Cazando en familia / Hunting with family.

Cazando en familia

Estábamos ya a principios de Febrero y aun no había conseguido salir a cazar. Me senté con mi padre a desayunar y le comente que me apetecía llamar a Jurie, un amigo de la zona, para ver si podíamos ir a su finca una tarde para intentar cazar un bushbuck. Este antílope, considerado por muchos como el corzo africano, ya me había ganado unas cuantas partidas. Mi padre me dijo que le llamase y que a ser posible lo organizase para ir esa misma tarde. Llame a Jurie y quedamos en la puerta de la finca a las 4 de la tarde.


Después de comer metí el rifle y mis prismáticos en el coche y me puse las botas, nos subimos al coche mi padre y yo y pusimos rumbo a la finca que estaba a unos 20 kilómetros de distancia. Hablamos de camino a la finca, pero yo ya estaba pensando en donde íbamos a cazar, ya que conozco la finca. Esta tiene un pantanito precioso con un río y zona de monte espesa donde habitan los bushbuck. Ya tenia decidido desde donde quería empezar a cazar cuando llegamos a la puerta de la finca. Jurie ya estaba esperándonos, sonriente como siempre. Un apretón de manos, sacamos el rifle y a cazar.


Dejamos el coche al lado del pantano y nos bajamos mi padre y yo. Jurie nos esperaría unos kilómetros mas adelante. Empezamos la caminata, feliz por estar de caza y poder compartirlo con mi padre. Los bushbuck tienen la querencia de salir de la espesura antes del anochecer para comer junto al agua, así que decidimos ir faldeando el monte intentando ver algún bushbuck que saliese de la maleza. A los 15 minutos vimos una hembra que estaba ya junto al lago comiendo, con ella también había un par de facos, pero por desgracia eran pequeños. Nos sentamos y los observamos un rato antes de seguir la marcha. También vimos un par de hembras de nyala, y un hipopotamo en el pantano, pero ningún bushbuck grande.


Llegamos a la zona mas abierta de la charca, esta zona tiene grandes claros con pasto muy alto y los bichos tienen mucha comida. Sin aviso mi padre me toco el hombro y me dijo ´´ahí esta´´. Saliendo de la espesura hacia el claro había un precioso macho de bushbuck, que andaba a paso lento. Su pelo color marrón oscuro y con largos cuernos. No estaba a mas de 100 metros pero decidimos acercarnos un poco mas. Nos tapamos un poco en el monte perdiendo de vista el claro, y seguimos hasta que pensamos que ya estábamos lo suficientemente cerca y nos volvimos a asomar. Estaba a unos escasos 30 metros, pero ya no estaba solo, había cuatro bushbucks en total, dos hembras, un macho más joven y mi macho. Me acerque a un árbol y me encare el rifle. El bushbuck debió oír algo y nos miro fijamente. ´´Ahora o nunca´´ dijo mi padre. Subí el punto rojo por la pata y cuando llegue al hombro junto a una macha mas oscura que tenia en la paletilla apreté el gatillo. El bushbuck se desplomo, y mi padre me dio la enhorabuena, y me dio un abrazo. Nos acercamos al bushbuck, y le di las gracias a mi padre. Era precioso, largo y oscuro, con un corte en la oreja de una pelea, y las manchas blancas muy marcadas. Jurie trajo el coche y me dio la enhorabuena al llegar.

Sacamos mil fotos con el pantano de fondo, y otras veinte con mi padre y Jurie. Aquí me di cuenta de la suerte que tengo, los bichos preciosos de este país, las zonas tan distintas y de la familia que tengo.

Hunting with family.

It was already early February and I still hadn´t gotten the chance to go out hunting. I sat at the breakfast table with my father, and told him I wanted to call Jurie, a friend from the local area, to see if we could maybe go to his farm to try and hunt a bushbuck. This beautiful antelope, considered by many the African Roebuck had already outsmarted me a few times. My father told me that I should call him and if possible organise to go that very afternoon. Jurie said he would meet us by the farms gate at 4 o´clock.

After lunch, I put the rifle and my binoculars in the car, and put on my boots. We got into the car and started the drive to the farm which was only 20 kilometres away. We spoke on the way there, but my mind was elsewhere. I was already thinking about what area of the farm I wanted to hunt. This area had a small dam with a river flowing into it with thick riverine bush. Before I finished planning it all out in my head, we arrived at the farm. Jurie was already waiting for us, and after a handshake and taking the rifle out of the bag we started hunting.

We left the car near the dam, and my dad and I got off. Jurie would wait for us on the far side of the dam, a few kilometres ahead. We started the walk, I felt happy at being able to be in the bush hunting and to be able to share the experience with my father.

Bushbucks have the habit of leaving the thick bush in the late afternoon, to feed, so we decided to walk on the edge of the bush hoping to see a bushbuck coming out of the thickets to feed on the short green grass next to the water. 15 minutes after we left the car, we saw a female grazing by the water’s edge, with her there were also 2 warthogs, but unfortunately they were just too small. We sat down and watched them for a while before moving on. We also saw a few female nyalas with a young bull and a hippopotamus in the water, but no big bushbucks.

We arrived to a more open area of the dam; here the animals have a lot of food in open fields closer to the water. Suddenly my father touched my shoulder and said ´´there he is´´. Walking out slowly from the thicket was a beautiful bushbuck ram; he had long horns, and was a striking light brown colour. He was no more than 100 metres away, but we decided to get closer. We approached slowly, covering our approach with the thick vegetation surrounding us. We lost sight of the bushbuck but walked on until we thought we would be close enough to make the shot. We were now barely 30 metres away from him, but he wasn´t alone. 2 females and a youngster had joined him feeding in the field. I walked up to a tree, rested the rifle on a branch and nestled the gun in my shoulder. The bushbuck must´ve heard something, because he stopped feeding and looked directly at us. ´´Now or never´´ my father said. I put the red dot on a dark coloured patch of skin right on the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. At the shot the bushbuck collapsed, and my father congratulated me. I was ecstatic! It was a dream come true! We walked closer to the bushbuck and I thanked my father. The bushbuck was old and beautiful. He had a cut in his ear from a previous fight and the white markings were striking against his brown coat. Jurie brought the car to where we were, and when he arrived he congratulated us on a great trophy.

We took many pictures with the dam as background and then even more with both Jurie and my father. Here I realised just how lucky I am, the beauty of the animals in this country, the many different areas there are, and the great family that I have.