New Sites and Old
The sound of strong wind woke me before my alarm this morning. Looking out the window from my bed, I could see the leaves on the trees and shrubbery dancing as they were pulled at by the air. The sky was swirled with grays as heavy cloud cover blocked out any sign of a beautiful sunrise.
After a quick shower and other morning necessities, I debated what to wear. Opening the door, I was met with warmth so I opted for shorts. It was a little chilly so I wore my long sleeve shirt to block whatever small nip was in the air.
After a good breakfast, we headed to the truck to begin the baiting process. Johann, my brother, and I were in the cab while Mateis and Leonard jumped in the high seat. The gemsbok remained in the truck bed overnight just as it was loaded from the prickly pear cactus.
Our first stop was a new site off the top of Byseewah mountain, a place we hadn’t visited before. There was a pump fed waterhole there but the pump was stolen and not replaced yet. It is set amongst a small ridge of rock that looks very much like good leopard territory. Several older tracks were found in one of the few sandy areas. We quickly identify a bait tree and hung a front shoulder by a chain and placed a trail camera to capture any action.
We then went to two waterholes in succession where a large male and the female with two cubs had previously fed. Along the way we spotted a trophy kudu. When we stopped, it quickly vanished in the thick bush of the mountain side. We hung a hind quarters, good portions of meat, knowing cats had eaten here already.
We proceeded to the Freedom Dam for the final bait setup of the morning. Johann had previously seen leopard spoor coming to this water from two directions. We placed a quarter on a limb approximately five feet off the ground and made a hyena bait nearby with the neck and head wired to a tree root. Johann has a client coming after we leave who has hyena on his list.
Arriving back at camp, we learned it was make your own pizza for lunch day. Given a crust, it was up to each of us to top as we liked from the many available toppings. I couldn’t resist adding some of the leftover butter steak from last night. Yum.
After a brief siesta, we were back on the truck to explore a part of the property Johann hadn’t visited yet. On the north side of the property, we drove up an old long-abandoned trail last used to haul fence building materials. Weaving in and out of the trees and bushes, we made our way to the property line. On the way up the mountain, we spotted a location where three small valleys joined together which looked like a good spot for bait. On our way out, we chained a half of the rib cage to a nice tree limb. We’re calling this the Hidden Valley bait.
With darkness coming, Johann sped to the last site we needed to replenish, the Middle Post bait. Using the last part of the gemsbok, we quickly had it in place and back on our way to the lodge as storm clouds brewed in the distance and lightening could be seen.
On our way in, we easily saw 150 animals including gemsbok, wildebeest, plains zebra, mountain zebra, impala, springbok, eland, and warthogs. At one point, we had eland running one direction, gemsbok another, and warthogs crossing in between. And, all of them met right in front of the truck. It was almost like one of those figure eight demolition derby races.
End results for the day show three old bait sites replenished, three new bait sites established, and three hyena baits set. It was a good day.
EA