Not knowing when to Quit
By Carl van Zyl ~ Kalahari 2024
For close on 20 years I’ve had the pleasure of hunting with my dear friend Dave Kjelstrup. We have been fortunate to share hunts all over Africa and a number across North America too. And while our journeys have seen us explore some of the most beautiful sights on earth so too did it build a bond similar to that of a grandfather and his grandson. I often fondly refer to Dave as “the grandfather I never had” which more than anything gives you a fair idea of our relationship.
With that in mind and having successfully hunted more than 40 species together and countless birds over the years we had hit a stumbling block on Leopard.
From Mozambique to Zimbabwe and Zambia. We’ve baited them and chased them with hounds. We’ve been so close at times and yet so far at others. We had given it our all and came up short on every occasion going home time and again to lick our wounds with our tails between our legs.
Most would have quit and very few would have stuck with me, and rightfully so. But not Dave. Dave is an “old school” kind of guy cut from a different cloth. He comes from a generation where a man’s handshake is his bond and his word means something.
Fast forward the clock to late April 2024 and we once again found ourselves on the trail of a Leopard. This time in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. I had enjoyed my lions share of good luck on Leopard in the Kalahari and the only reason Dave and I had not hunted Botswana previously was due to an 8 year hunting ban. But times had changed and we were set having arrived into Maun situated on the edge of the Okavango Delta before taking the 3hr journey south into the Kalahari.
My dad Rick and nephew Ross had joined us on this occasion spending day one checking and zeroing rifles as well as getting accustomed to our shotguns which we would be using for the Leopard.
Day two saw us rise bright and early headed out in search of Leopard tracks from the night before in the hope of finding a suitable male track.
Assisting us were two further teams headed up by Corey and the other by Houndsman Jeff. At 11 am while taking a closer look at a passing Blue Wildebeest Stephan’s Sat-phone rang to life. Cory had found a large Tom’s track. It was go time!
The Kalahari is vast with any given days hunt seeing one range between 5 – 200km in distance. It took us just on 3 hrs to reach Cory where he and his team of Bushmen were hard at it trailing the cat. We immediately added our men to the team and watched a master class in tracking unfold.
For the next 4hrs the Bushmen toiled under the baking sun never giving up on a difficult track. The previous week’s rain saw the sandy soil in the low lying depressions form a hard crust with the cats track only breaking through the crusted surface on the odd occasion. The going was tough.
By 5 that afternoon Kamoor the head tracker, a man whom I had the privilege and pleasure of hunting with more than 20 years ago on my first Leopard hunt in Botswana, began his rhythmic trot on the track. A phenomena which needs to be witnessed to be believed.
The track had headed into some thicker Camel Thorns where the sand was softer and the going better. Kamoor and the rest of the men would fan out alongside one another pointing left or right as they lost and gained the track in their pursuit. At times Kamoor would dance or crawl in a crouched position enacting the Leopards movements in his attempt to understand where next the cat was headed.
The Leopard was clearly hunting, checking every burrow or hole along the way. At one point the cat had chased a herd of Gemsbuck with yearling calves but to no avail. As the heat of the day grew stronger so too did his desire to rest up affording us the opportunity of closing the gap between ourselves and him.
At around about 5:45 Kamoor consulted his older brother Mauretwa, a living legend in these parts, about his feeling of the track. Kamoor felt the Tom had heard or seen us approaching in the past hour and he was confident that the cat was merely walking ahead of us always staying a step ahead. Together they decided to release the hounds.
For the next 30 mins we watched the Treeing Walker Hounds go to work on the scent as we tried keeping up in hot pursuit.
At one stage the hounds lost the scent milling about without direction until the lead dog Rock set a course west, in the opposite direction to where we had been headed into thus far. The Houndsman debated their trust in Rock only to see old Mauretwa shout from the back; “Rock is on the right track! Let him go!” How on earth he could tell the difference between the Leopard’s track and that of 10 hounds in the soft Kalahari sand is beyond me. But he could.
At 6:15 with the setting sun kissing the horizon in the west we finally caught up to Dave’s Leopard.
It had been day 42 of hunting Leopard for the two of us. Our passports boasted 5 different stamps in them for our efforts. At times I questioned my sanity and I have no doubt Dave did too. The lows were low and most would have quit, but not Dave.
Rather he stuck with me and together we realised that sometimes not knowing when to quit may just be the greatest victory of all.
Thanks Dave ~ Here’s to the monkey off of our backs and the many adventures to come.
Contact us today for more information on our hunts and feel free to mail Carl directly on johnxsafarishunts@gmail.com with your specific safari requests or quotes. We look forward to hearing from you and sharing a campfire in Africa.
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