During the Huntex 2019 expo in Johannesburg, Thomas Dreyer from Tom Dreyer Safaris in South Africa’s Limpopo Province approached me at our booth. He told me about some sable bulls left from the quota of the previous season that were still available to hunt. He offered me a very good deal – so good that I booked the hunt with him the next morning. Sable is one of the dream animals to hunt in Southern Africa and, needless to say, the months of preparation and waiting lay like a mountain ahead of me!

I arrived on Thomas’s farm late on a Sunday afternoon with my good friend and cameraman, Andrew. With the sun already down and the thermometer still at 39°C, I immediately knew that this hunt would not be a walk in the park. South Africa is experiencing one the most severe droughts in its history, and some areas have been hit for the sixth year running with very little, if any, rain. The Rooibokkraal area, close to Thabazimbi in the Limpopo Province, is no exception. With no rain having fallen for the last six to eight months, the ground temperature keeps on rising and man and beast feel the grip of the drought tightening day by day.