thief and poacher dirk terblanche

[tap]

im driving back home from my safari and thought i would give everyone fair warning of another outfit in africa that will steal from you and who poaches. the guys name is dirk terblanche. it all started out as i was hunting a free range cattle ranch and came across a high fence that only ran a mile and dead ended. confused i asked my ph what its purpose was. he explained how dirk had been caught many times poaching kudu so they constructed a fence to keep him out. well around that time we realized that the large male leopard ian had watched for over two years religiously had disappeared. only 3 weeks prior we had been capturing tons of trail cam pics of the cat. we had 100's of pics of this guy. not only did that cat disappear but the other male we were looming for vanished as well. thats when we decided to zero in on a large female that had a bad rap for eat cattle. well within a day she hung a calf in a tree and my wife handled her with excitement. a few days later the blacks on our farm told us that dirks blacks had skinned two leopards for him recently and one was a monster tom cat. next was a visit by the game warden to tag my wifes pelt. he asked if we knew of anything about dirk poaching leopards because he was going to be issued a leopard damage permit and in his words it seemed as if dirk was anxious to get one. we told him what we knew and he snickered and unloaded all he knew. apparently the parks board is after him after a client sued him. he apparently made a client pre pay $100,000 for an elephant hunt. he then took the guy to macoozie (spelling?) game reserve. the guy had to pay for lodging ther for 21 days at $1000/night. funny thing is that hunting isnt alliwed there and the hunter didnt know that. dirk never allowed him to shoot an elephant cuz they were all to small. 21 days later the guy returned home and found out about the truth when he personally tried to rebook through the non hunting game reserve.

so there you have it. im jyst dissapointed i didnt get to meet dirk face to face. the warden assured us however that dirk will be and is currently being dealt with. if anyone is interested dirk isnt even a licensed outfitter. he advertises his place through africafirstclass.com his place is called nkonkoni lodge and is located by lousberg or maguda which is near pangola in the kwazulu natal region of south africa.

 

[Bobpuckett]

THANKS for the info but in trying to check this guy out that would have a set of balls that big, the internet said africafirstclass.com did not Exist nor could I find anything on dirk at nkonkoni lodge need to recheck your info.

 

[tap]

sorry, let me clarify. he doesnt have a outfitter license. that was revoked long ago. he does however sale hunts on his land. whether or not he is the guide im not sure. the website i was referring to is basically his bokking agent. it is firstclassafrica.com sorry for the backwards web address. in addition the game warden we were speaking to with parks board in the pangola area was alex. i have the mindset that when a game warden tells you someone is bad bad news and every one of the guys neighbors tells you the same thing and then two resident cats come up missing that the evidence shouldnt be ignored. my first thought was that i jad been falsely sold a cag that didnt exist but i have known ian far to lkng and he has yet to pull any stunts on me.

 

[Bobpuckett]

THANKS for Clarifying, What was to outfit you where hunting with do they have a website always looking for a good place to hunt.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Tony, that sucks that your hunt and your wife's was impacted by such an individual.
High fences for poachers! Sad to be his neighbour.
Hope Alex is able to catch him at it. Although, it does not sound like this is someone who really cares.

Thanks for the heads up.
Congrats to your wife on her success with the other leopard.

 

[owenowen]

Hi Tap,

Sorry to hear of this all really sad news. Just one thing ..The high fence you saw was it just on the one side joined at the corners with low fences or at the corners did it run off as a high fence as well ?

cheers owen

 

[LouisB]

Hi Tap

Thanks for the info, really sad stuff I wish we can regulate the hunting industry to such an extent that these kind of things don’t happen.

There are a lot of good guy’s out there just a pity that a few bad apples have to spoil it for the rest of us!

Congratulations to your wife on her Leopard very well done.

Best Regards
Louis van Bergen

 

[Wolverine67]

Tap
Just to clarify. Is it the same guy on this company: TC Africa
Or is it to guys with the same name?

 

[Bobpuckett]

Tap
Just to clarify. Is it the same guy on this company: TC Africa
Or is it to guys with the same name?

Good Question I looked up T C Africa under PHASA Members and the PH Dirk that owns it and could not find anything, has anyone else have good places to check on these things?

 

[michaelhh375]

Dear fellow hunter. Terrible to read story's like these. Can't imagin the feeling to pay more that USD 120.000 and being cheated. This shows how extremely important it is to check out outfitter/hunting area and get as many references as possible, before booking and paying. We all know that in all business you will find cheaters and luckseekers, so we have to be really careful, when we chose whom to hunt with and were. AH is one very good forum to be more sure of having a good and expected hunt. Hope you will get your cat next time and that you all that reads this takes warning.

Stay safe and God bless.
Michael

 

[tap]

well we had an awesome hunt no matter what. my wife got an awesome leopard and i took a 48" sable!

the high fence i mention was constructed by kobus. hes the landowner whose property i was on and was a first class guy. the fence adjoined a game reserve on one side which was high fenced and then ran the length of dirks property and simply dead ended. the fence was constructed about 8 years ago after dirk purchased the 800 acres adjoining the property i was hunting. and yes the entire purpose was to try and deter dirk from poaching more kudu.

as far as that site goes i am emailing my ph to try and get confirmation from him on whether or not it is the same guy. if it is i will most definitely inform you guys.

tony a pennington

 

[Bobpuckett]

well we had an awesome hunt no matter what. my wife got an awesome leopard and i took a 48" sable!

the high fence i mention was constructed by kobus. hes the landowner whose property i was on and was a first class guy. the fence adjoined a game reserve on one side which was high fenced and then ran the length of dirks property and simply dead ended. the fence was constructed about 8 years ago after dirk purchased the 800 acres adjoining the property i was hunting. and yes the entire purpose was to try and deter dirk from poaching more kudu.

as far as that site goes i am emailing my ph to try and get confirmation from him on whether or not it is the same guy. if it is i will most definitely inform you guys.

tony a pennington

Tap your Wife took a leopard and you took a 48" Sable there needs to be pics to go wth that.

 

[James.Grage]

Tap

we would like to see the pictures...

 

[PAHunter]

It was due to Dirk Terblanche that my Zululand Natal hunt was canceled and my booking agent found me a new outfitter, he does not have a PH license for Zululand or Free State, so says the Game Officer for Kwazulu Natal and if I hunted with him there it was illegal, plus my booking agent still has not received his trophies Dirk blames the taxidermist but from what i heard its because he does not have a PH license to get them out.

 

[Bobpuckett]

So this is the same Guy on TC Africa I find it hard to beleive that there are 2 guys with the same name in the same area.
So fellow hunters beware!!

 

[James.Grage]

Bobpuckett

i would have to agree it is difficult to believe that 2 people are in the same area with the same name...unless it would be father -son operation.

 

[TERMINATOR]

It was due to Dirk Terblanche that my Zululand Natal hunt was canceled and my booking agent found me a new outfitter, he does not have a PH license for Zululand or Free State, so says the Game Officer for Kwazulu Natal and if I hunted with him there it was illegal, plus my booking agent still has not received his trophies Dirk blames the taxidermist but from what i heard its because he does not have a PH license to get them out.

So your booking agent had a problem with the guy but booked you with him anyway??? Obviously all your booking agent cares about is getting a commission and will push people to anybody that promises him one...

I would find a different booking agent or better, skip all the part time, rookie, "I went to africa and hunted with a guy so now I am a booking agent" dudes that just want to push you to the guy they hunted with and have no other options/experience and just go straight to the outfitters on this or other respected sites.

There are only a handful of PROFESSIONAL booking agents that really have enough experience and options to really steer you to what is right for YOU and not just send you to the one guy they hunted with.

 

[PAHunter]

Well the booking agent fronted the 7 day daily rates out of his own pocket ($3100) for the new hunt, so he did take care of me, he also refunded the monies sent to Dirk ($1065), which I asked back form Dirk and of course have not heard from him since, the only cost to me was the trophy fees, I would book again with the booking agent but would ask allot of questions first. BTY I saw Dirk at Harrisburg PA Outdoors show in Feb and he was the nicest guy you wanted to meet and talk too, I had walking pneumonia and he offered me a seat while no one else did, it shows that a con-artists is just that a con-artist.

 

[Bobpuckett]

Well the booking agent fronted the 7 day daily rates out of his own pocket ($3100) for the new hunt, so he did take care of me, he also refunded the monies sent to Dirk ($1065), which I asked back form Dirk and of course have not heard from him since, the only cost to me was the trophy fees, I would book again with the booking agent but would ask allot of questions first. BTY I saw Dirk at Harrisburg PA Outdoors show in Feb and he was the nicest guy you wanted to meet and talk too, I had walking pneumonia and he offered me a seat while no one else did, it shows that a con-artists is just that a con-artist.

I take it that this all happened before you went on your hunt. If not he would have left Pa owing 1065$ with finger prints around his neck.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Well the booking agent fronted the 7 day daily rates out of his own pocket ($3100) for the new hunt, so he did take care of me, he also refunded the monies sent to Dirk ($1065), which I asked back form Dirk and of course have not heard from him since, the only cost to me was the trophy fees, I would book again with the booking agent but would ask allot of questions first. BTY I saw Dirk at Harrisburg PA Outdoors show in Feb and he was the nicest guy you wanted to meet and talk too, I had walking pneumonia and he offered me a seat while no one else did, it shows that a con-artists is just that a con-artist.

So as I understand it, your booking agent did what he could to make things right, but that he originally booked you to hunt with a guy that was unlicensed in the area he booked you to hunt (who to quote you "had lost his license years before") and that he himself was having problems with from his own hunt???

I applaud your booking agent for making things right in end but obviously he didn't do his homework before booking you (one of the things you expect from a booking agent) or just didn't care and recommended you hunt with a guy that he personally was already screwed by to get the commission.

That is NOT what I am looking for when I ask a so called booking agent who to hunt with....

Who is this booking agent?