Dedicated To Our Trackers

[KWALATA SAFARIS]

In light of PHASA's Recently introduced award for trackers I was inspired, and have thought it well to start a thread dedicated solely to our trackers, the guys that do the hard graft, the Professionals that make us as Professional hunters look good. These guys don't always get the credit they deserve so very much.
As a start I have thought it well to mention my own Tracker Joe Molekwa a Pedi Gentleman of 37 years old while this seems very young for a tracker in most cases, I can assure all here that his skill level is unsurpassed......
Having hunted most of Southern Africa, I am dedicating my post to my "go to man", over the last 10 seasons that we have hunted together, I have come to realize that, Joe is quite simply put one of the best in the industry, an incredible tracker, a master hunter, an animal psychologist and above all my very dear friend, without this man, I would have very little success!
I often wish that I could have met him when I just started hunting, roughly 15 years ago, the amount of knowledge and bush skill that I have stolen from him over the years, his dedication to our success (hunter and PH's alike) will leave me forever in his debt.

Joe's experience after a quick count roughly adds up around 68 Buffalo all tracked and hunted on foot 19 Elephant around 26 Leopard and absolutely countless numbers of Plains game.
I hope that we are blessed for many more years to share our passion for hunting on the continent we love so dearly...

To Joe.
Please share pictures, hunting stories and whatever you see fit.

 

[slad68]

Jaco thanks for starting this thread. Our trackers are sometimes the ones that are forgotten when the celebrating after a hard days hunting starts. These are the guys that work from early in the morning till late at night, skinning, cleaning the truck and seeing that all is ready for the next days hunt.
Tracking makes out 99% of a hunt and they are always the ones that leads us to our quarry. Without a good tracker one is lost in the bush, I can do a fair bit of tracking myself but having Eric with me makes all the difference in the world.
Never complaining about the long hours and always eager to go for more.
We have been together for 7 years now and I hope we will be blessed with more.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Nice one Jaco, not to mention the manual labor that goes with it. Here is my guy with the pig on his back.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Gentlemen, along with the plaudits I would like to read a tale or two about memorable feats of these masters of hunting if you don't mind putting finger to keyboard.

 

[peras]

They definitely make us look good. Sammy is at his best when the blood disappears, an unbelieveable way to think like the animal. The wildebeest in this picture was tracked by him for about one and a half miles without a drop of blood. Him and Billc with their pink shirts!

 

[Royal27]

So I already thought that Richie's trackers, Tonde and Clever, we're amazing. Then, on my last day I shot a Zebra. I hit it right where I aimed, which was too low and I broke it's leg. Off to the races we went.... In total I'm thinking we tracked it for a little over a mile. I was furious at myself and amazed at their ability all at the same time. We went at a very fast walk and they never lost the track, no matter how hard or rocky the ground was.

Once we caught up to the Zebra and I finished the job I'd started I thanked them and explained that at home I would have lost the animal. Even Richie seemed a little surprised at my comment. He was hit, you follow him, and shoot him again. Why would you lose an animal with a broken leg they seemed to wonder????

Oh, and let's not forget the drivers!!!! This zebra went as far away from the truck as it could. Sam was able to come around to the other side and make the walk out to the truck and subsequent recovery road a much shorter endeavor.

All of the animal pictures I took had me in them, except for the Zebra. After the other pictures were taken I asked for this one as a reminder of my poor shot, and more importantly of the great job the team did in overcoming it.

Clever (tracker), Jimmy (scout), Sam (driver), Richie (PH), Tonde (tracker)

 

[tarbe]

Wonderful thread. I can read posts like these all day.

I am already in awe at the skills of these folks. I can only imagine what it might be like to watch them work from up close.

Much respect....

 

[jeff]

On two of my hunts trackers saved the day, unbelievable ability. Don't know if it was just coincedence or not but they were both from Zim. My hats off to them!

 

[ScottG]

Good stuff. The PH's seem to get all the glory, but it is a good man that knows it is not done alone. The people working around help bring it all together. People see that and they will follow honorable men. You show your honor and your thanks by sharing them with us. Thank you.

 

[billc]

I most say the tracking sammy did was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.The day started with him tracking a zebra from the night before.Dan only got one lung with a bow shoot and we had to let it sit over night after seeing it was not good to push him.After over 3 miles of tracking that morning sammy found the died zebra 3 miles from were the shot was.Thats with little blood for 2 of those miles and just by track.

They just got back to the lodge when we needed him to track lennys wildbeast that pieter has put the picture up of.The beast never left one drop of blood after being hit back and in the liver.As we struggled just to find sign sammy is off like a rocket on the track leaving everyone following him.1 1/2 miles later he walks right up to the died beast.When I ask him how he tracked it he showed me how it was dragging one leg and his track was also showing one split hoof as he walked.He did one hell of a amazing job the whole trip.Then he went along with the joke and put on his pink paw print shirt with a big smile.

To say sammy is one of a kind is a understatement.All this tracking took place after he had to skin my giraffe with alittle bit of help from another tracker.His tracking and skinning is top notch and cant wait to get back to see him work his magic again.Plus he could judge animals as well and spot game with ease.

 

[Rob404]

I think Chris Troskie at CT Safaris has a Crackerjack for a Tracker. Samson speaks English, Afrikaans along with several different Dialects. I marvelled at his ability to see game completely invisible to me.

 

[Christina Nyczepir]

Trust me....it's not lost on the client where the real talent lies. (Not meaning to offend.) I made sure to always thank the Tracker. I was just glad I could make him laugh. Every time I took an animal down in one shot, he seemed to find it hilarious. I guess the site of a somewhat prissy, lily white woman taking an animal down so quickly seemed to amaze (if not shock) him. LOL!

 

[richteb]

On two of my hunts trackers saved the day, unbelievable ability. Don't know if it was just coincedence or not but they were both from Zim. My hats off to them!

Even, more so when the client screws the pooch a little and they have to go into the thick stuff so you can finish the job.

 

[Nyati]

Jerry, a baTswana (with PH Hannes), never lost an animal, amazing how he could follow a trail where I could not see a thing !

Sipho, on my left, an old Zulu (well, about my age), who was able to follow this buff through difficult terrain, and during a long time !
On my right is Rasta (I gave him this nickname due to his hairdo, and he liked it!) game warden, a very cheerful young man, always wiling to help.

 

[ChrisT]

Great thread Jaco!

I've worked with several Trackers over the years - some of them great and others not so great.

Samson is my right hand who loves hunting as much (if not more) as what I do and a more loyal employee and friend will be hard to find.

When we are away from home he takes care of the ranch as if it is his own. He even phones me daily - just to let me know everything is fine on the ranch. This he does out of own accord - I never asked him to do so.

We had business to attend to in the city earlier this week - leaving my 77 year old mother-in-law alone at home. When we arrived back late yesterday Sammy was sitting in the garden - waiting for us. He was busy guarding "Ouma" and wouldn't leave before he knew we were home. We later learned that he was checking up on my mom-in-law every half an hour to make sure she was alright and didn't need anything.

Here's to Sammy and many more years together!

 

[vgruan]

Same can be said about any good tracker, their loyal their heart is into hunting and they trust their PH's with their lives when hunting dangerous game....

Hannes is my tracker and together we have probably hunted over 300 lion together and not one day has he ever ran when a lion charged us! Many PH's, Outfitters and clients took of leaving us in the dust but Hannes has always right behind me after all the action is over! He has such an amount of trust in me that I can only have a lot of respect for him.

He never gives up does not matter how hard it is to track and always find a track again even if it takes him 2 hours, that is not a mentality found easily in Africa! He is my right hand man when it comes to Dangerous Game hunting and I will always make sure to look after him the way he does after me and clients when a hunt takes the turn for the worse!

1. Here we are Hannes on the left with a female hunted by BNC 04, we tracked for 3 days before we eventually ambushed her and got a shot in, she still ran off so we had to go look for her! If it was not for Hannes good tracking we would have walked straight into the cat where she ambushed us! But with Hannes tracking we ended up coming from behind and she never even saw us until Nathan put a good shot in at 15 yards.

2. A beautiful Black Maned lion that mocked charged us after tracking it for about 6xhours.... The oak on the left took of running while Hannes calmly opened the sticks calling the client while the cat was standing growling at us from about 25 yards. I did not have to worry as I knew Hannes will make sure the client is comfortable while I stay ready should the cat decide to charge.

3. Here it is from left to right: "The runner" (as we called him), Me the client and Hannes with a potential new world record lion that had a skull measurement of 30" 4/16ths.

P.S: How can I forget my 4 legged trackers.... BULLET and ROXY! Without these dogs all of us are lost if a plains game animals are wounded! They never give up and is correct 99.9% of the time.... They live for hunting!

1. Here is both Bullet and Roxy after a long chase of this Gemsbuck... No blood nothing until they barked!

2. Here is a picture of Bullet after he chased a wounded wildebeest just yesterday! They found the wildebeest and the hunter could kill the Wildebeest himself!

 

[billc]

Bullet the wonder dog is amazing and added some fun to our hunt. I am sure roxy gets it done also but she came after are trip. I still look at the pictures of dakota and bullet rolling around at camp. I can say he is one of the must amazing dogs I have seen tracking and just how smart he was with everything.

 

[Diamondhitch]

This a great post. I consider my to be well above average by NA standards and have followed some seemingly hopeless trails to the animal, the best trackers I have seen in Africa put me to shame! I am hardly worthy of following them through the bush.

 

[jeff]

Hartzveiw, loved your point about how the dog found the wildabeest and the the hunter could finish him, some PHs are to quick to shoot and not let the client finish the job!

 

[Badger Matt]

Not "my" tracker, but my PH's (Louis Van Bergen of Spiral Horn Safaris). He, Jotham, and my father are sharing a tree. I was amazed at what he could see in the sand that I could not -- watching him work was one of my favorites parts of the safari. He enjoyed stalking, but LOVED tracking.