eight roan cows right off the road. At the first pan, two groups of young bulls — not what we are looking for. At a distant pan, one bull walking on five legs.
Five o’clock leave every morning, Felix said. It was still dark when we pulled out of camp. Ten minutes in we saw eight roan cows right off the road. Fresh elephant tracks on the verge — too young. At the first pan, two groups of bulls had come through in the night, maybe five to seven per group — nothing to our interest.
We drove on and spotted two bulls six or seven hundred meters out. We walked in for a closer look. One had a big body with a broken left tusk and a right tusk around sixty pounds. The other was younger. He saw us and started walking toward us — and then I saw he was walking on five legs.
At twenty past nine, two hartebeest well off the road. Next water hole: a big herd of kudu cows — seventeen to twenty. Ten o’clock at a massive pan full of flamingos, waterfowl and running birds. Two large springbok herds. Cow-and- calf tracks. A good morning round. Back to camp at ten to twelve for lunch.
At half past two the afternoon hunt resumed. East until the Botswana fence, then north. Five minutes in, a left rear puncture. A hundred meters after the change, a big kudu bull three hundred meters out. We went after him; he covered too much ground too fast and neither Felix nor I got a proper read on the horns.
We turned for a water hole where Denker had seen a ninety-pounder the previous November. An hour of walking in. The water hole was dry. But a wild dog was a hundred meters off, and he saw us, and walked closer to look.
