Most impressive trackers?

Phillip, from sitting at a fire with Johnny. He seems like he would be great to hunt with.
 
I have been blessed to have been on 20 safaris.
I have spent 61 days in the forest with at least 25 days just me and the pygmies, they are truly amazing!
I have also spent 10 days at Tholo in Botswana just tracking eland. The San trackers are also amazing but I thought the terrain made easier tracking.
I have 3 safaris in Zim with Nigel Thiessen, 1 in Matesi and 2 in the Bubye. This terrain with very high grass interspersed with trees and brush is the hardest terrain for tracking that I have seen. Nigel's 2 trackers, Smart and Robert are by far the best team I have been with. A team is far superior to 1 tracker!
 
I've seen a lot of talented trackers in Zimbabwe, but the pygmy trackers in the rain forest on my 2 trips were simply amazing!
 
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Pygmy trackers in the African rain forest. I couldn’t even see the ground through the vegetation, humidity, and lack of sunlight and here they are tracking bongo, buffalo, forest sitatunga and other game.

The Kalahari trackers were good but my vote is now with the Bantu/Pygmy jungle trackers. Happy hunting to all, TheGrayRider a/k/a Tom.
 
Most will laugh at me, but a true tracker has a spiritual connection with the animal he is tracking.

Now and then you will see a great tracker will grab a hand full of buffalo dung in his hand, not to tell the temp, but to control the speed the buff walks. Tighter the squeeze the slower the walk. Eventually he will say he will lay down now.

Laugh at what I say, your privilege.
Many other stories out there.

Lon
 
The tracker that I used with Adansonia Safaris (RSA) back in 2007 demonstrated some amazing skills. I hit a Gemsbok in a herd of about 20 a little too far back. There was no blood, but we all saw dust fly of the hide when the bullet struck. He followed each set of tracks until he was satisfied the animal was unwounded, then came back to the original spot and kept repeating the process.

It took him several hours, but he found it a few hundred yards away.




The tracker that worked for Legadema Safaris in Mozambique was also amazing. For some reason, he tasted everything that he saw the buffalo eating. (I still don't know why)
I too made a poor shot on a Gemsbok, will blame it on jetlag, but the PH and tracker team that assisted me was amazing. Was a solid hit, just a bit high over it's right shoulder. After about an hour, it was found lying in a thicket and I still had a hard time spotting it.

Shaun with Wild Wildebeest Lodge sure did save my butt, just knew that I was going to have to pay for a wounded and non-recovered animal.
 

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