Day 6 of 19

The biggest spoor I have ever seen

Friday, 24 August 2012

A big old-bull spoor and three young-bull tracks at the south pan. We go after them at twenty past seven. Lost by eight-thirty. Recovered by nine-ten — a bull alone under shade, not a day over sixty-five pounds. Later, at a second pan, a spoor so massive I have never seen one like it in my hunting life.

A big old-bull spoor with three young-bull tracks at a big pan south of camp. We started at twenty past seven. By eight-thirty the lines had scattered. The trackers worked forty minutes and came back: a bull alone under shade, some distance off. We closed in for a look. Not quite sixty- five pounds. Three young bulls standing fifty meters behind him.

Big bull under shade, morning day 6 — Sixty-five pounds, alone under a tree — not quite

Back to the cruiser. Two young bulls close to the road — nothing. Two more spoors at two different pans. One was a big-bull track. The other was a spoor so huge I have never seen the like of it in my hunting life — and a second bull traveling with him.

The massive spoor at the second pan, day 6 — The biggest print of my hunting life — and we could not take it today

It was half past eleven. Felix called it — too late, too hot, the country too open. The bull would be bedded and the wind would not hold. We marked the ground.

Blue wildebeest running in the afternoon, day 6 — Kudu cows and blue wildebeest breaking away from the cruiser

Lunch at a water hole; one bull passed. After Felix’s nap we drove for game — kudu cows, blue wildebeest, and both ran the moment they saw us. The great bull whose spoor we saw today we would remember all week.