Kat River Conservancy Parts III & IV and Morgan's Bay

Monday & Tuesday: Rain, Bush Buck, and Rain

It never rains in Africa. Well, almost never. It seemed that a low pressure system had stalled over the Eastern Cape. We spent all of Monday and Tuesday looking for Bush Buck in the rain. Antelope are like deer, they don’t like to move in moderate to heavy rain. We staked out strategic locations on the lush green hillsides and waited for breaks in the rain to see if we could catch one moving. We saw a few dart between the thick foliage during the breaks, but nothing that was worth pursuing.

On Tuesday morning, Murray and I loaded up and headed out to hunt for Caracal. The tracker and dog handler had treed one. As soon as we left, we got a radio call. The cat had jumped from the tree to escape, but unfortunately landed in the pack of dogs. We headed back to the Kat River to continue looking for Bush Buck.

Each night we put our damp clothes around the fire place in the lodge to dry. I managed to catch my wool gloves on fire, my waterproof wool hat shrunk, and my other clothes never really got dry. I had a warm wool sweater with water/windproof lining for my "rain gear". It was not very pleasant to wear in the cold and rain. It never rains in Africa.

Wednesday: Morgan’s Bay

We packed-up Wednesday morning and headed to the coast. We would be spending our last two nights at a hotel in Morgan’s Bay, a very small sea side resort on the Indian Ocean. We planned to hunt the coastal range for Bush Buck. It was very different from the Kat River - extremely green, relatively flat, and looked a lot like East Texas before you hit the pines. Except for the river valley. A large river valley ran through the area we were hunting. The relatively flat land gave away to a very deep and wide river valley throw which a large fast flowing river winds and drops with rapids and waterfalls. The valley looked exactly like something out of a Central American rainforest. You could easily have mistaken the area for Costa Rica.

View of Coastal River Valley

We spent the day glassing for Bush Buck. The rain kept them bedding down. We made an unsuccessful stalk on a single one, but no luck. We headed to the hotel for a nice dinner Wednesday night. The hotel is famous for its hospitality. They print a menu and local news every night. They had a few paragraphs welcoming our group from Texas!

Big Caracal

Thursday: Big Caracal

One the way to the hunting area Thursday morning we got a call that the tracker had a Caracal treed in the same area we hunted on Wednesday. We arrived where he told us to meet him. Now, like I said earlier, the frames of reference are different in Africa. When we arrived we didn’t find him. We got him on the hand held radio (his boss was there waiting for us). It seemed "Meet me here." Meant "Drive to here, than walk a mile." So we got out and walked to his location. Well, again the frames of references are different, and we ended up climbing the down the side of mountain into the river valley – it was a real pain.

JR's Caracal Hunt Earlier in the Week

We made it down vertically about 200 feet and settled on a large rock outcropping. We heard the dogs at the bottom of the valley along the river howling – probably another 800 feet below us – straight down. After about 20 minutes or so, through shouting and radios, we determined the treed cat had run off. The tracker said he would keep looking and call us later. We climbed back up and headed to the truck. We were off to look for Bush Bucks again.

Bush Buck Terrain

About an hour later we got a call from the tracker. Something along the lines of "Come quick Boss, I have a big one in a tree. Hurry!" So we asked him where. "Right where you were today on the rocks." We made our way back to the spot, ran from the vehicle, climbed down into the valley, and ran to the rocks. Nothing. It seemed "Right Here" meant – "Somewhere near where I was today, maybe a few hundred yards, maybe a few miles". We climbed back up and listened. We heard the dogs further down the gorge about a mile or so.

We started on our way. We occasionally dropped off the flat area into the top part of the gorge to listen and then would go back up. We want up down many hills and even across a small stream or two. We eventually made it to the area right above where the cat was treed. Murray looked at me. We have had a hard go at it thus far, we are all soaked in sweat and exhausted. "Now it gets hard," he said.We started climbing down into the gorge. We had about 400 feet to go. The sides of the gorge were almost vertical and water was running down around us everywhere. It was truly a rainforest. We could hear the river roaring at the bottom. The only we reason we didn’t fall was that there were so many trees and vines. We slid from tree to tree and we when started falling, the vines would catch us like nets.

We finally made it to where the Caracal was treed. He was in the top of a large bushy tree, barely visible. Remember, this species of cat is around 30-40 lbs, and he was curled in a ball 40 feet above the ground. I was using 300 grain solids in my 375. They would pass straight thru. The other bullets would have caused him to literally explode. I aimed for his rear area as not to damage the skull. Bang! The 375 came back and smashed my face and glasses due to the angle of the shoot. The cat leaped from the tree. He was hit. He starting pulling himself down the side of the gorge with his front legs only. I chambered another round to take a shot, but people and dogs were in the way. The cat ran down and down.

The tracker headed down to keep the dogs off of the cat. The cat was dead about 100 feet below us. We brought the cat back up and started a climb, literally, back to the top. In many areas we were climbing and then crawling on our hands and knees, sometimes bellies, to make it thru the thick brush. We got to the top. The Caracal was very nice.

Caracal

Everyone had pants on that day except for me. My legs were scratched beyond recognition and covered with blood. It looked like I lost a fight with a Leopard or something worse. That night at the hotel I scrubbed my legs raw with hot water, soap, and iodine.

End of Trip

Friday: One More Hunt

Everyone got up late Friday morning to buy gifts along the beach. Except for me. I met Murray at sunrise and we shot photos and a video against the Indian Ocean.We went back to the same area and hunted for several hours, but nothing. There was a full moon setting and we decided the Bush Buck had been up all night feeding. Their habits are closer to deer versus antelope. We decided to head for the airport.

Indian Ocean Sunrise

Morning View

Our 7 PH's: Murray, Justin, John, John, Sculk, Jeff, Me, Robbie

Thought for the Day

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Genesis 1:26

Colt 1911 National Match

I picked up my .45 from the gun shop today. My father purchased this pistol in 1950 and used it competitively as a member of the USAF pistol team into the 1960's.

Oh boy, are the standard old school .45s nice, especially ones that have been accurarized and fitted with competition triggers. And nothing beats a nice heavy barrel to keep muzzle jump to a minimum!

Technically, I've never hunted with my .45, but I did try to dispatch a very large boar one time at close range when my rifle would not work - 5 rounds into it at less than 15 feet and it was gone - never to be found!

I use my .45 for protection when hunting areas that are remote and may have illegal immigrant traffic on it. It is also great for putting a wounded animal down, taking care of varmints at close range, and for just plain old plinking around.

However, I have been considering purchasing a large caliber pistol for my eventual trip to Alaska as backup in the event of bears. Some folks say a .45 long colt revolver is fine for close range (i.e. the bear on top of you), others swear by the .41 and .44 mags. Some say these are all useless in the event of a bear attack, so I just might get the new .480 Alaskan from Ruger - I think that might to the trick.

Austin Hunter

Mountain Lion Hunt - New Mexico January 2005

185lbs; 14 11/16" skull measurement