Tales of Safaris Past Botswana Lion

[Redruff]

Gents,

Trying to gauge the interest here....been very hesitant to post anything "cat" related since the whole Cecil scandal from last year....that said I have a very juicy report about lion hunting in Botswana only months before she clamped down on "cat" hunting a decade ago...literally', I mean by weeks from when I was in country...if there's enough interest I'll uncork the single malt and start typing the BS...I mean the the great last adventure of PAC lion in Botswana.

R.

 

[Jfet]

Start writing

 

[Scott Slough]

Start writing

Agreed!

 

[Mekaniks]

Do it!

 

[Redruff]

Alrighty then Gents.... batten down the hatches l'll uncork her and pour her out starting tomorrow...thanks for the support.

R.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Get after it. The more the merrier. Cheers

 

[Environ]

do it!

 

[Desperatezulu]

Looking forward to it!

 

[cpr0312]

Waiting

 

[gillettehunter]

Waiting...... Impatiently too I might add. Bruce

 

[Nyati]

Go ahead, I´ll get the bar ready

 

[Redruff]

Like the way you think Nyati.

 

[Redruff]

Well it's a Friday night, Scotch has been poured and there is a keyboard in front of me...let's see where this goes.

To cover some bases first. I was young and foolish and didn't keep a journal on this Safari. I will do my best to tell you what we did on a daily basis and why. Some names and details are forgotten but it was a grand adventure.

I stumbled into the world of "International Big Game Hunting" almost by accident after viewing a fellow hunters collection from his 30 years worth of globe trotting with a rifle. So I made up my mind to take my first adventure...but where to go....not to mention what game to pursue?

To get some ideas I attended one of these dinners to support an SCI chapter and ended up sitting with two gentlemen who I will credit for planting the seed. One gentlemen had taken 165 species and was very humble about it. He told me tales of tracking Bongo with pygmy tribes, Polar Bear in the arctic and Jaguar in Paraguay. The other gentleman was primarily a sheep hunter with tales from Stone Sheep to Tien Shan Argali in China. I posed a question to both of them"Where the heck would a young guy start?". The answer was "Go hunt something you won't be able to hunt when you reach our age". It was great advice that hit home and the light bulb went on..."Will you be able to hunt Lion in 30 years from now?" And this was just about 10 years ago I asked myself this. Decision made...Lion it was to be...now where. After reading The Book of Lion by Sir Alfred Pease and the other classic The Man Eaters of Tsavo by Patterson the itch to really get this going grew into an obsession. Botswana had closed cat hunting for a while and had reopened it plus the use of hounds was permitted and I thought of no better way to truly hunt Lion than to bring one to bay with hounds. The other reason is that baiting was not permitted for cats in Botswana. Believe when I say the bait was just walking around. Also who knew when cat hunting would close again (as it did shortly after my adventure).

After consulting a reputable booking agent, it was all arranged. I was to hunt lion with hounds on private land (a cattle farm) in the middle of the Kalahari Desert that bordered the Kalahari National Park.

Here is the first view of the Kalahari.

R.