Hunting & Sightseeing in South Africa
By Frank Gonzalez & Betty Trueba
An article from Safari Club International Magazine
The idea of a combination hunt and sightseeing safari actually arose out my 1998 first African hunt in Zimbabwe. In spite of 21 days of hard hunting, I had still managed to take hundreds of photos and video of some really breathtaking views and game in both the Chewore Concession and the Save Valley Conservancy. My wife and our best friends the Truebas were fascinated by the raw beauty of the African bush wilderness and made it clear that “it looked like something they would like to do one of these days…”
The main problem I could see with this idea was that my wife and the Truebas don’t hunt and I wasn’t about to go back to Africa if it did not include doing some hunting. In my opinion, to do otherwise would be the equivalent of “taking a little kid to an ice cream store and telling him or her that they can look but they can’t get any…” That would not be okay with “this little kid” The other problem was that my wife and friends also were not to keen on taking the malaria preventative and the many vaccines I had to endure prior to and during my Zimbabwe trip.
Because of these and the additional facts that we were all busy making sure our kids made it through the “terrible teens”, high school, college and paying jobs, the “African adventure” was put in the back burner for quite a few years.
Into this picture walks my Georgia friend and outfitter Frank Freshwater (“Valley Outdoors”, Fort Valley, Georgia) and his business associate, South African P.H. Johan Dreyer of “Hunt Africa” Safaris. Frank had been introduced to me by my friend, taxidermist and current Miami SCI Chapter president Pablo Alvarez and we had become really good friends through a turkey hunt Frank had donated to the chapter and I had successfully bid on. Freshwater himself guided that hunt and the relationship that arose out of it was what convinced me without a doubt that he was the outfitter I wanted to deal with for any South African safari.
To make a long story short, Frank had introduced me to Johan during the following year’s Miami SCI Banquet and I had told them about “the difficulties of planning any Africa trip that would include my wife and friends” To my surprise they both replied that “the Eastern Cape (where most of Johan’s concessions are located) is malaria free, did not require any previous vaccinations….and yes, Johan would also be able to also help us with the sightseeing and tourism aspects of the trip…”
A subsequent luncheon, which included “the entire gang” helped to close the deal at which time it was decided that I “would have time to hunt the two species I was interested in (Gemsbok and Bush pig) while my wife and friends did some local sightseeing and I would join them for the rest of the trip once that was accomplished.
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Johan assured me that he “had plenty of good Gemsbok in his concessions and that such a hunt should not take more than a day under normal conditions…the Bush pig was a different story as they are basically nocturnal and you either hunted them with dogs or over bait…in either case he would have to check with the locals to see who had bush pig activity to report…I would not need to lug a rifle case with me as I would be able to borrow his .300 Winchester…” I immediately chose to hunt over bait as this would basically be at night and that would allow me more time with my wife and friends.
Dates were set for the end of June 2007 to the mid July (16 days total) and the next thing I knew I was sitting in a South African Airlines jet with my wife and friends en route to South Africa which included stopovers in Dakar (Senegal), Johannesburg and finally Cape Town where our host and PH Johan Dreyer had arranged to pick us up for the’700 plus kilometer’ drive to his lodge (“the Elephant & Aloe Lodge” ) on the outskirts of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape province. This long drive would give us an opportunity to see the country and some of the places we would be stopping by on the return part of the trip which was to include the Garden Route, the Wine Country and Cape Town.
As luck would have it, South African Airlines misplaced our friend’s checked in luggage and although one of the two missing pieces was delivered to the Lodge three days later the second piece took five days to deliver. Other than that, and a two hour delay at the ‘Joburg’ airport due to, of all things a snowfall we had a safe plane trip. That night was spent at “The Hunter’s Lodge” an excellent lodging establishment owned and operated by a British gentleman by the name of Graham.
The view that greeted us the following morning from the Lodge’s second story verandah was so gorgeous that I would recommend to anyone thinking of spending some time in Cape Town to consider staying at this lodge. Not only did we have a perfect view of the city and the bay but a magnificent and uninterrupted view of the three majestic mountains that surround the Town, “The Table Top”, “Signal Hill” and “Lion’s Head”.
A hearty breakfast was immediately followed by the long but leisurely drive to Johan’s lodge where we arrived late that evening and which gave us the opportunity to enjoy the views of the country side and the numerous plains game and ranch stock (mostly sheep) on both sides of the road. I didn’t get much of a chance to look over the Lodge that evening since I had been informed that PH Piet Dreyer (our host’s father) would be picking me up at 6:00AM the following morning and would be my guide and PH for the Gemsbok hunt.
The next day found me in the company of Dreyer Sr. and his tracker Panoki for what would be roughly a 25 minute drive to the “Kikuyu Lodge and Game Preserve” and our search for my trophy Gemsbok. What a beautiful place this turned out to be, enclosed by mountains and watered by the “Bushman” River this was a plains game hunting paradise as I had never seen before. We saw just about every species of antelope and plains game
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imaginable, including giraffe and eland, of which they had sizeable herds, just “no Gemsbok.”
After approximately 5 hours of driving and walking just about every road and trail in the preserve, my PH brought the hunting truck to a sudden stop and pointing to the side of a distant hill yelled “there are the Gemsbok!” Now, I am still trying to figure out how was it that Dreyer Sr. was able to do that without the aid of binoculars, but further glassing confirmed that we had in fact found the elusive herd which numbered 30 or more animals.
Fifteen minutes of additional driving and walking found us approaching the crest of the hill (from the opposite side) where we had previously spotted the herd. Acting on my PH’s suggestion I chambered a “Rhino” tipped round ( a very popular big game bullet in South Africa) on my borrowed .300 Winchester Magnum custom “Mauser” by South African gunsmith Kevin Healey (borrowed from Johan’s friend and PH Tertuis) just as we were about to reach the top of the hill…and then “no Gemsbok!!”
The herd which had previously appeared to have been stationary had obviously moved on leaving us scratching our heads and trying to figure out where they had gone. This was clearly a job for Panoki and within seconds we were hot on the trail through the dense bush veldt that covered the area. We had silently walked 200 to 300 yards when all of a sudden Panoki (who was in front) dropped backwards and behind a thick bush that we had not yet cleared, quickly pointing to another bush 60 to 75 yards away, downhill and to our left.
Further glassing by Dreyer Sr. resulted in his motioning me over to the “shooting sticks” which he had already set up on one side of the bush we were using for cover, proceeding to whisper to me the exact position of our quarry within the distant bush. I must have spent a good two to three minutes looking through the scope, following his exact directions before I was able to make the left side of the animals “face mask”, left ear and part of his left horn; the problem, as you might have guessed it was that the bush was so thick that I could not make the outline of his body at all. And then… it totally disappeared as it began to move behind the bush.
The thought crossed my mind of at least one or two additional hours of walking and stalking when my PH whispered “get ready to shoot! it’s coming around the bush to the left!” and then, as if by magic, the Gemsbok and I were looking straight at each other as it cleared the bush and appeared to freeze on its tracks. I remember barely touching the trigger and feeling the instantaneous recoil of the 180 grain “Ryno” tipped hand load. I recovered in time to see the antelope drop as if struck by lightning right where it had previously stood.
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My PH immediately took off at a half run, moving to our right with the “shooting sticks” in hand, while yelling for me to “chamber another round!” (something I had already done…thanks to my previous Zimbabwe experience) and “get ready to shoot again if it
tries to get up!” The Gemsbok was obviously “out” but nevertheless I was told to “put another shot in its back...” which I did. We then made a careful approach which culminated in a lot of back slapping and hand shakes and the mandatory photos once we established that the antelope was truly down.
Afterwards, Dreyer Sr. gave me a lengthy explanation of “how dangerous Gemsbok
can be when wounded… being very well known for their determined and sometimes successful charges against both natural predators and humans…” and giving me the specific sample of a case he was aware of where “another PH’s client had been gored through the groin by his ‘dead’ trophy’s horns…”. Looking at its long rapier like horns it was not difficult for me to figure out “that must have hurt!’
My successful first hunt was followed by several days of sightseeing and game viewing at the nearby Mayberry Game Preserve, Ado Elephant National Park and local sightseeing followed by “the girl’s” showing us “who the real weaker sex is” by making tandem parachute jumps from 10,000 feet at the local Grahamstown airfield. My hat goes off to the ladies and to my God for having had the wisdom to make them responsible for bringing additional members of our species into this world. I know for a fact that “if the shoe was on the other foot” this would be a largely desolate world. We did return to the air strip a few days later for an hour’s worth of ‘ultra-light’ flying over the adjacent game preserves which gave us the opportunity to view lots of game from the air.
In the meantime, our host kept trying his local contacts to see if we could find a decent “Bush pig” but the answers were always the same…”It’s too cold …it’s too wet…it’s the full moon… it’s too dark… etc, etc.” Then one morning we are heading out to one of our tourism trips and just as we are about to climb aboard Johan’s “Mercedes Benz” mini-bus when the call came in that there was a large “Bush pig” grazing in a farm pasture, in full daylight and within a couple of miles from the same game preserve where I had shot my Gemsbok a few days before.
My wife and friends agreed to the detour and we raced to the spot after changing vehicles for one of Johan’s hunting trucks and complementing the hunting party with two of his Jack Russell terriers, in case we had to do some tracking. Fifteen minutes later we were meeting with the care taker of the “Kikuyu Lodge and Game Preserve” who had previously called Johan with news of the Bush pig and whom we followed an additional 3 or 4 minutes to the pasture where the pig was feeding. Out came Johan’s personal “Musgrave” bolt action .270 Winchester (another fine South African made rifle put together with a “Mauser” action) with the necessary supply of “Rhyno” tipped hand loads and off we were to stalk our quarry.
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The pasture was covered with knee to waist high grass which made spotting the pig impossible from any distance so we started a very careful and slow downwind stalk with Johan’s tracker and two farm hands who had kept tabs on the pig as we raced over; I was
warned that I “would probably have to make a running shot” as it was likely that we wood spook the hog as we got near. Two hundred yards and 5 minutes later we reached a small depression in the grass and after detailed glassing Johan called me to the “shooting sticks” pointing to a blondish white spot in the grass and explaining “that is the ‘Bush pig’ … shoot it!” I could see the spot he was pointing out to which was maybe 30 yards away… I just could not find it while the rifle was on the “sticks” so I ended up shooting off hand.
And boy …are those “Rhino” bullets gooood !!! … that hog didn’t even twitch, I did have to give it the required insurance shot but it was really a waste of good ammo. The problem is that as it was explained to me “with African game it is always the ‘dead ones’ that hurt you…” so you don’t find a lot of unnecessary risk taking, ammo is always cheaper than a trip to the local doctor.
I had taken the two game species I had intended to all along so I was now able to join my wife and friends in the rest of our trip which included a several days trip with stops at “The Big Tree” and “Tsitsikamma National Park” where we did a zip-line canopy tour of an ancient tropical rain forest; “Seaview Game & Lion Park” where “the girls” (and “the boys” too) got to play with lion cubs; “Arch Rock at Plettenberg Bay” one of the most breathtaking seashores I have ever seen; the Ostrich Farm at Oudtshroon, where the girls rode ostriches; Bloukranz bridge the highest bungee jump in the world; Port Elizabeth with its modern Boardwalk mall and Casino and finally the Wine Country, Garden Route , Seal Island, Cape Point where the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans join and Cape Town with its beautiful “Elizabeth & Albert” wharf and Mall.
This was a great vacation in the company of great friends, great wine and spirits, an excellent host/PH whom we now count among our personal friends and whose services we will certainly engage when we return in a couple of years to visit Kruger, Zululand and Namibia. But that will be another story…
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