Tracking

Maud started 2009 with a hunting trip. January 1st early in the morning she drove up north with our neighbours-across-the-road Jeff & Pelo to spend some days at Anna's game farm close to Francistown. Imagine 3000 hectares of bush, plus 6000 hectares from the farm next door, to explore while tracking wildebeest, impala and elephant.


Our first project is to shoot a wildebeest for the neighbour. It's spectacular to walk around for hours with our tracker Two Pula, following spoors of several groups of kokong. It's as amazing to see Two Pula talking with his hands and facial expressions (we have to be kind of quiet). We see a lot, but not that many wildebeest, and those we see are too ready to run, so after some trips we move on to the next project: shoot an impala for Anna's staff.


The impala proves to be easier. While we are looking for tracks of the elephants that ransack the farm a lonely male pala appears on the road. He makes for a welcome change on the staff's menu: seswaa, stew, and in the morning a lot of biltong is hung to dry.


Zach is in for the elephant tracking and firewood collecting expeditions by car. Though we relax in between by floating in the river and loitering in the porch, having fun is pretty exhausting - and the perfect way to start a new year!