If you walk far enough you meet a new version of yourself most times. Or maybe it’s just a new way of thinking and seeing things that aren’t really that new, they were just covered up by your usual thought patterns and the cobwebs of routine. I’ve always said that the more I walk, the more the coiled rope that is my brain uncoils, and I think better and much clearer. The Karoo is a special place for many different reasons. A place I’ve grown to love and enjoy a lot more of late, and a change of scenery from my norm. It’s such a biodiverse place too. Sometimes you’re running a dog and you will hear a pair of breeding Blue Cranes, completely hidden, with their loud, guttural bugle like ‘krraaarrrr krraaarrr”, or bumping into a Kudu herd or lone Springbuck ram, foraging and traversing in their free range ways. Not to mention the incredibly healthy populations of the many Bat Eared Fox you will invariably come across too. Many times my dogs point these cute little canids. Such interesting little animals, I have a soft spot for them, and their fossils have dated them all the way back to the middle Pleistocene period. I love seeing them, and they are a very good indicator species for an overall healthy biome and environment. They’re generously strewn across the Karoo veld like party confetti.
To give one an idea of just how much scent and distraction a dog has to contend with on one walk; we can come across various antelope like Kudu, Springbok, Blesbok, Steenbok, Vaal Rhebok to name just a few, Porcupine, Bat Eared Foxes, Aardvarks, Mongoose, Cape Clawless Otter, Hares, Jackal and Caracal, and the multitude of bird species that are not even game birds. Then you need to get the dogs to zero in on only one scent, with all of those lovely smelling distractions abounding… the average person just doesn’t grasp it all. Running Pointers in Africa is not a walk in the park, it will test the most adept trainer, I can guarantee that. But what a privilege it is. We’ve had good rains too whilst here, and the Karoo veld is alive and throbbing with life, with sounds and smells that are foreign to you if you do not spend a lot of time there. It’s a wonderful place, full of promise, inspiration, and beauty, even amidst the harshness and ‘boring landscapes’ that is quite unfairly often portrayed.
Always chasing the horizon.