After our wonderful time at the coast, we headed for two hundred and fifty kilometers in land.
Heading to Graaf Reinet, our base. We passed through some historical towns like Grahamstown and a variation of vegetation types such as mountainous and open grassland. Scattered with a variety of different game.Making it a pleasant drive with lots to see.
Arriving in Graaff Reinet, we got ourselves settled in and ready for the second part of the holiday.
Even though Huw had harvested a blesbok on the previous hunt, we had another chance to get one this year that had been kindly given to us by a neighbor.
We would look for a ram as the females were heavily pregnant at this time of year. The quota for rams had not been achieved for the season an this was not through lack of trying but down to the animals knowing what was going on and keeping one step ahead of the hunters.
We got ourselves ready and within ten minutes we were at the hunting area. Infront of us on the flats we could see herds of springbok and black wildebeest. In the distance through my binoculars, I could see the blesbok. Probably two kilometers away near a line of thick thorn bush, which we would definitely have to use on our stalk in. We drove until we found a good spot to leave the vehicle in the shade and started our approach.
Slowly passing some springbuck and small heard of black wildebeest we made our way to the line of thorn bush,which we hoped would be our route to get a shot. We slowly made our way forward so not to get spotted. We had to make a couple of detours due to open areas where we would have been exposed to the one side, which definitely would have given our approach away. All of a sudden five kudu bulls sprung up out of the shadows but fortunately headed out towards the opposite side as to where the blesbok were grazing. Even though not seen, the noise of running animals made everything nearby look at the thicket. We had to stop, wait for a few minutes so thateverything could calm down and become relaxed again.
We started our way forward again and reached the end of the thicket. Unfortunately, the blesbok had slowly grazed further into the open and the shot would be well over three hundred meters. We decided that this was not what we wanted, and the shot was too far. So, we slowly backed off and headed back to the vehicle to put another plan together.
The temperature was rising, and I could see that most of the animals were starting to lay up and rest.
There was one spot where I had seen a territorial ram on a previous hunt and decided that we would have a look. We left the vehicle once again after a couple of big slugs of water and headed towards where I had seen the ram before.
The ground was very open, but fortunately we could use the contours of the ground to give us cover. The ram I had seen often lay on a plateau where he had made his home. We headed forward and as we got to a spot where we could see onto the plateau, I saw a small herd. Not knowing if he was part of it or not, we would have to sneak in and see. We used every bit of ground to our advantage and soon enough we were in a spot where we would now have to crawl forward. To our left there was a heard of about six blesbok ewes, which we had to stay undetected from as they would certainly give the game away. It was now time to get on our hands and knees.
The ground was hard and every tough Karoo plant covering it felt like it had thorns in, which stuck into our legs. We slowly crawled forward. Only needing to make about twenty meters to get to a nice rock, which could be our shooting position. We made it! Lifting my binoculars to see if it was him, I saw three laid up next to each other having a rest. All looking in different directions to give themselves the best chance of seeing a predator approach. One was a young ram, the other was a ewe. Unfortunately,the third one was lying in a position where we couldn’t see the horns properly to identify it. We were not in a rush so we would sit it out and wait for it to reveal what it was.
We waited for around an hour and suddenly it stood up. It was him.
Huw was ready. We had had enough time to set up properly. The scope was dialed up, and we had discussed where the bullet should be placed.
I watched through the binoculars and told Huw to shoot when he was ready. He readied himself and took a breath. The ram stood broadside at one hundred and sixty meters. The shot went off and the ram took just a few steps and fell. The two others who had been lying with him stood and watched their fallen leader for a few seconds. Then realizing something was very wrong made their retreat to safer ground.
We walked forward and did the usual photo shoot before loading the animal on the vehicle and taking it to the cold room where it was processed into delicious cuts ready for the festive season. Huw took the head and plans to have the horns polished for his home as a memory of the stalk.
After we had finished, we headed home. But the day was not done yet.
Jackal hunting is one of my favourit passions and possibly one of my favourit hunts. Often done alone in the dead of night, I try my best to outwit one of the most cunninganimals in Africa.
You must get everything right. The wind, the call and the shot. If you get one of them wrong, the chances are you have made them wiser and you will have a frustrating night.
We loaded the specially adapted chair on the vehicle, put the spotlights on and attached the rifle into its place.
I would drive, Huw would sit on the back with the lightshining for eyes. If nothing was seen on route I would stop at a couple of spots I’ve been lucky at before and call.
We drove to the first spot without luck of seeing any suspicious eyes. I walked about a hundred meters from the vehicle and placed the caller. Letting everything calm down for a few minutes, I started to call. At this time of year, the jackal have pups in the dens so the parents and helpers are busy searching for food to feed them with. I put on a young springbok lamb bleating and in no time at all through my thermal I saw something on its way. Slowly and curiously it moved closer through the bushes. But there was something wrong it didn’t act a hundred percent like a jackal. As Huw is not confident with his identification of African animals I lowered my head around him so I could see through the night vision scope. Quickly picking up the eyes I saw it was a bat eared fox, not something we were going to shoot as they don’t cause any problems and they are protected.
Leaving this area, we drove back the way we had come. Huw quite frantically started flashing the light in front of the vehicle. A sign used to tell the driver to stop. I got out and asked where he had seen something. He shone the light, and I caught a glimpse of an eye. Probably around two hundred meters from us. I looked quickly through the scope and could see that this was in fact a jackal. I told him to get ready, and I would look through the thermal. Once ready, I gave a whistle, stopping the jackal in his tracks. Huw fired and the clear thud told me it was down. Huw kept the spotlight on the area and I walked out. Lying stone dead was a good-sized male jackal, Huw’s first. We hung him on the rack, and I said we would try one more spot before heading home. We drove a couple of kilometers, and I pulled off the track, put the caller out and got ourselves ready. The springbok lamb call worked again. Not fifty meters from us on the track stood a jackal. Huw again, unsure asked me to check. I did and said “take him”. As he readied himself the jackal started to walk but this wasn’t going to stop Huw. He gave a slight lead and squeezed the trigger. The jackal dropped in the road. Number two down and the end to a fantastic day. Huw was ecstatic and the farmer also, as these jackals would definitely have given him problems in his lambing camps,which bordered the areas we were hunting.
Hunting and Outdoor Adventures 