Back from South Africa - Part 2

Bouhuntress · #1 05-01-2016, 05:43 PM

After we finished up in the Kalahari, we flew to East London on the Eastern Cape to hunt with Ray Kemp at Lalapa Safaris. This was our first trip to the Eastern Cape and we were surprised at how varied the terrain was. This was primarily a free-range hunt. Most people are shocked at how much free-range hunting still exists in South Africa. We started out in Ray's main camp and the first day hunted at nearly 7,000 feet elevation where TJ took one the most unique antelope species, the Vaal Rhebuck. The highlight of the trip, however, was hunting free-range Barbary sheep in the Stromberg Mountains. We also took mountain reedbuck, black springbok and I arrowed a huge warthog.

We then moved closer to the coast to hunt some very unique animals. We stayed at an unbelievable tented lodge on the Lalibela Game Reserve and hunted the surrounding cattle farms. I took a caracal with hounds and a huge bush pig at night with a suppressed 300WM that was infra red equipped. That was pretty cool. We hunted hard for blue duiker but we never saw a big male and we just ran out of time for bushbuck. It will be a great excuse to go back plus now free-range eland, Cape Kudu and nyala have definitely been added to the list. It was amazing hunting two such different areas of South Africa and seeing such a wide variety of game. The are something like 40 different species in the Eastern Cape alone.

Bouhuntress · #2 05-01-2016, 05:48 PM

SugarCreek · #3 05-01-2016, 07:15 PM

Congrats Vanessa and TJ....another outstanding adventure.

Cheers....Marco

58thecat · #4 05-01-2016, 07:57 PM

Very cool for sure.
Thanks for sharing.

flyguyd · #5 05-01-2016, 09:58 PM

Well Done !!!!!!

Red Bullets · #6 05-01-2016, 11:47 PM

The pics tell me you both enjoyed your trip. Nice selection of animals. Great pics.

Rage.0 · #7 05-02-2016, 08:15 AM

That Caracal!, definitely putting them on my Africa list after this.

Sooner · #8 05-02-2016, 09:50 AM

Nice, thanks for posting.

xtrail · #9 05-02-2016, 10:22 AM

Thanks for sharing

Bouhuntress · #10 05-02-2016, 12:11 PM

Just going through some video from our recent trip and thought I'd share this YouTube clip. I had a no idea a warthog could jump the string this much! Thanks to a skilled tracking dog it had a happy ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7H2PFhK6LA

Caza80 · #11 05-02-2016, 08:44 PM

Very cool!!

Caza80 · #12 05-02-2016, 08:51 PM

Nice pictures! Very cool!

300magman · #13 05-02-2016, 11:41 PM

That cat is awesome, very cool looking animal!

Spatans · #14 05-03-2016, 07:39 AM

Great adventure

Spinnel · #15 05-06-2016, 09:07 AM

Oh My World!!!!!! Great pictures and cool story

anorthernhunter · #16 05-06-2016, 12:38 PM

Great pictures.

Question - did you get a chance to eat all of them? What were the best tasting? Any taste like elk/moose?

Northern

Bouhuntress · #17 05-06-2016, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anorthernhunter

Great pictures.

Question - did you get a chance to eat all of them? What were the best tasting? Any taste like elk/moose?

Northern

We always want to try all of the meat from the animals we have taken on any of our trips. We were told that Caracal is very tasty but we never had a chance to try it. Instead we gave it to our tracker since he really wanted to take it back to his family.

Sad to say but most African game puts our North American game to shame in the flavour department. Some of my favourites have been giraffe, lion and klipspringer.

GooseSlammer · #18 05-08-2016, 04:35 PM

What is the story with the Caracal? (Amazing photo by the way!)

Looks like there's lots of daylight. Did you use dogs? If so, how was the experience?

I had them on my wish list both times I've been over, but it hasn't worked out yet for different reasons on both trips. Hopefully 3rd time's the charm!

That looks like a pretty good sized one too. Very jealous!

Bouhuntress · #19 05-08-2016, 09:20 PM

GooseSlammer,

My caracal hunt was an absolute blast. You are right, there was lots of daylight. In fact it was first thing in the morning and we hunted them with hounds. If you have ever hunted cougars with hounds, it was very much like that. Just a whole lot warmer and a lot less snow.

elk396 · #20 05-08-2016, 09:37 PM

Keep the pictures coming, excellent stuff!

Double Shovel · #21 05-08-2016, 10:28 PM

A different kind of African safari for sure, not your typical plains game hunt. The caracal will be a fun mount to do, congrats on a neat hunt

GooseSlammer · #22 05-11-2016, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bouhuntress

GooseSlammer,

My caracal hunt was an absolute blast. You are right, there was lots of daylight. In fact it was first thing in the morning and we hunted them with hounds. If you have ever hunted cougars with hounds, it was very much like that. Just a whole lot warmer and a lot less snow.

Very cool! Can you tell us more about the caracal hunt? Did you just round up the dogs, head out and get one on the first morning? Or were they looking for tracks, etc. for a few days before it was time to release the hounds? I've heard it can be several days looking for one to set the dogs on (I guess depending on the area). Just interested to know a few more details if you don't mind.

The first trip I had we were going to hunt them but the geese were stacking up in a different area than expected so we changed our plans and moved several hours away from the initially planned Caracal area. The second trip I took (last November) the government shut down a bunch of smaller animal hunting last minute (apparently due to a lot of night hunting - which is often a normal part of getting one of those cats.) Kind of unusual bad luck for me on both hunts (only in that respect) but they are very cool and I certainly hope to get just one someday. Maybe next time - whenever that is!

Bouhuntress · #23 05-11-2016, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GooseSlammer

Very cool! Can you tell us more about the caracal hunt? Did you just round up the dogs, head out and get one on the first morning? Or were they looking for tracks, etc. for a few days before it was time to release the hounds? I've heard it can be several days looking for one to set the dogs on (I guess depending on the area). Just interested to know a few more details if you don't mind.

The first trip I had we were going to hunt them but the geese were stacking up in a different area than expected so we changed our plans and moved several hours away from the initially planned Caracal area. The second trip I took (last November) the government shut down a bunch of smaller animal hunting last minute (apparently due to a lot of night hunting - which is often a normal part of getting one of those cats.) Kind of unusual bad luck for me on both hunts (only in that respect) but they are very cool and I certainly hope to get just one someday. Maybe next time - whenever that is!

Absolutely!

The houndsmen actually work really closely with the landowners. If a landowner hears a bushbuck bark a half dozen or so times in the night, then there is a predator nearby, likely a caracal. Then, first thing in the morning you walk the hounds through the area where the bushbuck was barking and when they hit a scent, the chase is on. I took mine at the bottom of a very deep canyon in the heavy jungle. It was some really tough going. There really is no way to look for tracks so this method seems to work really well.

That's too bad about your luck. You may want to contact Lalapa Safaris if you are planning on trying again. They seem to have it down to a science.