In search of the oryx gazelle in the Damaraland reserve, east of the Kalahari desert
The cool, almost cold morning when the nice Alphonse woke me up at 5.00. I get up and get dressed quickly putting on my jacket and go to breakfast with coffee and toast. Later, in the middle of the morning, we would have a snack with coffee and sándwiches to start the day.
Shortly after breakfast, the roar of our Land Rover warns me that it is time to get going: we have to cover a distance of 60 kilometers, through routes not exactly as comfortable as the highways, to get to the area where a herd of Gemsbock had been spotted, as the Oryxes are called in Afrikaans (the language spoken in the southern part of Africa).
For those unfamiliar with them, the Oryx is a large African antelope, with a height at the withers between 115 and 125 cm and a length from 180 to 195 cm. Females weigh from 180 to 225 kg, while males can reach 240 kg. They move in packs of about ten and are damn fast and cunning. Gradually the sun began to rise, slowly appearing as a red disk on the horizon, offering a spectacle that can only be seen in Africa.
Slowly the light began to illuminate the area and another species of antelope, the Kudu, could be seen in the distance.
Our destination was the Damaraland reserve, an area located between Ovamboland (to the north), the Namib desert (to the west), and the Kalahari desert to the east. The latter is part of an immense African plateau and is located at an average height of 900 meters. It covers 70% of the territory of Botswana and parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. Including, in addition to the desert itself, also the semi-arid basin that includes it, an area of over two and a half million square kilometers is obtained. The name Kalahari derives from the word Kgalagadi of the Tswana language, and means "the great thirst".
The Oryxes move with extreme agility, showing off very long horns especially in very large subjects of age.
We leave the Land Rover at the side of the road and begin to descend the mountain towards the valley covered by thorny acacia shrubs, a plant that causes deep wounds if you have the misfortune to walk through it, as it has very sharp and hard thorns. This makes it difficult to see the territory and most of the time it becomes impossible to distinguish the vegetation from the fauna, only when the latter begins to move.
Another problem that arises is that if you can see an oryx among the shrubs, it does not necessarily mean that the shot will always hit, since most of the time it is deflected by the shrubs. If the antelope is far from the shrubs, in a clearing for example, there is no problem finding a better position and taking aim.
With all the precautions and calculating the direction of the wind we begin to venture into the bush, the scrub, walking slowly and always keeping the rifle ready for an encounter with the oryx.
After an hour of walking, around 9.00 in the morning the heat began to be felt and there was no other remedy than to unbutton my jacket to let some air pass. The land, arrived near a hill, has little vegetation and offers space for maneuver both for me and for the oryx that might decide to stop here. Alphonse and I are in the highest part of the hill and we see a small herd of Oryx arriving, about 5 specimens. From that distance we can determine if they are huntable or it is better to let them go if they are too far away. We decide to lurk there waiting for the right time, but hunger is felt and we eat something to calm the stomach, while we discuss the strategy to follow. We must necessarily shorten the distance with the Oryxes and follow the tracks they leave around the hill, in case we lose sight of them. Fortunately Alphonse is very good at following the footsteps, even if these are difficult to identify, because the Oryxes do not hesitate to pass through the shrubs, disappearing into the vegetation if they sense the danger.
It is approaching noon and the water in our bottles is running out: either we go back to the Land Rover, nullifying the fatigue and suffering to reach that place, or resist the thirst and try to take home a trophy. We decide to continue and follow the Oroci who begin to move towards a dry river; we cross a beautiful specimen of Kudu, but that animal was not present in my hunting license, which lists the animals that I can kill. Following the dry channel, at a bend in the river bed, we see the group of Oryxes that we are following: they are three females and two young males.
We decide to settle at a distance of 150 meters from the group and calculate the distance of the wind: one of the males is isolated from the group: I settle down, take up the rifle and aim. The 8X68 bullet hits the animal straight to the heart. The Oryx falls to the ground lifeless, while the rest of the group, frightened by the shot, runs away.
We approach the animal with all the precautions to make sure that it is dead: it has happened that some hunters have approached without making sure that the animal was dead and have paid the consequences. Having found that the shot has hit the mark and that the animal is dead, we decide to immortalize this wonderful hunt with a photograph, where the protagonists are me, Alphonse and the Oryx.
Short story by E. Jaeger