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| Marc's Menelik's bushbuck. |
The debate now continues over which spiral horned animal, the Lord Derby Eland or Mountain Nyala, is Africa's greatest trophy. When it comes to both animals, Marc has now collected the biggest of each of both animals by a single hunter.
"I salute Jason and his team of trackers for motivating me and leading me up that mountain. For hunters who refuse to believe that there are any great ones left, just remember how this animal got his name. You're not going to shoot a big one in camp. A hunter must be willing to elevate his game to monumenetal heights to be rewarded like this. I told Jason beforehand, I don't care how we hunt. Just take me to a place where the big ones are."
A well-earned trophy is the best kind to have, and Marc has decided to bring him home "life- size." He will stand alongside Marc's impressive giant eland taken in March 2007 with PH Andre Roux, and Moja will be able to debate himself for the rest of his life, which one is the better trophy. But just based upon the volume of conversation, we here at Sable Trail Productions, have a hunch about which one Marc prefers the most.
It happened at approximately 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 8th while Kappie was driving on a tar road to meet up with Marius Kotze at Rhinoland Safaris. The driver of a BMW sedan drove sharply in front of Kappie on the narrow road, blocking the path of the Toyota Landcruiser and forcing him to stop. Four bandits, one armed, got out of the BMW and demanded that Kappie hand over his guns.
Kappie truthfully told them he wasn`t carrying any guns, just his camera equipment. The gunmen seized his vehicle, then forced Kappie into the back seat of the BMW, and the vehicle`s driver proceeded to an unknown location, while the other two bandits drove off in the Sable Trail Landcruiser.
Kappie was dumped off on the side of the road and tied to a fence post with steel wire. A farm worker later rescued him. He was not injured or tortured. Authorities later found our cruiser, but it was burnt to the ground. They determined it was set on fire with diesel fuel, resulting in a blaze so hot that even the iron reinforcement bars were bent and melted. It was a total loss, but the most important thing is that Kappie is alive.
He had the presence of mind to surrender, fearing for his life, alone on an unlit road, when assaulted by the bandits. Our suspicion is that Kappie was mistaken for someone else, perhaps a Professional Hunter with access to guns and ammunition.
A search party formed by Marius, Phillip Bronkhorst and other fine gentleman in the safari industry searched for hours trying to track the suspects down, but were unsuccessful. Trackers were even employed to follow tire tread marks, but as of today police have no clues as to the whereabouts of the four carjackers.
Kappie, still a bit shaken up by all this, believes two to three of the bandits were from outside the area, because he didn`t recognize the native language they spoke during the incident. Kappie speaks several of the bush languages commonly spoken in South Africa.
The irony of all this, of course, is that Kappie almost lost his life while minding his own business on his way to work; this is notable because we`ve spent hundreds of days in the bush hunting and tracking dangerous game, and he`s never even got a scratch.