Arrived in Jo'berg in the evening and headed to camp. Arrived about 10:30pm. Had Chicken Fried Impala for dinner then headed to bed. Plan was to spend a few days doing some Photo Safari stuff the wife wanted to do, which was actually nice because the wind was bad for hunting and it gave me a couple days to get over the jet lag before I started hunting.
Day 1-
Woke up around 8:30 am. Headed to the dining hall for breakfast. One thing I enjoyed about South Africa the first time and was looking forward to again this trip was the bread. Seems weird, but their normal loafs of sliced bread just seem to be better. So, grabbed a few slices, threw them in the toaster, put some butter and jam on them and……..yep, still as good as I remember. There was a family in camp who was at the end of their safari. The wife and two daughters wanted to go do a few non hunting things as well. Around 11am we loaded up and headed the 2 hour drive to Zebula. It was a resort type place. Golf course, day spa, etc…
Our first stop was the Elephant experience. We got to interact with the elephants and see how smart they were. Got to put our hands in their mouths and put food on their tongues. Some weird stuff. They showed us how well they remember stuff. Took 3 people from the crowd and said their name 3 times. Then handed a red hat to the elephant and told him to give the red hat to “Janet”. And sure enough the elephant handed it to the correct person every time. Pretty cool stuff.
Next, we had paid to ride the elephants so they put some “saddles” on the elephants and we loaded up. Let me tell you, I was not made to ride elephants. My legs are not made to spread that wide. I got a cramp in my buttocks right when I got on and there was nothing I could do except ride it out (literally). I was at the back of the elephant which is the widest part. Cramp lasted about a minute then went away so I got to enjoy the ride. Wife took a few cool pictures of some animals during the ride.
Had a banded mongoose hanging around. Even let us pet him. Silly little thing.
Next we went to play with the baby lions. Took about 5 of us in at a time to sit down and pet the lion cubs. Cute little things. There was a white one that was pretty cool looking.
After that we had a late lunch at the country club there at the golf course before our 2 hour drive back to camp.
Day 2-
Pretty much the same deal as the day before. Got up around 8:30 am and had breakfast. Today we were going on a game drive at a reserve. Again, it was a 2 hour drive to get there. We went to a place called Welgevonden Game Reserve. It was located in the Waterburg Mountain region. The landscape was different and more wide open. It was nice to see some different parts of the country. We got there and had lunch at the lodge before we loaded up for our game drive. Turns out we were the only ones on the afternoon drive so we loaded up early and headed into the reserve. As soon as we crossed into the reserve we saw 3 Rhino. It was pretty cool. They were just walking down the road in front of us. We just followed along.
After they got out of the road we kept going and looking at the other animals, Zebra, Warthog, and Wildebeest mainly. Then a call came over the radio of a Female Cheetah and two young ones. So, our driver headed that way and we got to see them bed down for the day.
Would like to have seen them closer, but since they are wild predators I didn’t want to see them THAT much closer.
So, we carried on and saw many more animals. Saw some large male Lion tracks, but never saw the lions. I wasn’t too disappointed since we had gotten to play with the lion cubs the day before. We saw Kudu, Waterbuck, Gemsbok, Reedbuck, Hartebeest and about 10 more Rhino. The coolest one was a mama and baby rhino. They were walking down the road, but this time they were walking towards us, not away. The driver pulled to the side a little bit and turned off the vehicle. We sat there taking pictures while they continued towards us. They ended up walking right past us at about 10 feet. It was pretty cool.
The game drive came to an end and we started our 2 hr drive back to camp. I was ready to get my bow in hand and start hunting.
Day 3-
The day started with breakfast around 8 am. Today we were going after zebra. My PH had a spot picked out that he could see from the road. He had seen the zebra at that spot just about every day around 1pm. Unfortunately there was no water there nor was there a blind. So, our first order of business was to set up a ground blind. So, we picked out a spot under some trees and set up the blind. Once we got the pop up where we wanted it we then proceeded to brush it in and settle in for the rest of the day.
It was a little cramped in the pop up with 3 of us in there, but we had it all worked out and discussed our plan of action should the zebra come in. Not long after we were settled in we saw movement. A couple young Nyala were making their way in. We watched them for a while. As this was our first sit we soaked it all up. Saw some Impala off in the distance feeding around. Then had some Kudu pay us a visit. There was a good bull, but a Kudu wasn't on my list this trip since I had taken one on my last trip. The wind wasn't playing nice this day and kept swirling. We never really got winded, but the animals never really settled down. They were uneasy and moved on. At around 1:30pm I heard the sound of an animal running from behind the blind. Looked out the side window and I saw a Zebra at about a 100 yards running past us. It was weird since it wasn't running from us and it was all by itself. Either way, it just kept running. Best we could figure was that something spooked the herd some distance away from us and this lone zebra got separated and was on the search for the rest of the herd. Well, there it was, the first time I'd seen a zebra while hunting. Took my 8 days of hunting over 2 trips to Africa, but I finally saw a zebra while hunting. Granted it was 100 yards away, but nonetheless, it was the closest I'd come. The rest of the afternoon was pretty much routine. Nyala and Kudu coming in and out keeping us company. A few of the Nyala were looking pretty good to me. Since it was on my list I kept asking my PH with the appearance of each new Nyala, "Shooter?" My PH just told me to relax. He had a better plan for Nyala, but today was not that plan. Today was about zebra and we just need to sit tight and stick to the plan. I decided he was absolutely right and I just needed to relax and wait for the zebra. Well, the sun was getting lower in the sky and we were about down to our last 1.5 hrs. My PH threw up the binocs and said, "zebra". My breathing stopped as I looked to my left. There they were, about 6 or so that I could see. About 80 yards away, staring at the animals in front of us. The wind was still swirling as it was most of the day. The zebra sat there for about 10 minutes, then just turned and walked away. It was frustrating, but we still had time and since they didn't spook, they may decide to come back. About 30 minutes later a new group of Kudu came in. There was a few females with them. Well, didn't take long and one of the old Kudu cows smelled us and decided to turn on the alarm. She sat there and barked at us for about 10 minutes. Probably barked about 50 times. I wanted to shoot her in the face so bad. Couldn't believe it. There was no way the zebra were going to come in now. We sat there til dark anyways, but as expected, no zebra. But since it was my best day of zebra hunting ever a few beers were going to be had. Can't wait til tomorrow.
Day 4-
The day started with a 6:45 am wake up call. Quick shower and breakfast at 7:30 am. Today we were going to chase Nyala. The plan was to head over to the new lodge and hunt that property all day. The morning hunt was to be a spot and stalk on Nyala as they were warming themselves in the early sunlight. We drove around until we spotted a few standing around. They were still off quite a ways so we couldn’t get as good of a look at them as we wanted. Still, none of the 3 made us jump out of the truck so we kept driving looking for more. We spotted a few, but still, nothing we were impressed with. My PH thought there was 1 in the first group we saw that might have potential so we decided to head back towards that group and get a better look. This time we got out of the truck and began our stalk to get closer. The wind wasn’t the best, still swirling from time to time as the cold front that had moved in a few days earlier was beginning to move out. We got to within about 100 yards of the three Nyala. My PH put up his binocs and checked them out. Yep, there was indeed one decent bull in there and he decided we should continue our pursuit. About this time the Nyala started walking diagonal past us. So, on one hand they were getting closer, but on the other hand they were going to pass us on our left hand side at about 60 yards. Definitely not a shot I was willing to take on a walking animal, especially one with a little higher price tag. We kept heading to our left, bouncing from bush to bush trying to close the distance. It just wasn’t working out for us as they kept moving. We couldn’t close the distance and eventually ran out of cover. We found ourselves crouched behind a bush about 75 yards from our targets. Unfortunately there was not another bush between us and them. We were stuck. My PH and I were ready to just take a chance and do our best to try to cross the open without spooking them. We knew it was a very long shot, but at this point we had nothing to lose. We either try it or just head back to the truck. Either way, our hunt was over. Just before we made our move I looked to our right and saw a huge Nyala bull coming our way. This one was bigger than any of the other three by far. My PH glassed him up and down. He told me this was a really nice bull and we needed to take him if at all possible. Luckily for us, he was headed toward the other group of Nyala, but was still behind us. We didn't have to move too much, but managed to get to a spot that would end up providing me with a 30 yard shot. We were lucky and he stopped almost under a small tree, broadside at 30. My PH told me to shoot him on the first white line, just behind the shoulder, about a third the way up. So, I drew back my bow and settled my pin. I released my arrow and watched its magical flight. Wait....what? Why is my arrow not headed toward that white line? Crap. I had blown the shot. I watched the arrow hit this big bull right in the gut. A 1000 thoughts ran through my head and not one of them were good. The bull ran about 10 feet then he just stopped. PH said, knock another arrow. I was shaking and could barely pull another arrow out of my quiver. I got the arrow knocked and drew back once more. PH ranged him at 33 yards. This time I took one big deep breath and focused and settling myself down. He was slightly quartering away and I settled the pin just behind his shoulder. I released the arrow and this time it was perfect. I knew instantly it was a heart shot. We watched him run about 15 more yards and start to stumble. He slowly went down with the other 3 looking at him like he was crazy. We squatted down and waited for about 15 minutes just to be sure. Once we were positive he had expired we moved in. He was indeed a very nice bull. I had just taken my first animal of this safari and he would be hard to beat. Thankfully my gut shot turned out with a very positive ending. This guy was headed to the salt and I was on the board.
For our afternoon hunt we headed to a blind in search of Gemsbok. We had seen a few on the way to the blind so we were optimistic we could pull a double today. We settled into the blind and waited for the action to begin. The wind was still not cooperating as it was swirling from time to time. But, you can't kill them in the lodge so we were going to stick it out. Well, about 30 minutes into the hunt and we see a Gemsbok headed to the waterhole. Unfortunately it was a female and all we could do was watch as she drank. A few minutes later we saw some more movement. It was an animal I hadn't seen in person before. It was an awesome Roan. He came in and joined the female Gemsbok and they hung around for about 15 minutes. Though I had plenty of time and opportunity to take this magnificent animal, my wallet wasn't thick enough. He would be safe.
It was probably about an hour later and we see a group of Gemsbok coming in. This time there was a male in the group. They got to about 50 yards and the wind kicked up and swirled. They turned around and left. This routine repeated itself several times over the course of this hunt with several different groups of Gemsbok. It got to be very frustrating. Then, we see something that I never really expected to see. A herd of Cape Buffalo were coming towards us. Probably about 20 of them in the herd. The lead bull was massive. I nick named him Rudolph due to his pinkish nose. It was very impressive to see these animals in person and up close. They got to about 30 yards when the wind swirled again and they moved back out. They bedded down at about 60 yards. They would stay there for the next couple of hours and the "Gemsbok dance" would continue with them wanting to come in and the wind chasing them back out. Finally the buffalo got up and came in with the last hour of daylight. At this point the only other animals willing to visit the waterhole were some warthogs but they were all young. The sun went down and we had to settle for only taking the Nyala on this day, which was perfectly fine with me since not only did I take an exceptional animal, but I also got to see two different animals that I had never seen before in the Roan and Cape Buffalo. Definitely a day to remember.
Day 5-
We began again with a 7:30 am breakfast. Loaded up in the truck and were in the blind by 8:30 am. We were hunting a pit blind this morning in an effort to minimize the effect of the wind, which was blowing very hard today. The only positive about the wind was that it was blowing in the right direction. Unfortunately the heavy wind was making for a slow hunt. We weren't seeing any animals when all of a sudden we had 4 Cape Buffalo walk in. That was two hunts in a row that I had buffalo come visit. Again, very impressive animals, but unless you are hunting them they tend to keep other animals away. They hung out for about 45 minutes then decided to move on. A little before noon the wind started to calm down a little and we started to see animal movement. We had a Waterbuck bull come in but I had previously told my PH that I was only going to shoot a Waterbuck if it was a giant. This guy wasn't so he got a pass. We just watched him. Other animals joined him, Nyala, warthog, wildebeest and kudu. At about noon I looked off to the right and saw a Gemsbok at about 200 yards and making his way in. My PH studied him for a few seconds through his binoculars and gave me the green light. Said he was an old male bull. So I grabbed my bow and got ready for him to come in. The Gemsbok made it to 20 yards and I am waiting for him to settle down and turn broadside. Then all of a sudden a lone Cape Buffalo shows up and the Gemsbok spooks and runs out about 60 yards. I couldn't believe it. I was frustrated. Then I see out in front of us another Gemsbok heading in. My PH tells me it’s a female and I can't shoot her. Well, she makes her way in and the male Gemsbok who is still standing out at 60 yards sees her and decides it is ok to come back in. So, he strolls back in and starts to relax and get comfortable. Now all I need is for him to give me a shot. After about 10 minutes he does exactly what I needed him to do. He is standing broadside at 20 yards. I'm ready to draw, just waiting for him to move that front leg forward. And there it is, his front leg takes a half step. I draw back, settle the pin and release the arrow. I watch it fly and hit perfect. He takes off on a dead sprint. It was the death run. That's when the shaking began. I was a nervous wreck. On my last safari in 2013 Gemsbok had been #1 on my list. After 5 days I had finally gotten a shot opportunity and made what I thought was a good shot. When I recovered my arrow it was clear my shot was less than good. It was a gut shot and we weren't able to recover the animal. We found it 2 days later and the cape had gone bad. So this time, even though I saw the arrow hit perfect and watched the replay on video to confirm shot placement, I was still a nervous wreck. We waited the normal 20 minutes then took up the track. 80 yards later we saw him lying dead from a perfect heart shot. I was very happy. I had gotten a second chance to take one of my favorite animals and I was successful. It was time for a beer.
After taking the Gemsbok to the skinning rack we went back to the lodge to have a sit down lunch. The plan for the afternoon was to sit in another pit blind and hope for Zebra or Eland. And that's exactly what we did. About 45 minutes into the hunt and we see Nyala coming in. Then my PH tells me, "Eland". He said, "you hear that clicking? That's Eland." And sure enough two Eland bulls come walking in from behind the blind. I grabbed my bow and asked my PH if one of them was a shooter. He said that one was, one wasn't but the shooter wasn't very good and we could do better. So, I put my bow back down and enjoyed the show. We were hoping the Zebra would pay us a visit, but they never did. We had a lot of animals, warthogs, kudu, nyala and impala. It was a good sit, but nothing in the salt.
Day 6-:
So by now you know the routine. Breakfast at 7:30 am and hunting by around 8:30 or so. This morning we went back to the same blind we hunted last night. Plan was to get either Zebra or Eland. It started out quiet, except for the wind, which was still blowing. The good thing about this location was that there were quite a few trees around it so it was somewhat sheltered from the wind. After about an hour we started to see animals. The usual suspects, Nyala, Kudu, Warthogs, etc… My PH was scanning the area when he looked out the side window. He said, “here come Eland and Zebra”. I thought he was joking with me, then all of a sudden I saw an Eland walk in front of us. Then another, and another until there were 7 of them. I whispered to my PH, “we wait for the Zebra”. He agreed. The Zebra stood out there at 60 yards, just starring at the waterhole. After about 10 minutes they slowly turned around and left. My PH believes they felt the waterhole was too busy for them and with 7 Eland the Zebra just don’t like the competition. Once again I felt the cold hard frustration on chasing the elusive Zebra. I was starting to think that hunting a Unicorn might actually be easier. Well, after accepting the fact that a Zebra was not in my immediate future I asked my PH if there were any consolation prizes out in front of us since there were 7 Eland. He said there is one good Eland, but he’s broken off on one side. I took a look and sure enough he had the tip on his left side broken. I sat there and watched him for about 5 minutes. I studied his behavior and demeanor. It was very clear he was in charge. When he approached the others cleared the way. I decided that as a hunter, my personal values are not in the headgear, but rather the animal itself. He was the dominant Eland and broken horn or not, I was going to put him on my wall. There was however one problem. The Eland had taken over the waterhole and pushed most the other animals to the outskirts. A Kudu had taken up residence 5 feet in front of the blind. Any movement we made was going to have to be coordinated and silent. My PH was running the video camera through one window and I had my bow waiting for a shot at the other window. The Eland decided he wanted to go to the other side of the waterhole. So, my PH and I had to make the stealthy switch. It was nerve racking, but we pulled it off. Then, the Eland decided to go back to the other side. Crap. Once again we did the silent dance to switch positions. Now that we were in our places we just needed the Eland to present a shot. I had the Eland I wanted to shoot quartering towards me and a younger Eland quartering away. I whispered to my PH, “If they switched places it would be perfect.” Well, I think they heard me because that is exactly what they did. The head Eland was standing at 18 yards slightly quartering away. All I needed was for him to move his front leg forward. As soon as he took that step I came to full draw, settled my pin and sent an arrow perfectly through his heart. He ran 60 yards, stood still for a few seconds and then fell over. The other Eland just stood next to him waiting. As if they didn’t know what to do without their leader. “Now is when the hard work begins”, said my PH. He was right. He called in for them to bring a trailer to make it easier to load him on. The good thing was they also brought more guys. In total there were 8 of us trying to load this beast and it was A LOT of work. Took us way too long and we broke a sweat. My wife enjoyed watching us struggle, but it resulted in a well-deserved beer or two.
After loading up the Eland we headed back to the lodge for a relaxing lunch and a quick power nap.
Once we were reenergized we headed out to a new blind. My PH told me this one might have Blesbok, Waterbuck and Zebra. So we settled in. About 30 minutes later I see a majestic Sable. Standing tall and proud it was a very impressive animal. However, it was as if he knew I couldn’t afford to shoot. He stood there for about 35 minutes, drinking water and just hanging out. Cool animal for sure. After he left we sat quietly for about 30 more minutes when I caught movement. It was a small animal I had never seen before in person. “Duiker” said my PH. Young male and female. Pretty cool to see these little animals. They were very skittish, drank quickly and left. We had young Impala, Kudu, Gemsbok, Warthog and Waterbuck (young) all come in to say hello. But we were looking for Zebra or Blesbok. The sun was already set and the light was fading fast. Wasn’t looking promising to get a double today. Either way, it was still a good day with a Monster Eland in the salt. Only thing that could have made it better was a zebra, but there was always tomorrow. My PH is just about to radio for the truck and decides to take one last look around. Then I heard the words that will stick with me forever….”don’t move….Zebra”. This time I wasn’t even going to look as it seemed like anytime I looked they turned and walked away. My PH was glassing them up and down, the entire group. Suddenly I see them at the waterhole. A few zebra and a few babies. I sat there patiently while my PH continued to look over the herd. I was getting very nervous as we barely had any light left and I knew that if he’d seen a shooter he would already have told me to get my bow. But he wasn’t saying anything, just continuing to look them over. I was positive he was going to tell me there wasn’t a shooter in the group. I knew we could take a mare, but only if she wasn’t nursing a young one. Unfortunately, I had seen plenty of young ones running around. My heart was slowly sinking as I finally had zebra in front of me and wasn’t going to be able to shoot one. Just when I was positive he was going to break the news to me he tells me there is one stallion who just came in to water. He pointed him out to me. He was quartering away but it was dark inside the blind and I had to turn on my sight light so I could see the pins. I drew back and released the arrow. I watched the blue lighted knock fly and hit him back. I was sick. I finally had my nemesis at 17 yards and I gut shot him. However, I did notice that my arrow did not pass through him. It had hit something on the far side and stopped. I watched as he ran off with the blue light still sticking out of him. I had shot a Gemsbok, Nyala and Eland all penetrated the far shoulder so I knew if I had shot this Zebra through the stomach that my arrow would have blown through him. But it didn’t, it stopped. My PH and I were talking about it and we felt it had to hit the far shoulder. So we got out of the blind and picked up the track. We found stomach fluid, but no blood. We followed the trail for about 20 yards and still no blood. It was dark. We decided the safe thing to do was back out and come back in the morning. If we jumped him tonight we might never find him. I hated it, but knew it was the right call. So we loaded back up and headed to camp. It was bitter sweet. My PH had told me he thought he heard the zebra making a noise they do when they are looking for one of their herd, but he wasn’t sure because the truck had just arrived at the time and was making noise. We were happy and celebrating because we were successful in finally having zebra in front of us and getting off a shot. Unfortunately we had to wait until morning to see how the story ended. It was a straight tequila night, with little sleep.
Day 7-
Well, after a long night, breakfast at 7:30 am. Then, pick up the zebra track and cross our fingers. We get back to the scene of the crime and quickly find the dried up stomach fluids. We follow them slowly. At about 40 yards I spot a drop of blood. Not a great sign, but better than stomach fluid. We continue to follow the tracks for about another 40 yards and then we see him. Dead and in one piece. He had run about 100 yards and died. We were correct in our assessment of the shot. Arrow did go in through stomach and hit far shoulder, making a puncture just behind the shoulder. It was an awesome sight. This thing was beautiful. He had almost zero shadow striping. His colors were very distinct. He was a very cool looking zebra. He will make a fine rug. We took a ton of pictures and loaded him up and took him to the skinning rack. Since it was now around 11am we decided to hang around camp, have a relaxing lunch and another nap before heading out for our afternoon hunt.
After a few beers and a nap in the sunshine we headed out to another blind. At this point I had shot all the animals on my main list so I wasn’t sure what to go after. We switched to the secondary list which consisted of a big Waterbuck, Blesbok and another Zebra. We saw lots of animals including another big Kudu and we passed on a decent Impala, but we did not see anything that made me want to draw my bow. So we headed back to the lodge to throw some meat on the grill and hit the tequila in celebration of the zebra.
Day 8-
Same routine, breakfast at 7:30 am then off to the blind. Since we had already taken care of the main list of animals we sort of downshifted gears a little bit and started to take it a little easier. We went out this morning hoping to get a Blesbok. The wind was good and we ended up having the busiest waterhole I’ve ever experienced. We had animals in front of us all morning. 5 young Waterbuck, 8 or so Kudu, a group of young impala, probably 20 warthog and about 25 wildebeest. They hung out all morning. Drank, ate then went off about 50 yards and bedded down for a while. Got up, drank some more, ate some more, back to bedding down. Animals were all over the place. Unfortunately no Blesbok. Since we were taking it easier today we did not bring lunch with us as we had planned to return to the lodge to eat. So the truck came to pick us up around 1pm. We had lunch, relaxed for about an hour, then headed back to the same blind. We saw many of the same animals come back in from the morning hunt. This time I had told my wife to bring her camera. She was nervous because her camera makes a “click” noise when she takes a picture but I told her not to worry since we weren’t hunting these animals. So, she got to experience some of the thrill of hunting. She does not hunt so when an animal comes in and I shoot it, she is sitting down filming me inside the blind. She has never experienced the thrill of standing up, getting in position and watching the animal. Today that would change. Today it was her turn to see the animals come in, stand up, get in position and shoot. The difference being she was “shooting” with her camera, but she got to experience getting into the shooting window and having to move slowly and quietly to get her shot. One time she got a little too close to the window and one of the animals spotted her and spooked. It was fun and she got some great pics. That’s how the day ended, with a beautiful South African sunset and great company.
Day 9-
Today we actually had breakfast a little earlier, around 7 am. We were going to head to a different property that was about a 45 minute drive. We were going to hunt harder today. The property didn’t have as many animals as some of the others we hunted but the animals that were there were supposed to be really nice. We were hoping for a good Waterbuck. After we arrived at the property and spoke with the landowner, he said the wind was wrong for the blind my PH wanted to hunt. Today the wind was not playing nice. It was not only coming from the wrong direction, but it kept swirling and changing directions. So, we headed to a waterhole that had two blinds, one on each side. So, we settled in the pit blind as that was best for the predominant wind direction. It became clear early on in the hunt that today would be a challenge. We had a Steinbuck come in but winded us and took off. We could hear a Kudu bark about 40 yards out and we had warthog spook while trying to come to water. Around 11 am we had a group of Impala come to the edge of the bush wanted to come to the waterhole. There was a good shooter in the group. They stood on the edge of the bush for about 3 minutes. The wind shifted and they were gone. By this time it seems as if the wind had mainly changed directions on us so we packed up and moved to the blind on the other side of the water. We sat there, had lunch and waited. We were in that blind for about 2 hours when it seemed like the wind was mostly coming from the other direction. It was a tough call. It seemed like the split in wind direction was 45% one way and 55% the other. We decided to move back to the other side. Once again, we packed everything up and snuck to the other side of the waterhole. At this point it was starting to get later in the day and with the sun going down the wind started to die down as well. We entered the last hour of daylight with a calmer wind and high hopes. We had an extremely old Gemsbok bull come in. He had the thickest horns I had ever seen on a Gemsbok, but they were short from being worn down over the years. His tail was dragging on the ground. Just an old beast. Then a very nice Kudu came in for a quick drink. And with about 45 minutes of daylight left we had 3 warthogs come in. Two female and one male. The male was a good shooter and we decided to take him. They fed around for about 15 minutes (felt longer) before he moved into position for a shot. I drew back and settled the pin and the arrow was on its way. I saw the arrow hit and it looked like I shot him in the leg by his elbow joint. I was disappointed and confused. My PH said it looked like a leg shot, but he could see blood on the bushes where he ran and it looked like good blood. We reviewed the video and sure enough it looked like I shot him in the leg. Since it was getting dark my PH snuck out to the spot to check and came back and said there was good blood. We decided to take up the track cautiously. I could see blood on both sides of the tracks, which was a good sign and it was steady, but we were both expecting to track him for a looooong ways and possibly have to make a follow up shot. We tracked him for about 80 yards and I look up and there he is dead. Arrow went right through his heart and both shoulders. It was weird but I think I benefited from some luck. The arrow did hit low, but I think when it hit the leg it deflected up and through the heart and out the other shoulder. Either way, I had a nice Warthog on the ground and was thankful. We loaded up and made the 45 minute drive back to camp. Another good day in the books.
Day 10-
Breakfast at 7:30 am then off to a new blind. Hoping to see Impala or Zebra. Wind was great but we settled in for the morning hunt. We had Nyala, warthog and Kudu come in first. Then we had 3 Eland come and stay a while. Nothing we were going to shoot. Saw some Impala at about 80 yards fighting and chasing each other, but never came in for a shot. Saw a couple monkeys, but no baboons. It was a pretty uneventful morning. We headed back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch we let my wife decide if we were going to hunt again in the afternoon or if we were going to go on a photo drive so she could take more pictures. She chose the photo drive so that’s what we did. My PH made a call to a landowner not very far away and told him we wanted to go on a photo drive. He said sure and we loaded up. His property was massive. We drove for miles and miles until we finally hit the Botswana border. He had Rhino and just about every game animal on this property. We saw a magnificent Kudu and a group of Giraffe. It was a good afternoon just looking at game animals. We stopped at sunset and had a few beers. Just another great day in South Africa.
Day 11-
Last day to hunt. You know the routine. Breakfast at 7:30 am. Then we headed out to a new blind. Wind was better but the morning was slow. Took a few hours for the animals to start moving. But slowly they started to show up. First was a Kudu, followed by a coup Nyala. They were eating and drinking when I saw a good size Impala stick his out from behind a bush at about 30 yards. Go to grab my bow and he decides he’s not thirsty. He turns and walks back through the bushes and feeds in the thick stuff for about 15 minutes until he’s out of sight. Oh well, back to waiting. The Nyala and kudu come and go several times. Around 11:30 am my PH tells me there’s a shooter Impala. He’s not very long, but he is thick and very old. That sounded good to me. I grab my bow and struggle to turn on my GoPro. I was focused on getting the camera turned on through my WiFi app so I wasn’t looking at the animal. Then my PH says, “He’s drinking”, but in a manner that was more like, “why aren’t you shooting him?” Just then I got the GoPro recording and looked up. Sure enough he was standing there slightly quartering to, just drinking away. I drew back and put the pin in the kill zone and launched the arrow. Arrow zipped right through him (never found it) and he jumped over the top of the bushes and was gone. We waited 20 minutes before taking up the track, but could see blood on the bushes from the blind. We get out and take up the track. This part of the property had the thickest bushes with nothing but thorns. Of course this Impala ran right through all of this. The weather was warm so we wearing shorts. Not fun. But, about 60 yards later, there he was. Double lung shot. He was a very old ram. Very thick. I had taken one on my previous trip that was much longer, but this guy has a massive body and the thickest horns on an Impala that I’d seen. He is a great trophy. We loaded him up and headed to the lodge for lunch.
Of course he had to run through the thickest thorn patch known to man.
After lunch we headed out for our last sit. We were going back to the blind where I shot the zebra in hopes of a Blesbok, Waterbuck or another zebra. We saw the Sable once again. Same routine. He just stood there broadside without a care in the world. We had Impala, Waterbuck, Gemsbok and even Cape Buffalo. We even had some crazy bird attacking the window of the blind. It was a good last hunt, but nothing we were looking to shoot.
We watched the sun set on this South African Safari with a little sadness, but mostly a big smile and a feeling of satisfaction in a very successful hunt. Can’t wait to get back. I now have a new list for 2017. Can’t wait to get started. Here are some additional pictures my wife took. Enjoy
Day 1-
Woke up around 8:30 am. Headed to the dining hall for breakfast. One thing I enjoyed about South Africa the first time and was looking forward to again this trip was the bread. Seems weird, but their normal loafs of sliced bread just seem to be better. So, grabbed a few slices, threw them in the toaster, put some butter and jam on them and……..yep, still as good as I remember. There was a family in camp who was at the end of their safari. The wife and two daughters wanted to go do a few non hunting things as well. Around 11am we loaded up and headed the 2 hour drive to Zebula. It was a resort type place. Golf course, day spa, etc…
Our first stop was the Elephant experience. We got to interact with the elephants and see how smart they were. Got to put our hands in their mouths and put food on their tongues. Some weird stuff. They showed us how well they remember stuff. Took 3 people from the crowd and said their name 3 times. Then handed a red hat to the elephant and told him to give the red hat to “Janet”. And sure enough the elephant handed it to the correct person every time. Pretty cool stuff.
Next, we had paid to ride the elephants so they put some “saddles” on the elephants and we loaded up. Let me tell you, I was not made to ride elephants. My legs are not made to spread that wide. I got a cramp in my buttocks right when I got on and there was nothing I could do except ride it out (literally). I was at the back of the elephant which is the widest part. Cramp lasted about a minute then went away so I got to enjoy the ride. Wife took a few cool pictures of some animals during the ride.
Had a banded mongoose hanging around. Even let us pet him. Silly little thing.
Next we went to play with the baby lions. Took about 5 of us in at a time to sit down and pet the lion cubs. Cute little things. There was a white one that was pretty cool looking.
After that we had a late lunch at the country club there at the golf course before our 2 hour drive back to camp.
Day 2-
Pretty much the same deal as the day before. Got up around 8:30 am and had breakfast. Today we were going on a game drive at a reserve. Again, it was a 2 hour drive to get there. We went to a place called Welgevonden Game Reserve. It was located in the Waterburg Mountain region. The landscape was different and more wide open. It was nice to see some different parts of the country. We got there and had lunch at the lodge before we loaded up for our game drive. Turns out we were the only ones on the afternoon drive so we loaded up early and headed into the reserve. As soon as we crossed into the reserve we saw 3 Rhino. It was pretty cool. They were just walking down the road in front of us. We just followed along.
After they got out of the road we kept going and looking at the other animals, Zebra, Warthog, and Wildebeest mainly. Then a call came over the radio of a Female Cheetah and two young ones. So, our driver headed that way and we got to see them bed down for the day.
Would like to have seen them closer, but since they are wild predators I didn’t want to see them THAT much closer.
So, we carried on and saw many more animals. Saw some large male Lion tracks, but never saw the lions. I wasn’t too disappointed since we had gotten to play with the lion cubs the day before. We saw Kudu, Waterbuck, Gemsbok, Reedbuck, Hartebeest and about 10 more Rhino. The coolest one was a mama and baby rhino. They were walking down the road, but this time they were walking towards us, not away. The driver pulled to the side a little bit and turned off the vehicle. We sat there taking pictures while they continued towards us. They ended up walking right past us at about 10 feet. It was pretty cool.
The game drive came to an end and we started our 2 hr drive back to camp. I was ready to get my bow in hand and start hunting.
Day 3-
The day started with breakfast around 8 am. Today we were going after zebra. My PH had a spot picked out that he could see from the road. He had seen the zebra at that spot just about every day around 1pm. Unfortunately there was no water there nor was there a blind. So, our first order of business was to set up a ground blind. So, we picked out a spot under some trees and set up the blind. Once we got the pop up where we wanted it we then proceeded to brush it in and settle in for the rest of the day.
It was a little cramped in the pop up with 3 of us in there, but we had it all worked out and discussed our plan of action should the zebra come in. Not long after we were settled in we saw movement. A couple young Nyala were making their way in. We watched them for a while. As this was our first sit we soaked it all up. Saw some Impala off in the distance feeding around. Then had some Kudu pay us a visit. There was a good bull, but a Kudu wasn't on my list this trip since I had taken one on my last trip. The wind wasn't playing nice this day and kept swirling. We never really got winded, but the animals never really settled down. They were uneasy and moved on. At around 1:30pm I heard the sound of an animal running from behind the blind. Looked out the side window and I saw a Zebra at about a 100 yards running past us. It was weird since it wasn't running from us and it was all by itself. Either way, it just kept running. Best we could figure was that something spooked the herd some distance away from us and this lone zebra got separated and was on the search for the rest of the herd. Well, there it was, the first time I'd seen a zebra while hunting. Took my 8 days of hunting over 2 trips to Africa, but I finally saw a zebra while hunting. Granted it was 100 yards away, but nonetheless, it was the closest I'd come. The rest of the afternoon was pretty much routine. Nyala and Kudu coming in and out keeping us company. A few of the Nyala were looking pretty good to me. Since it was on my list I kept asking my PH with the appearance of each new Nyala, "Shooter?" My PH just told me to relax. He had a better plan for Nyala, but today was not that plan. Today was about zebra and we just need to sit tight and stick to the plan. I decided he was absolutely right and I just needed to relax and wait for the zebra. Well, the sun was getting lower in the sky and we were about down to our last 1.5 hrs. My PH threw up the binocs and said, "zebra". My breathing stopped as I looked to my left. There they were, about 6 or so that I could see. About 80 yards away, staring at the animals in front of us. The wind was still swirling as it was most of the day. The zebra sat there for about 10 minutes, then just turned and walked away. It was frustrating, but we still had time and since they didn't spook, they may decide to come back. About 30 minutes later a new group of Kudu came in. There was a few females with them. Well, didn't take long and one of the old Kudu cows smelled us and decided to turn on the alarm. She sat there and barked at us for about 10 minutes. Probably barked about 50 times. I wanted to shoot her in the face so bad. Couldn't believe it. There was no way the zebra were going to come in now. We sat there til dark anyways, but as expected, no zebra. But since it was my best day of zebra hunting ever a few beers were going to be had. Can't wait til tomorrow.
Day 4-
The day started with a 6:45 am wake up call. Quick shower and breakfast at 7:30 am. Today we were going to chase Nyala. The plan was to head over to the new lodge and hunt that property all day. The morning hunt was to be a spot and stalk on Nyala as they were warming themselves in the early sunlight. We drove around until we spotted a few standing around. They were still off quite a ways so we couldn’t get as good of a look at them as we wanted. Still, none of the 3 made us jump out of the truck so we kept driving looking for more. We spotted a few, but still, nothing we were impressed with. My PH thought there was 1 in the first group we saw that might have potential so we decided to head back towards that group and get a better look. This time we got out of the truck and began our stalk to get closer. The wind wasn’t the best, still swirling from time to time as the cold front that had moved in a few days earlier was beginning to move out. We got to within about 100 yards of the three Nyala. My PH put up his binocs and checked them out. Yep, there was indeed one decent bull in there and he decided we should continue our pursuit. About this time the Nyala started walking diagonal past us. So, on one hand they were getting closer, but on the other hand they were going to pass us on our left hand side at about 60 yards. Definitely not a shot I was willing to take on a walking animal, especially one with a little higher price tag. We kept heading to our left, bouncing from bush to bush trying to close the distance. It just wasn’t working out for us as they kept moving. We couldn’t close the distance and eventually ran out of cover. We found ourselves crouched behind a bush about 75 yards from our targets. Unfortunately there was not another bush between us and them. We were stuck. My PH and I were ready to just take a chance and do our best to try to cross the open without spooking them. We knew it was a very long shot, but at this point we had nothing to lose. We either try it or just head back to the truck. Either way, our hunt was over. Just before we made our move I looked to our right and saw a huge Nyala bull coming our way. This one was bigger than any of the other three by far. My PH glassed him up and down. He told me this was a really nice bull and we needed to take him if at all possible. Luckily for us, he was headed toward the other group of Nyala, but was still behind us. We didn't have to move too much, but managed to get to a spot that would end up providing me with a 30 yard shot. We were lucky and he stopped almost under a small tree, broadside at 30. My PH told me to shoot him on the first white line, just behind the shoulder, about a third the way up. So, I drew back my bow and settled my pin. I released my arrow and watched its magical flight. Wait....what? Why is my arrow not headed toward that white line? Crap. I had blown the shot. I watched the arrow hit this big bull right in the gut. A 1000 thoughts ran through my head and not one of them were good. The bull ran about 10 feet then he just stopped. PH said, knock another arrow. I was shaking and could barely pull another arrow out of my quiver. I got the arrow knocked and drew back once more. PH ranged him at 33 yards. This time I took one big deep breath and focused and settling myself down. He was slightly quartering away and I settled the pin just behind his shoulder. I released the arrow and this time it was perfect. I knew instantly it was a heart shot. We watched him run about 15 more yards and start to stumble. He slowly went down with the other 3 looking at him like he was crazy. We squatted down and waited for about 15 minutes just to be sure. Once we were positive he had expired we moved in. He was indeed a very nice bull. I had just taken my first animal of this safari and he would be hard to beat. Thankfully my gut shot turned out with a very positive ending. This guy was headed to the salt and I was on the board.
For our afternoon hunt we headed to a blind in search of Gemsbok. We had seen a few on the way to the blind so we were optimistic we could pull a double today. We settled into the blind and waited for the action to begin. The wind was still not cooperating as it was swirling from time to time. But, you can't kill them in the lodge so we were going to stick it out. Well, about 30 minutes into the hunt and we see a Gemsbok headed to the waterhole. Unfortunately it was a female and all we could do was watch as she drank. A few minutes later we saw some more movement. It was an animal I hadn't seen in person before. It was an awesome Roan. He came in and joined the female Gemsbok and they hung around for about 15 minutes. Though I had plenty of time and opportunity to take this magnificent animal, my wallet wasn't thick enough. He would be safe.
It was probably about an hour later and we see a group of Gemsbok coming in. This time there was a male in the group. They got to about 50 yards and the wind kicked up and swirled. They turned around and left. This routine repeated itself several times over the course of this hunt with several different groups of Gemsbok. It got to be very frustrating. Then, we see something that I never really expected to see. A herd of Cape Buffalo were coming towards us. Probably about 20 of them in the herd. The lead bull was massive. I nick named him Rudolph due to his pinkish nose. It was very impressive to see these animals in person and up close. They got to about 30 yards when the wind swirled again and they moved back out. They bedded down at about 60 yards. They would stay there for the next couple of hours and the "Gemsbok dance" would continue with them wanting to come in and the wind chasing them back out. Finally the buffalo got up and came in with the last hour of daylight. At this point the only other animals willing to visit the waterhole were some warthogs but they were all young. The sun went down and we had to settle for only taking the Nyala on this day, which was perfectly fine with me since not only did I take an exceptional animal, but I also got to see two different animals that I had never seen before in the Roan and Cape Buffalo. Definitely a day to remember.
Day 5-
We began again with a 7:30 am breakfast. Loaded up in the truck and were in the blind by 8:30 am. We were hunting a pit blind this morning in an effort to minimize the effect of the wind, which was blowing very hard today. The only positive about the wind was that it was blowing in the right direction. Unfortunately the heavy wind was making for a slow hunt. We weren't seeing any animals when all of a sudden we had 4 Cape Buffalo walk in. That was two hunts in a row that I had buffalo come visit. Again, very impressive animals, but unless you are hunting them they tend to keep other animals away. They hung out for about 45 minutes then decided to move on. A little before noon the wind started to calm down a little and we started to see animal movement. We had a Waterbuck bull come in but I had previously told my PH that I was only going to shoot a Waterbuck if it was a giant. This guy wasn't so he got a pass. We just watched him. Other animals joined him, Nyala, warthog, wildebeest and kudu. At about noon I looked off to the right and saw a Gemsbok at about 200 yards and making his way in. My PH studied him for a few seconds through his binoculars and gave me the green light. Said he was an old male bull. So I grabbed my bow and got ready for him to come in. The Gemsbok made it to 20 yards and I am waiting for him to settle down and turn broadside. Then all of a sudden a lone Cape Buffalo shows up and the Gemsbok spooks and runs out about 60 yards. I couldn't believe it. I was frustrated. Then I see out in front of us another Gemsbok heading in. My PH tells me it’s a female and I can't shoot her. Well, she makes her way in and the male Gemsbok who is still standing out at 60 yards sees her and decides it is ok to come back in. So, he strolls back in and starts to relax and get comfortable. Now all I need is for him to give me a shot. After about 10 minutes he does exactly what I needed him to do. He is standing broadside at 20 yards. I'm ready to draw, just waiting for him to move that front leg forward. And there it is, his front leg takes a half step. I draw back, settle the pin and release the arrow. I watch it fly and hit perfect. He takes off on a dead sprint. It was the death run. That's when the shaking began. I was a nervous wreck. On my last safari in 2013 Gemsbok had been #1 on my list. After 5 days I had finally gotten a shot opportunity and made what I thought was a good shot. When I recovered my arrow it was clear my shot was less than good. It was a gut shot and we weren't able to recover the animal. We found it 2 days later and the cape had gone bad. So this time, even though I saw the arrow hit perfect and watched the replay on video to confirm shot placement, I was still a nervous wreck. We waited the normal 20 minutes then took up the track. 80 yards later we saw him lying dead from a perfect heart shot. I was very happy. I had gotten a second chance to take one of my favorite animals and I was successful. It was time for a beer.
After taking the Gemsbok to the skinning rack we went back to the lodge to have a sit down lunch. The plan for the afternoon was to sit in another pit blind and hope for Zebra or Eland. And that's exactly what we did. About 45 minutes into the hunt and we see Nyala coming in. Then my PH tells me, "Eland". He said, "you hear that clicking? That's Eland." And sure enough two Eland bulls come walking in from behind the blind. I grabbed my bow and asked my PH if one of them was a shooter. He said that one was, one wasn't but the shooter wasn't very good and we could do better. So, I put my bow back down and enjoyed the show. We were hoping the Zebra would pay us a visit, but they never did. We had a lot of animals, warthogs, kudu, nyala and impala. It was a good sit, but nothing in the salt.
Day 6-:
So by now you know the routine. Breakfast at 7:30 am and hunting by around 8:30 or so. This morning we went back to the same blind we hunted last night. Plan was to get either Zebra or Eland. It started out quiet, except for the wind, which was still blowing. The good thing about this location was that there were quite a few trees around it so it was somewhat sheltered from the wind. After about an hour we started to see animals. The usual suspects, Nyala, Kudu, Warthogs, etc… My PH was scanning the area when he looked out the side window. He said, “here come Eland and Zebra”. I thought he was joking with me, then all of a sudden I saw an Eland walk in front of us. Then another, and another until there were 7 of them. I whispered to my PH, “we wait for the Zebra”. He agreed. The Zebra stood out there at 60 yards, just starring at the waterhole. After about 10 minutes they slowly turned around and left. My PH believes they felt the waterhole was too busy for them and with 7 Eland the Zebra just don’t like the competition. Once again I felt the cold hard frustration on chasing the elusive Zebra. I was starting to think that hunting a Unicorn might actually be easier. Well, after accepting the fact that a Zebra was not in my immediate future I asked my PH if there were any consolation prizes out in front of us since there were 7 Eland. He said there is one good Eland, but he’s broken off on one side. I took a look and sure enough he had the tip on his left side broken. I sat there and watched him for about 5 minutes. I studied his behavior and demeanor. It was very clear he was in charge. When he approached the others cleared the way. I decided that as a hunter, my personal values are not in the headgear, but rather the animal itself. He was the dominant Eland and broken horn or not, I was going to put him on my wall. There was however one problem. The Eland had taken over the waterhole and pushed most the other animals to the outskirts. A Kudu had taken up residence 5 feet in front of the blind. Any movement we made was going to have to be coordinated and silent. My PH was running the video camera through one window and I had my bow waiting for a shot at the other window. The Eland decided he wanted to go to the other side of the waterhole. So, my PH and I had to make the stealthy switch. It was nerve racking, but we pulled it off. Then, the Eland decided to go back to the other side. Crap. Once again we did the silent dance to switch positions. Now that we were in our places we just needed the Eland to present a shot. I had the Eland I wanted to shoot quartering towards me and a younger Eland quartering away. I whispered to my PH, “If they switched places it would be perfect.” Well, I think they heard me because that is exactly what they did. The head Eland was standing at 18 yards slightly quartering away. All I needed was for him to move his front leg forward. As soon as he took that step I came to full draw, settled my pin and sent an arrow perfectly through his heart. He ran 60 yards, stood still for a few seconds and then fell over. The other Eland just stood next to him waiting. As if they didn’t know what to do without their leader. “Now is when the hard work begins”, said my PH. He was right. He called in for them to bring a trailer to make it easier to load him on. The good thing was they also brought more guys. In total there were 8 of us trying to load this beast and it was A LOT of work. Took us way too long and we broke a sweat. My wife enjoyed watching us struggle, but it resulted in a well-deserved beer or two.
After loading up the Eland we headed back to the lodge for a relaxing lunch and a quick power nap.
Once we were reenergized we headed out to a new blind. My PH told me this one might have Blesbok, Waterbuck and Zebra. So we settled in. About 30 minutes later I see a majestic Sable. Standing tall and proud it was a very impressive animal. However, it was as if he knew I couldn’t afford to shoot. He stood there for about 35 minutes, drinking water and just hanging out. Cool animal for sure. After he left we sat quietly for about 30 more minutes when I caught movement. It was a small animal I had never seen before in person. “Duiker” said my PH. Young male and female. Pretty cool to see these little animals. They were very skittish, drank quickly and left. We had young Impala, Kudu, Gemsbok, Warthog and Waterbuck (young) all come in to say hello. But we were looking for Zebra or Blesbok. The sun was already set and the light was fading fast. Wasn’t looking promising to get a double today. Either way, it was still a good day with a Monster Eland in the salt. Only thing that could have made it better was a zebra, but there was always tomorrow. My PH is just about to radio for the truck and decides to take one last look around. Then I heard the words that will stick with me forever….”don’t move….Zebra”. This time I wasn’t even going to look as it seemed like anytime I looked they turned and walked away. My PH was glassing them up and down, the entire group. Suddenly I see them at the waterhole. A few zebra and a few babies. I sat there patiently while my PH continued to look over the herd. I was getting very nervous as we barely had any light left and I knew that if he’d seen a shooter he would already have told me to get my bow. But he wasn’t saying anything, just continuing to look them over. I was positive he was going to tell me there wasn’t a shooter in the group. I knew we could take a mare, but only if she wasn’t nursing a young one. Unfortunately, I had seen plenty of young ones running around. My heart was slowly sinking as I finally had zebra in front of me and wasn’t going to be able to shoot one. Just when I was positive he was going to break the news to me he tells me there is one stallion who just came in to water. He pointed him out to me. He was quartering away but it was dark inside the blind and I had to turn on my sight light so I could see the pins. I drew back and released the arrow. I watched the blue lighted knock fly and hit him back. I was sick. I finally had my nemesis at 17 yards and I gut shot him. However, I did notice that my arrow did not pass through him. It had hit something on the far side and stopped. I watched as he ran off with the blue light still sticking out of him. I had shot a Gemsbok, Nyala and Eland all penetrated the far shoulder so I knew if I had shot this Zebra through the stomach that my arrow would have blown through him. But it didn’t, it stopped. My PH and I were talking about it and we felt it had to hit the far shoulder. So we got out of the blind and picked up the track. We found stomach fluid, but no blood. We followed the trail for about 20 yards and still no blood. It was dark. We decided the safe thing to do was back out and come back in the morning. If we jumped him tonight we might never find him. I hated it, but knew it was the right call. So we loaded back up and headed to camp. It was bitter sweet. My PH had told me he thought he heard the zebra making a noise they do when they are looking for one of their herd, but he wasn’t sure because the truck had just arrived at the time and was making noise. We were happy and celebrating because we were successful in finally having zebra in front of us and getting off a shot. Unfortunately we had to wait until morning to see how the story ended. It was a straight tequila night, with little sleep.
Day 7-
Well, after a long night, breakfast at 7:30 am. Then, pick up the zebra track and cross our fingers. We get back to the scene of the crime and quickly find the dried up stomach fluids. We follow them slowly. At about 40 yards I spot a drop of blood. Not a great sign, but better than stomach fluid. We continue to follow the tracks for about another 40 yards and then we see him. Dead and in one piece. He had run about 100 yards and died. We were correct in our assessment of the shot. Arrow did go in through stomach and hit far shoulder, making a puncture just behind the shoulder. It was an awesome sight. This thing was beautiful. He had almost zero shadow striping. His colors were very distinct. He was a very cool looking zebra. He will make a fine rug. We took a ton of pictures and loaded him up and took him to the skinning rack. Since it was now around 11am we decided to hang around camp, have a relaxing lunch and another nap before heading out for our afternoon hunt.
After a few beers and a nap in the sunshine we headed out to another blind. At this point I had shot all the animals on my main list so I wasn’t sure what to go after. We switched to the secondary list which consisted of a big Waterbuck, Blesbok and another Zebra. We saw lots of animals including another big Kudu and we passed on a decent Impala, but we did not see anything that made me want to draw my bow. So we headed back to the lodge to throw some meat on the grill and hit the tequila in celebration of the zebra.
Day 8-
Same routine, breakfast at 7:30 am then off to the blind. Since we had already taken care of the main list of animals we sort of downshifted gears a little bit and started to take it a little easier. We went out this morning hoping to get a Blesbok. The wind was good and we ended up having the busiest waterhole I’ve ever experienced. We had animals in front of us all morning. 5 young Waterbuck, 8 or so Kudu, a group of young impala, probably 20 warthog and about 25 wildebeest. They hung out all morning. Drank, ate then went off about 50 yards and bedded down for a while. Got up, drank some more, ate some more, back to bedding down. Animals were all over the place. Unfortunately no Blesbok. Since we were taking it easier today we did not bring lunch with us as we had planned to return to the lodge to eat. So the truck came to pick us up around 1pm. We had lunch, relaxed for about an hour, then headed back to the same blind. We saw many of the same animals come back in from the morning hunt. This time I had told my wife to bring her camera. She was nervous because her camera makes a “click” noise when she takes a picture but I told her not to worry since we weren’t hunting these animals. So, she got to experience some of the thrill of hunting. She does not hunt so when an animal comes in and I shoot it, she is sitting down filming me inside the blind. She has never experienced the thrill of standing up, getting in position and watching the animal. Today that would change. Today it was her turn to see the animals come in, stand up, get in position and shoot. The difference being she was “shooting” with her camera, but she got to experience getting into the shooting window and having to move slowly and quietly to get her shot. One time she got a little too close to the window and one of the animals spotted her and spooked. It was fun and she got some great pics. That’s how the day ended, with a beautiful South African sunset and great company.
Day 9-
Today we actually had breakfast a little earlier, around 7 am. We were going to head to a different property that was about a 45 minute drive. We were going to hunt harder today. The property didn’t have as many animals as some of the others we hunted but the animals that were there were supposed to be really nice. We were hoping for a good Waterbuck. After we arrived at the property and spoke with the landowner, he said the wind was wrong for the blind my PH wanted to hunt. Today the wind was not playing nice. It was not only coming from the wrong direction, but it kept swirling and changing directions. So, we headed to a waterhole that had two blinds, one on each side. So, we settled in the pit blind as that was best for the predominant wind direction. It became clear early on in the hunt that today would be a challenge. We had a Steinbuck come in but winded us and took off. We could hear a Kudu bark about 40 yards out and we had warthog spook while trying to come to water. Around 11 am we had a group of Impala come to the edge of the bush wanted to come to the waterhole. There was a good shooter in the group. They stood on the edge of the bush for about 3 minutes. The wind shifted and they were gone. By this time it seems as if the wind had mainly changed directions on us so we packed up and moved to the blind on the other side of the water. We sat there, had lunch and waited. We were in that blind for about 2 hours when it seemed like the wind was mostly coming from the other direction. It was a tough call. It seemed like the split in wind direction was 45% one way and 55% the other. We decided to move back to the other side. Once again, we packed everything up and snuck to the other side of the waterhole. At this point it was starting to get later in the day and with the sun going down the wind started to die down as well. We entered the last hour of daylight with a calmer wind and high hopes. We had an extremely old Gemsbok bull come in. He had the thickest horns I had ever seen on a Gemsbok, but they were short from being worn down over the years. His tail was dragging on the ground. Just an old beast. Then a very nice Kudu came in for a quick drink. And with about 45 minutes of daylight left we had 3 warthogs come in. Two female and one male. The male was a good shooter and we decided to take him. They fed around for about 15 minutes (felt longer) before he moved into position for a shot. I drew back and settled the pin and the arrow was on its way. I saw the arrow hit and it looked like I shot him in the leg by his elbow joint. I was disappointed and confused. My PH said it looked like a leg shot, but he could see blood on the bushes where he ran and it looked like good blood. We reviewed the video and sure enough it looked like I shot him in the leg. Since it was getting dark my PH snuck out to the spot to check and came back and said there was good blood. We decided to take up the track cautiously. I could see blood on both sides of the tracks, which was a good sign and it was steady, but we were both expecting to track him for a looooong ways and possibly have to make a follow up shot. We tracked him for about 80 yards and I look up and there he is dead. Arrow went right through his heart and both shoulders. It was weird but I think I benefited from some luck. The arrow did hit low, but I think when it hit the leg it deflected up and through the heart and out the other shoulder. Either way, I had a nice Warthog on the ground and was thankful. We loaded up and made the 45 minute drive back to camp. Another good day in the books.
Day 10-
Breakfast at 7:30 am then off to a new blind. Hoping to see Impala or Zebra. Wind was great but we settled in for the morning hunt. We had Nyala, warthog and Kudu come in first. Then we had 3 Eland come and stay a while. Nothing we were going to shoot. Saw some Impala at about 80 yards fighting and chasing each other, but never came in for a shot. Saw a couple monkeys, but no baboons. It was a pretty uneventful morning. We headed back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch we let my wife decide if we were going to hunt again in the afternoon or if we were going to go on a photo drive so she could take more pictures. She chose the photo drive so that’s what we did. My PH made a call to a landowner not very far away and told him we wanted to go on a photo drive. He said sure and we loaded up. His property was massive. We drove for miles and miles until we finally hit the Botswana border. He had Rhino and just about every game animal on this property. We saw a magnificent Kudu and a group of Giraffe. It was a good afternoon just looking at game animals. We stopped at sunset and had a few beers. Just another great day in South Africa.
Day 11-
Last day to hunt. You know the routine. Breakfast at 7:30 am. Then we headed out to a new blind. Wind was better but the morning was slow. Took a few hours for the animals to start moving. But slowly they started to show up. First was a Kudu, followed by a coup Nyala. They were eating and drinking when I saw a good size Impala stick his out from behind a bush at about 30 yards. Go to grab my bow and he decides he’s not thirsty. He turns and walks back through the bushes and feeds in the thick stuff for about 15 minutes until he’s out of sight. Oh well, back to waiting. The Nyala and kudu come and go several times. Around 11:30 am my PH tells me there’s a shooter Impala. He’s not very long, but he is thick and very old. That sounded good to me. I grab my bow and struggle to turn on my GoPro. I was focused on getting the camera turned on through my WiFi app so I wasn’t looking at the animal. Then my PH says, “He’s drinking”, but in a manner that was more like, “why aren’t you shooting him?” Just then I got the GoPro recording and looked up. Sure enough he was standing there slightly quartering to, just drinking away. I drew back and put the pin in the kill zone and launched the arrow. Arrow zipped right through him (never found it) and he jumped over the top of the bushes and was gone. We waited 20 minutes before taking up the track, but could see blood on the bushes from the blind. We get out and take up the track. This part of the property had the thickest bushes with nothing but thorns. Of course this Impala ran right through all of this. The weather was warm so we wearing shorts. Not fun. But, about 60 yards later, there he was. Double lung shot. He was a very old ram. Very thick. I had taken one on my previous trip that was much longer, but this guy has a massive body and the thickest horns on an Impala that I’d seen. He is a great trophy. We loaded him up and headed to the lodge for lunch.
Of course he had to run through the thickest thorn patch known to man.
After lunch we headed out for our last sit. We were going back to the blind where I shot the zebra in hopes of a Blesbok, Waterbuck or another zebra. We saw the Sable once again. Same routine. He just stood there broadside without a care in the world. We had Impala, Waterbuck, Gemsbok and even Cape Buffalo. We even had some crazy bird attacking the window of the blind. It was a good last hunt, but nothing we were looking to shoot.
We watched the sun set on this South African Safari with a little sadness, but mostly a big smile and a feeling of satisfaction in a very successful hunt. Can’t wait to get back. I now have a new list for 2017. Can’t wait to get started. Here are some additional pictures my wife took. Enjoy
Comment