Fifteen meters, kneeling in the wind
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Two large old-bull spoors at twenty past nine. Forty minutes later, at forty past ten, we close to fifteen meters of one of them as he's about to lie up. He catches our movement. All four of us drop to the ground.
Two pans early: young-bull tracks only. By twenty past nine, two large old- bull spoors. Young bulls had joined the line for fifteen minutes before splitting. We caught up at twenty to eleven and closed to fifteen meters.
While we glassed, the bull caught our movement and turned. Everyone kneeled into the ground. He stared three minutes, reading the wind. Felix signaled the slow move-out. Both tusks, sixty pounds. The second, bigger spoor — we could not locate him. Xhau went up a tall tree and could not find him either. The wind was swirling toward noon.
At two the bulls started moving but we still could not cut the bigger track clean. We sent the trackers to back-track; the second old bull had peeled off the first and joined the young bulls, then peeled off them. He walked a double loop to check his own line. A smart old bull.
At twenty to four we picked up his head and shoulder on top of a hill, feeding slowly. We circled downwind but at the top of the hill the wind swirled and the bull winded us and ran.
A kilometer on, another hill. The country thorn-thick and dried-leaf loud. The bull had slowed and was feeding again. Thirty more minutes of closing — we could hear him, we could not see him.
At half past four the wind changed again and he ran. Felix called the day off — any more and we would push him out of the country. Two young kudu bulls very close to camp on the way home.
