Bushman cave paintings

It’s not always what you shoot on a safari which is the highlight. Sometimes it’s what you find.
My greatest find was something I regard to be my best hunting experience ever. It wasn’t a 50 inch kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) bull or a super hard old buffalo (Syncerus caffer) but a wall of history and stories.
I was on a hunt with a very nice young policeman and his wife from Ohio in the USA. We had successfully hunted a number of animals including springbuck (Antidorcas marsupialis), blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus) and a few others.
We were now looking for the one animal which most have on their wish list in the Eastern Cape and the one animal you are hunting from the start of the safari until you get him. You may be stalking in on something else but this elusive animal takes preference if spotted. It is the Eastern Cape Kudu. With his dark, thick neck and a set of impressive spiral horns it is always a happy day when one is harvested.
They hide away in some of the most impenetrable places and often only come out in the late evening.
We were hunting not far from a town called Graaff Reinet which is the fourth oldest town in South Africa. This area has varying terrain from open savannas to high mountains. On this particular occasion we had decided to hunt the mountains.
We had left camp early driving up the rough track of the mountain. The plan was to drive to good viewing areas and stop and spot for the bulls. We saw herds of cows and young bulls but nothing which was worth stalking in on. The rut had just started so we knew that there would be big bulls near the cows. So we kept on with our plan and kept glassing the mountains.
After a lunch of steenbok fillets marinated in honey and a couple of spices quickly grilled over the coals of some acacia wood we headed off again.
Looking up into the deep valleys searching for the illusive bull. Then a tap on the roof of the vehicle. My tracker had seen a bull high up just above the tree line. I looked at him through my binoculars and decided he was worth closer investigation.
Myself and my client climbed out and put a plan together. We would have to climb using the contours of the mountain to hide our approach from the bull. We headed off using game paths to get ourselves into a position for a shot. We got to about 250 meters and we decided between us this was as close as we could get without being spotted. My client readied his 308 rifle on a rock and fired. A miss. He quickly reloaded and fired again as the bull was unaware of our location he had not run. The second shot was a hit. Not a perfect hit but he went down. We knew we had to climb up higher to be above him for another shot.
We looked up and planned that we would have to get to an overhang above us to get another shot. This is when it happened.
As we came out of the bushes by the overhang I suddenly noticed something very special. The wall which we faced was covered in art. I got goose bumps and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Not any old art but pictures telling stories from a time long before the European discoverers had arrived in South Africa. Mystical portraits of happenings of the past. No animals which are often seen but just of people. People sitting, standing as if in trance. The details had lasted hundreds of years.
Then my young hunter brought me out of my own trance by asking when we were going to get his kudu. I quickly pointed out to him what he was looking at and that this was a much greater find than his kudu bull. I did understand his desire to get his bull though.
We climbed slightly higher to a spot where we could see the bull lying with his head still up and a good neck shot was put in to despatch him. The team arrived up the mountain to recover him and during this time I inquired if anyone knew of the magical spot I had found.
Nobody knew what I was talking about. Not even the owner of the ground whose family has been farming that area for five generations. He did not believe me until he himself headed up the mountain and saw it for himself.
I have no idea what the paintings mean and everyone sees something different when they look at the wall. I believe it was a meeting place where shamans did their magical work of speaking to the Gods which they worshipped.
This was a special day for me in my outdoor life and I am not sure whether it will ever be match and to be honest I am not sure if I want it to be. I have visited the site a couple of times since then with clients and all see it as a magical experience.
It just shows that the more you spend outdoors the more your life will be enriched by nature and maybe, just maybe you can find something that means as much to you as this special find means to me.