01/01/2023
BILTONG, IVORY & PORCUPINES
In the late 1920's early 1930's, it was real hard to make a living. It seems the more things change the more they stay the same...
As my Grandfather, Jan, was a hunter of renown he provided for his family by using his skills.
Grandfather and his hunting partners would often cross the Limpopo river into then Bechuuana land, now Botswana, to hunt next to the Shashi river. On this particular trip, Grandpa and his brother in law, Ben Strydom, crossed the Limpopo, and spent three weeks hunting. Every day they would shoot between ten and fourteen Blue Wildebeest. Normally by 10:00 in the morning the quota for the day would be done.
Then the hard work of butchering and processing the venison begins. The meat would then be cut in long strips called biltong, similar to jerky. The hides of the animals were used as containers to salt the meat. The skins were hung between pegs, driven into the ground to form a basin. After the strips of meat were salted for 6-8 hours it were hung to dry. She hides were then layed flat with the flesh side up and salted with coarse salt. They would hunt like this and cure meat until at least one wagon was full of dry salted meat, and the other wagon filled with dried salted hides. On the way back with their loaded donkey wagons, close to Mapungubwe, they came across a huge fresh track of an elephant. Grandfather stopped the lead wagon, got off, and studied the huge track intently....
He turned around and told Ben, in no uncertain terms, that he intend to see where this huge elephant went. On hearing this, Ben grabbed Grandpa's 7x57mm Ma**er, and removed all of the ammunition from the magazine. Ben Strydom was not just scared of Elephants he was absolutely terrified of them!
Grandfather calmly took his rifle from uncle Ben, smiled, and pulled a yellow and red packet of 5 Kynoch rounds from his back pocket, and started to fill the rifles magazine. On seeing this Ben started pleading with Grandpa..."Boet Jan, kyk liewer waar hy vandaan kom, nie waar hy heen gaan nie!". "Please brother Jan, rather go check where he came from, not where he went!"
Grandpa just smiled at his brother in law and took up the spoor.
It was easy to follow, and after half an hour he heard a loud crack, as the elephant was leisurely breaking branches. He made sure that the wind was in his favour and the silently an slowly walked in the direction he heard the branches breaking. Not 100 meters further, as he came to a small clearing that was not more than 50 meters wide, he saw the top of a Acacia tortilis (Hak en steek doring), sway to and fro and then come down with an all mighty crack, loud as a gunshot. Before him stood the biggest elephant he had seen in his life, it's huge Ivory tusks shone in the sunlight!
His rifle was loaded and he was ready. The elephant moved slowly to the top of the fallen tree's branches, now less than 40 meters from Grandpa. He waited with his heart pounding and bated breath. When the elephant came broadside he aimed at the light colored patch of skin just behind the shoulder, and squeezed the trigger of the 7x57 Ma**er, he says that he could actually see the 175 grain full metal jacket bullet strike the middle of the light colored patch of skin. The elephant took off at great speed, with his tail curled up over his rump. Trees crashed and the all went silent, before he heard a huge crash and a mighty thud shook the earth.
Grandfather said that he then sat down for a couple of minutes to catch his breath and calm his racing heart, he knew that the bullet hit it's mark, and that the massive elephant went down.
He got up and took the spoor of the elephant again, this was an easy task as the path of destruction of broken vegetation left in the fleeing elephant's wake, was huge. Not more than 100 meters from where he took the bullet the elephant bull went down. Grandfather was still admiring the massive tusks when uncle Ben and 2 helpers from the wagons, approached very cautiously. Ben stared wide eyed at the massive beast and asked, "Boeta Jan, wat demoer maak ons nou?" "Brother Jan, what the hell are we going to do now?"
Uncle Ben and one helper was sent back to the wagons to Outspan the donkeys and make camp. While Grandpa and the other helper started to make a huge bonfire close to the head if the massive elephant, as this huge carcass was sure to attract a lot of predators and scavengers soon. They then proceeded to chop the huge tusks out. When the sun peaked over the horizon the tusks were out. As he had not planned on hunting an Elephant on this hunting trip, Grandpa had no hunting permit for an elephant. He decided to hide the huge Ivory tusks deep in a cave on the Sandstone hills of Mapungubwe, intending to collect them as soon as he can.
Grandfather returned to collect the tusks after 4 months, with a permit in his pocket...only to find that the Porcupines has whittled down more than half the length of each of the tusks. Porcupines being a rodent, will gnaw on bone and Ivory to sharpen and wear down their teeth.
Grandpa stood over six feet in his boots and the tusks were said to have towered over him by more than a foot when he stood between them.
This elephant was a 100 pounder for sure!
Needless to say that Porcupines were not one of Grandpa's favourite animals after this incident.
