SOUTH AFRICA: My First Safari & Lion October 22

[yarettlopez]

I want to share a bit of my experience, and I apologize in advance as English is not my native language, but I hope everyone enjoys a bit of my story.

This story begins like many others with many months of planning and research and after much thought I booked my lion hunt with Johan Potgieter of Savanna Hunting Safaris and so we began this great adventure.

Finally, the day arrived and it was time to get on the plane and start the long trip. We left the city of Guadalajara (Mexico) to Los Angeles to fly to Johannesburg via Istanbul. Being my first safari and being a trip through so many cities and airports, I decided not to take the rifle and use the one that Johan offered me.
I never thought that my first safari would be like this with a lion, but seeing that the lion hunt in South Africa is about to end and since hunting the big 5 is one of my biggest dreams, I decided to take my savings and with my wife's permission we we embark on a great adventure



Day 1

After almost 3 days of travel, my wife and I finally arrived in Johannesburg at 10 am and after going through immigration and customs we headed to the exit where Johan was already waiting for us with a sign with my name on it, even though i didn't know him in person, we greeted each other like old friends since we had been talking constantly for months, where I asked him thousands of questions and he always kindly answered me.

We loaded everything in the truck and headed to the ranch where we would hunt the lion which is approximately 6 hours from the airport on the way to the Kalahari, along the way he told us some stories and told us what we could expect and some security measures, finally after After many hours of travel we arrived at the camp, and finally when I got out of the truck and stepped on the sandy soil of the Kalahari I knew that my hunt had finally begun, after a delicious dinner we got ready to rest and prepare for the hunt tomorrow.

 

[yarettlopez]

Day 2

After a long night of rest we were ready, we went to the dining room where breakfast was already waiting for us, after eating we sat down to sign all the permits and contracts before starting the hunt and we went out to zero the rifle, a K98 musgrave in . 375 h&h with Hornady DGX bullets, after a few shots the rifle was ready and we went out to look for the lions which were in a large area separate from the main camp. And so we began to search for each of the roads looking for tracks and erasing the oldest tracks to be able to see in the following days if there is movement, after several hours we found tracks of a lioness and we began to follow them when at about 200 meters we saw that the lioness was still walking through the road, so we stopped the truck and got out to approach on foot, at that moment my heart raced, finally I was hunting lions, the lioness entered the block and we entered after her, it was an area very dense where you could not see more than 20 meters away, little by little we entered the brush, but endless footprints in all directions made us lose track again and again, finally after about 30 minutes we decided to return to the truck and see if she left left the block, but we had no luck, we decided to stop the search and return in the afternoon to see if we could locate the trail again.

After lunch we went out again hoping to locate that lioness, we went around the block again and saw that the lioness had not yet left the area, so we decided to get out of the truck and walk around the block trying to pick up a trail, Johan I told me that it was dangerous to walk without following a trail as we could run into the lioness at any moment and he asked if I was comfortable with a quick shot at close range to which I replied that I had never done it and he just smiled and said “ For everything there is a first time". We continued slowly looking for the lioness step by step, but the large number of footprints prevented us from following a clear trail, we finally found where she had been lying that afternoon just 15 meters from where we got out of the truck, it is likely that she saw us down and just crouched in silence, going completely unnoticed, no doubt this lioness was very intelligent, we finally stopped the search without results hoping to have more luck the next day.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Tracking DG vs over bait is a whole different game! Anxiously waiting for the next episode!

 

[DieJager]

Good start. Hunting this way myself this year, gets your blood pumping. Anxiously waiting for your next installment.

 

[PARA45]

It's been four days; we are still waiting for the rest of the report. Vamos, dale!

 

[R.M.C.]

Sounds awesome so far, what happens next?

 

[7mmFan]

for not having English as a first language, you are doing great! Keep going!

 

[Frederik]

Keep it coming your English is just fine sir!

 

[yarettlopez]

Sorry for the delay, but I have tons of work, I will try to post more often


DAY 3

We started the day like the others with a quick breakfast and went out to look for tracks, Johan decided to go straight to where we saw the lioness tracks the day before, we quickly saw that there was a lot of activity from the night before and we started to follow the trail, the tracks led to a fence in a corner of the property, there the tracks were constantly coming and going so again our tracker Obal had to work hard to see which was the most recent track, again we lost track and decided to go around the block to look for more footprints, when suddenly Obal asks us to stop and gets out of the truck and walks towards the fence, he quickly yells at Johan and a commotion is made in Afrikaans in which i did not understand anything, I get out of the truck and Johan tells me the lioness escaped, pointing to a hole under the fence, I couldn't believe that a lion passed through that small space but the tracks on the other side of the property confirmed it. Everything had changed, the hunt was over, we quickly headed to camp when on the way reports began to arrive from the neighboring ranch where they had seen the lioness in one of the water holes, everyone started talking on the phone and my wife and I sat down to wait.

After a few minutes Johan told us that we would go out to look for the lioness but we needed a special permit from the government so that everything would be in order, after a couple of hours we headed to the property where the animal control people and the department of hunting and conservation were already waiting for us, we quickly explained the situation and they gave us the green light, we went out to look for the trail in the last place where they saw it, and we began the search, we followed the trail for several hundred meters but the ground it was very hard and it was very hard to follow the trail we eventually lost the trail and started driving around the big property trying to locate her but this lioness was very smart, we knew that she would just look for a place to hide and not move, until we were standing on her, after several hours of searching we decided that it was not worth continuing since we were just wasting time and I still had to hunt my lion , so we decided to let animal control take care of the situation and we left.

Just as we started the return we noticed a lot of smoke and we saw that there was a fire nearby, when we reached the main road we saw that the fire was on both sides but the flames they were not very high, suddenly after a curve all hell broke loose, flames several meters high surrounded us, you felt the heat through the windows of the truck, the trackers who were in the back began to scream and hit the glass to tell us to speed up because they felt all the heat, the PH hit the throttle and in seconds (which seemed like minutes) we were out of hell, we stopped quickly to check on the people that were in the back and everyone was ok luckily we quickly reached the campsite, that was in the path of the fast moving fire and we were asked to pack our things and be ready to evacuate, an hour later our PH took us to a safer spot near the water hole where there was not much grass and there was a large tank and a water tower in case it was necessary to escape the flames, after a few hours of much uncertainty the winds changed direction and helped to put out the fire making it come back on their tracks, once controlled we went out to walk the roads to assess the damage and fortunately the fire stopped right at the fence of the hunting area a few hundred meters from where we were. Finally we return to the camp and after a long day full of emotions I finally take a long bath and try to get some sleep.

 

[PARA45]

I went Spanish secure on my cousin (we both have the same last name) and lit up a fire under his tail to get this report back on track.

 

[Ridgewalker]

WOW! Quite the adventure! Wildfires are very dangerous. Glad you managed to stay safe!

 

[ChasingHemingway]

I’m ready for the next installment

 

[yarettlopez]

DAY 4

After a long night of little sleep from constantly checking that the fire will not be reactivated, it was finally time to prepare to go out again to look for my lion, Johan told me that because of the fire he hoped that the lions had moved more than the previous days and told me "today we are not going back to camp until we hunt that lion" so after a quick breakfast, we went out again to drive the roads looking for footprints and the sky was clear and blue, it no longer smelled of smoke and everything seemed normal there was no sign of the great fire that a day before threatened to destroy everything.

It didn't take us 20 minutes when we found the first track, Obal got out of the vehicle and confirmed that it was a track from the night before, we were hunting lions again, we followed these tracks for several kilometers that entered and left different blocks as if he entered briefly to mark its territory and again continued patrolling the roads, finally entered a block, we marked the point and turned it around to see if it had come out the other way, negative the lion was still inside, Johan just told me "get ready" we got off the truck, I load one on the chamber of the .375 h&h I put the safety on and we entered the block, the vegetation was very dense you could not see more than 10 or 15 meters, and little by little we began to follow the tracks that at times disappeared but our tracker was determined to find that lion, we all went in a line walking like a machine, if one stopped everybody stopped, constantly scanning the vegetation looking for traces of the lion, the adrenaline was in the air.

After following the trail for about 500 meters, we came to a very thick tree, but not very tall, Johan approached slowly as if he knew it was the perfect place for the lion, after a quick check he shook his head and just as he was turning Obal made a sign indicating that we had found our lion, he was sleeping in the shade that's why Johan didn't see him the first time but just when he turned around he raised his head to see who had woken him up from his deep sleep.

Johan made a sign for me to come closer slowly and we began to observe the lion which was under the shade of the tree, totally calm and relaxed as if he knew that we were not a threat to him, there was no way to shoot standing up, there was simply no way to shoot, the other PH asked me if I could shoot from the ground to which I replied yes, at this moment I could feel my heartbeat in my ears, finally the moment had come, after months of preparation reading books, watching videos and searching forums and chatting with other hunters, my time had come I was about to hunt my lion.

The PH and the traker held the shooting sticks to give me support while Johan kept his rifle pointed at the lion, after verifying that if I had a free shot, johan gave me the order to shoot at the black spot on his mane, the lion was lying quartering away with the face to my right moving away from me, I checked the point that Johan indicated me through the crosshairs and again confirmed the shot with him and after being sure that we were seeing the same place, I took a deep breath and after exhaling I called gently the trigger until the shot broke, on impact the lion went to the side and stretched his legs indicating a shot in the spine, immediately after the shot I quickly reloaded the rifle and centered it again in my sight, the other PH told me " Great shot, have you reloaded yet? To which I answered yes, the big lion was still moving but Johan told me don't shoot unless it gets up, just at that moment he tried to get up and at that same moment I shot it again, anchoring it preventing it from escaping, Johan told me come we are going to find you a better shot, I told him to let me reload so I quickly took the shots from my holster and fulled my rifle, we turned to the right looking for a clearing where we could finish off the lion through all the branches, finally we got on in position but johan told me let's give him time and slowly the life of this great lion faded, after a few seconds it stopped moving and I stayed aiming while Johan and the other Ph went to check it after touching it with their bore on the eye Johan patted him and said come see your lion, I slowly approached through the branches and then I really understood the size of this lion was simply monstrous.

I couldn't believe the size of this animal and how beautiful its mane, the scars on its face, I knelt down next to it and thanked it for taking its life, it was the lion of my dreams, it was simply more than I could have imagined , after a few seconds I hugged Johan and thanked him for the most exciting hunt I had ever done, I spent minutes just looking at this great animal, I couldn't understand how big its legs, claws and fangs were, Johan estimated its weight above 300 kilos and told me that he was a lion above the average. After some quick photos in the place that fell, we began the task of taking it out to a clearing to be able to take some good photographs of such an animal.

We made our way and dragged it on a tarp to get it out of where it was, we put it in position and after a long photo session, I simply set out to contemplate my great trophy knowing that it would be months before we met again, get the lion The truck was a challenge despite the fact that it had a winch, finally we loaded the big lion and headed to the camp, but along the way we saw again that the fire was still alive, it had regained strength and was heading to the camp again, Johan He said prepare your things and eat something, Obal needs 3 hours to skin the lion and we're leaving.

We returned to the village to take a bath, pack our bags and wait until we were ready to leave, there was no time to celebrate we had to leave the place, the fire threatened the camp again, when everything was ready, we uploaded the skin and the skull and we left for the other camp where we would hunt plainsgame, passing through the hunting area we saw the firefighters go in to fight the fire that had reached us again, at that moment I understood how lucky I had been because if I had not hunted that morning the most probably we would have had to leave without my lion.

Along the way we could see the damage caused by the fire for miles and miles, after several hours of driving we arrived just at sunset at the new camp only to find a spitting cobra Right at the door Johan tried to run her over but he survived and quickly got down to try to kill her by breaking the shooting sticks in the attempt, finally after settling in and having a delicious dinner we went to a campfire to talk about everything that had happened and I had some tequilas to celebrate, we could not believe such crazy days that had just passed, a part of me finally relaxed knowing that the fires and the lions were finally behind me and now I could relax and enjoy the rest of my hunt.

 

[ChasingHemingway]

Bravo!! Well done! Great story!

 

[shootist~]

Outstanding story on the lion - thanks for sharing.

 

[R.M.C.]

Thanks for sharing!! Definitely sounded like an adventure!! Beautiful cat too!

 

[WMU05]

What an adventure!

 

[yarettlopez]

Thank you all very much for your words, I hope to finish the other days tomorrow, an apology but I'm trying to catch up in the office.

Everyone can be sure that it was an unforgettable trip full of surprises and adventure

 

[Frederik]

Good lion congratulations.

 

[Woodcarver]

Excellent hunt and a beautiful cat! Congratulations! Thank you for bringing us along on this great adventure!
Looking forward to the rest of your hunt!