Erik,

What a great hunt! It was hard to hear your comments about Choice. So unfortunate you was so close to have the extraordinay priviledge of hunting with Choice.

Of the 25 bulls he tracked for me, he imediatly demonstrated not only how great his intelligence and knowledge were, but most of all his love for the Hunt. And I have such deep appreciation for those who hunt like we hunted when we were 10 years old. And I absolutely love those who can track more with his instincts than looking to the ground. They can read more than what can be seen!

And he had that humble elegance and serenity of a leader. Their unassuming, modest figure somehow demand respect. We just knew he could lead, he could Hunt.

What a priviledge when Myles left us to stalk Kudu together, me with my recurve and him carrying a pistol to scare off elephants or lions.

And what a joy to see a lioness freeze us with a huge roar and jump and run from a bush 7 paces from us!!!

I hunted a bull elephant on Chewore South with Choice, actualy he hunted and I shot the bull. And typing these words at late hours, in my trophy room, looking at his picture in the wall, proudly holding my (actualy his, or ours) tusks, it is hard to accept we will not hunt together again.

In 2004 as I met him I could immediately guess from the swollen glands in his neck that Choice had aids. And I knew some infection would eventualy take him. How much pain he must have felt on those cold mornings in the Rover, and yet he never hinted a complain. Strength.

Coming to Harare I told Myles I had decided to send him the anti-retroviral cocktail. But sending it internationaly was a major crime according to Zimbabwe law. In Zimbabwe, Like in South Africa, the president says it is not a virus...

I hunted elephant on my 40th birthday, when I decided to slow down from 100 hour working weeks and making money. Told my wife and 3 boys I and we were going to travel a lot. Since then I have spend the last two years hunting all over the world. In those days I had great doubts. Those days were full of very intense feelings, feeling the guilt of sepeing and the hapyness of harvesting together. Choice!

Choice can mean option, alternative, selection... And choice can mean superior, worthy, excelence... he meant all these things.

Leave as many tracks as you can, and put them on the most majestic places on earth, and anjoy your family and friends, let them read your tracks, and feel happy even knowing these tracks will be wiped out by time, wind and beast.

Dante