IMPORTANT: This entry contains images that readers may find disturbing!
Today was a completely chilled out day. Although we had some ideas for what we could do, the day seemed to define our activities for us.
I also considered today to be a day of 'death'.
Two groups of men, three Cape Town residents and three Iraqi Sheikhs, came for a day of "hunting". When I say 'hunting' I really mean 'assassination'. They used long-range, high powered rifles, with scopes, as well as range finders. This really doesn't balance the playing field.
Don't get me wrong, I kinda understand mans need to 'be the hunter', the one at the top of the food chain, the commander, 'god', to a degree. But aspects of this got to me.
Here's the thing: the reserve, although massive, can only support a certain amount of animals. This is determined by a number of factors, and regulated by the Nature Conservation inspectors (I may have this wrong, but this is what I understood from various conversations on the topic). This means that culling is necessary from time to time, so, as the monthly overheads on a place like this is pretty steep, the idea is to permit hunters in to reserve who, under the watchful eye of the management, pay a reasonable rate to shoot various wildlife.
This makes sense to me.
However, the three Sheikhs came in, with little or no firearm experience, purely for kicks, and to say that they've been 'Hunting in Africa'. They shot nine pigs, a gemsbok and a couple buck. This is not the problem, as these creatures are abuntant in the area. The problem, however, is the fact that they are Muslim, and therefore cannot eat pork. It seems okay to chase after them, scare them shitless, and then pop a few (poorly) placed projectiles in to their bodies. They did not even collect the dead bodies, nor did they wish to see the animals being slaughtered. They did find time for a photoshoot with each animal...
The three local hunters, although highly kitted out with technical gadgets (which I'm told is actually more for accuracy, thus guaranteeing a clean shot, and instant death. Not the case with the Shiekhs, I might add), had the decency to ensure that the animals were killed cleanly, witnessed the slaughter, and took the meat home for a number of uses. I think this would be most people, if we didn't get our meats nicely prepared and wrapped from our local butchery.
We just don't wanna see the transition from slaughter to our tables.
I wasn't going to post these, but I think it's necessary. It's not too hectic, but does give one an idea of the process:
Anyways, that's my rant over. There was a positive outcome on this - all the resident labourers were given the dead animals, which I believe would feed them and their families for up to three months.
Alfie was kept extremely busy babysitting the Sheikhs, so The Goose and I spent the best part of the day enjoying the awesome sun, and the crystal clear day. We set about preparing a spicy gemsbok potjie. Having prepped the ingredients, we dumped everything in the 'cauldron', and let it slowly cook throughout the day. Obviously, our attention turned to the quad bikes after a while, and a little scramble around the reserve was inevitable. This gave us a little time out to enjoy the gorgeous sunset, which was the best so far.
Well, it's been quite a day, not so much for The Goose, Big Red and myself, but for our surroundings. The hustle and bustle of the hunters, staff, and management, the sounds of shots in the distance, and the screeching of game vehicles and quad bikes, made our heads quite heavy, so we're going to do a little clean up and hit the sack.
G'night all, here's hoping tomorrow has a more positive twist...
(Header pic by J. Parsothum)
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