Sitting on my computer, early in the morning of August 8th, 2007, the LION gods once again shined upon me!! Friend and African Pro Hunter, Hans Vermaak e-mailed to inform me they just had a cancellation on their only Botswana LION permit of the year. Although currently closed again, Lion hunting in Botswana for the past couple of years was tightly regulated, with only 1 permit issued to each concession. As an agent, I immediately started to think who might be interested in the hunt. Quickly though, I came to my senses and decided if ever I was to hunt LION in Botswana, this was my chance. The hunt was originally scheduled for 21 – days, but under the circumstance,
Hans reduced it to 14 days, and told me to be there within a week if I wanted the hunt. By 9am my tickets were booked, and I was off to Botswana!!
I arrived about the 18th of August, and began to hunt the following morning. Baiting was not allowed in Botswana, so tracking was going to be the mode of operation. Most of the country is very soft, sandy soil, thus making the tracking of game much easier than in a lot of other countries throughout Africa. As a law, we were also limited to shooting a male lion that was at least 6 years of age, and he could not be with females, or part of a pride! Obviously some of these stipulations could be a bit grey, but we agreed to do our very best to follow the rules!
Day 1, we picked up a large set of lone male tracks but it was late in the afternoon, too late to take up the chase, tomorrow was another day! Day 2 had us on a large set of tracks at about 11:00am, everyone felt confident we could eventually find what was at the end of the large paw prints. However, by 5pm all we had was a quick flash of Lion, and little else. We agreed to come back the following day and pick up where we left off. We did, but this LION had something specific on his mind. Just like the previous day, all he did was walk. No hunting, no sleeping, just walking. Certainly out of character for a normal lion, but eventually he walked all the way into the Moremi Game Reserve, and the hunt was over. Day 4 brought much of the same. This time we had 2 big sets of tracks, but ended up with the same results. By the time we started to get close, there had been so much other game tracks on top of the LION prints that eventually we just couldn’t find them anymore!! Dejected, we all headed back to the truck for some water, and a little R&R. All I heard about was how lazy lions are, well in the past 3 days we easily walked 18 miles to no avail. Apparently these LIONS were all on the Botswana exercise program!!
Day 5 started with the same routine. Drive the roads in the Sankuyo concession we were hunting, looking for fresh tracks. Generally speaking though, unless you are on something by noon or 1 o’clock at the latest, it’s going to be a wasted day. The idea with tracking lion is simple, wait til mid-day when they are completely sound asleep, then try and sneak in quietly and have a look. Lions are not scared of anything, so once they go to sleep, they are out cold!! By 4pm that day, we were starting to head back to camp when the trackers hollered for PH Murray Hibbs to stop the truck. Just behind us were 2 sets of BIG PAW prints that had crossed the road early that morning. I didn’t get too excited as I figured it was late, and not a lot we could do. However, the head tracker kept telling Murray that he FELT as though the Lions were close and we needed to have a look around. Reluctantly the PH listened, and we began a localized search. This is where experience and common sense was thrown completely out the window. Now, I realize I am not an experienced African PH, with years of hunting under my belt, but I have taken 7 previous LIONS, so I was not a complete novice either. Murray and I both followed the trackers around on the ground, looking in different directions, and basically not holding a lot of confidence in this little escapade going on around us. By now we were all 100 plus yards from the truck, all scattered out in 5 different directions, when the Jr, tracker started pointed wildly, and motioning for Murray. Neither Murray or I had a gun, they were both sitting on the top rack, over 100 yards away, pretty smart!! Only 60 yards from our location lay 2 HUGE male lions, sacked out under a shade tree. It was difficult to judge them from here as the grass was high and all we could see was there outline!
About that time, Salomon rolled
up with the truck, gun in hand, I climbed to the top to have a better
look. Still, the grass was too tall,
and we really couldn’t see much. We decided to drive around the other side
of the tree where we could hopefully have a better look. Murray was
driving, and when we rounded that tree I literally had a coronary!! “Stop the
truck, stop the truck” I hissed! All I could see was the bigger of the two cats,
lying on his back, all four legs kicked up in the air like a dog, and he was
completely asleep. Really though, what go my attention was his incredibly
black and full mane he had under his neck and chest. I knew in a
heartbeat, this was the LION I had come to Botswana for. Quickly the PH
jumped to the top of the truck to have a look. He urged me to be cautious
as he wanted to see his head and the top of his mane to ensure it was full, but
I knew without a doubt what we were looking at. As the PH and trackers got
the sticks ready, I loaded the gun, and we proceeded to stalk around them from
the side, and behind another tree to the left of the lions. We approached
to within 22 yards, and then we waited. It was 4:30 in the afternoon, we
knew it wouldn’t be long before the lions would wake and start to move
about. Five minutes later, that’s just what happened. You could see
the smaller of the two lions opening his eyes, looking at us, then closing them
again. I don’t honestly think he was registering what we were and how we
had gotten so close. Then all of the sudden he sat up and look directly at
us. Sitting there for about 90 seconds, he was frozen like a statue.
Right then, Murray leaned over to me and whispered in my ear. “If the big
one sits up like that and looks at us, shoot him right between the eyes” Just
then he sat up, glanced at us and took off on a trot directly away from
us. I wanted to shoot, he was so close, but it was a really bad angle,
only his rear-end to shoot at. At 55 yards he stopped, turned perfectly
broadside, and Murray told me to “Hit em”, and that’s just what I did. My
favorite .375 Remington Ultra Mag., knocked him flat!! At the ready, we both
approached the downed lion, but he was finished. My lifelong goal of
shooting 10 Lions just became one less, with one of the most spectacular,
Big-Maned cats I had ever layed eyes on. Unfortunately, Botswana lion
hunting is probably destined to be a long-lost memory, but for me, it’s
something I will never forget!!