Here is a story from previous client, George Galphin:
On stalks, I preferred being behind Thorsten and have Elia following me. That was until the stalk on my springbok.
We had located a herd of springbok with an exceptionally large male in it. Thorsten felt that if hurried, we could cross a mountain and intercept the herd. We were moving at a fairly quick pace and Elia had moved ahead of me. About midway up, Elia suddenly jumped about five feet to the left, came to a dead stop and was pointing and staring intently at a bush and rocks to my right. Needless to say, anything that could make a local Herero move that quickly had me concerned. Elia’s snake movement with his hand confirmed my suspicion. We watched the snake move off and my concerned shifted to catching up to Thorsten, who was getting further ahead. We turned to resume our stalk, but at Elia’s much slower pace. I realized then that snakes spook Elia! Thorsten, unaware of the snake encounter, kept looking back wondering what was taking so long. It was apparent he was anxious for us to catch up.
Once we caught up, there was no time to explain, as the herd was just where he had hoped. Carefully, we got into position for a shot and a few minutes later I was rewarded with a 16.25” springbok. Only after scrambling down to claim my trophy did Thorsten ask if I had a hard time with the stalk thinking that Elia had slowed down taking care of me. I said not especially and explained what had happened. While we had a good laugh at the time, I made darn sure to follow Elia for the rest of the week knowing full well that he would spot any snakes first.
George Galphin