Hunting The Moyowosi 2008

Part II

Paul Olivier, one of the PHs we had this year, showed us what he wears in the bush! So those of you who ask questions on what footwear one should have, here is your answer. Paul worked very hard, and had a great sense of humor too. It came in handy when we got stuck in the mud ahead of him, and he bravely announced "ha ha ha they are STUCK1 I will show you how to get through this muck" Less than a minute later he was well and truly in it! He got stuck so deep WE had to drag him out. Trouble is, as usual, someone had a camera and recorded him on video. And we were so happy to play it for him later in the day.

Alan is glassing that green built you see at the top of the photo. It is an endless stretch of whistling thorn, and a herd of zebra was feeding in it. We were trying to see how we get close to them

As luck would have it, Dale was in a plane doing a game count. The plane passed close to us twice, and each time it did, the zebra stopped feeding and looked up at it. This in turn gave us the chance to shorten the distance between us, and I managed to put a bullet in this zebra as he walked away. He ran a few yards and dropped dead.

One of the many beautiful flowers we saw this year

One line for drying the laundry, and one for drying the meat for biltong.

If you look carefully, you will see 3 tents under the trees. One is under the big tree to the right, another one is just left of center, and one is between the two palm trees to the left.

A few photos of the inside of my tent.

Our mess tent. Food and drinks are available throughout the day. All one has to do is just ask.

You will notice a very varied country we hunted this year

Again, Walter was complaining he wanted another BBQ, so this kongoni provided it.

A family of pigs running ahead of us on th road

We have not seen a sable until today. earlier in the morning, we found the tracks of a bull, and we tried following it. He got into some rocky area, which made following impossible. So we left him and went looking for something else. After lunch we shot that kongoni you see above, then on the drive back to camp we jumped this old bull on the road. I jumped out and fired a shot at him. He ran a few yards, dropped, then stood up. I fired another shot at him to finish him off.

The Chilean pair getting ready to cook the BBQ. Rene Vincent is keeping a close eye on the proceedings, and Roy is cooling off with a wet towel

You can see Walter at the fire place tending the BBQ. It was a beautiful day, just before sun down

As the time progressed, Walter likes to get closer and closer to the meat. Dwight never stopped being amused at what Walter gets up to, and as it would have taken a few beers to get Walter up to baste the meat, Rene decided to help him

Deliciously done. None of knew what awaits us on the next BBQ!

Leoni was selected by Walter to do the carving. He said he did not trust any of us, after I cut a small piece and put it in my mouth!

A strange visitor to our BBQ

We took the meat off the BBQ steel rod, and left them at the fire place. While we were having our dinner, the hyaenas decided to take that rod into the bush and lick it. Above you see Alan, Paul and Nelson geting a surprise as they went to look for it. We found it about 500 meters from the camp

Roy is trying to found an eland we saw running into the bush. Walter saw it twice, so he insisted that they were two eland bulls. Paul and Dwight were ahead of us in their truck, and saw some the eland and some zebra. Dwight was after a zebra, so we all went to look. If we found the zebra, Dwight would continue the hunt. If we found an eland bull, we would continue the hunt. About half a mile after, we saw an eland bull. So Dwight and Paul got back to their truck, and went off after zebra. Roy, Alan, myself, our two trackers and game scout, continued after the eland. The wind was marginal, but we think the eland could see us and kept his distance. We found him in this grassy area with some trees and palms, then he went into an open area that stretched for miles and miles with just grass. Some was very long, and some parts were burnt, so affording no cover whatsoever. As the eland got into the grass, he turn right. This was great, as the wind was more favorable for us now. The tree line was several miles away in that direction, and we thought that is wherer he would head, and stop under the trees once he gets there. Roy got onto that ant hill as you can see, and saw the eland over a mile away. He actually turned back into the trees from which we first followed him. We got back into the grass, and tried getting closer. We got as far as the end of the long grass. That still left us several hundred yards away from the eland. Alan said let us just crawl in the open, and see what happens. We crawled, the eland was looking at us. Then we decided to just walk towards him. A few yards further, Alan put the shooting sticks up, saying "you have to aim a bit high". The eland looked very small through the 8 power scope. He was almost broadside, slightly angling towards us. I aimed above his back and fired. He took a jump, lowering his head as the bullet got to him, and ran off. We ran after him, and saw him walking slowly a a bit further, and I put another bullet into him from the rear. He dropped, and as he was still alive, I shot him in the neck. We found my first bullet had hit him in th shoulder, angling backwards. We also discovered a strange phenomenon about our Walter hog bullets. Both shots, the one at about 400 yards, and one at less than 100, broke the petals off about 6 inches after getting into him. The petals going in different directions, almost exciting the skin.

You can see the entry hole beloe, and one petal can be seen clearly in the upper hole.

The long grass that hid us from the eland

A storm is brewing. Normally happened every evening just before sun down

Lunch time Alan said we would head towards the "islands" looking for waterbuck. Walter said he would join us, as he "loves islands". As we got to the islands, the green patches you see at the top of the photo - Walter got very upset. "This is false advertising! You said we were going to an island. An island to me has nice sandy beaches, with palms trees and beautiful women lying naked! Here all we are getting is bitten to death by mosquitoes, and now you tell me you can see poachers there! I am going to complain about this" Alan said "Saeed is there, complain to him. He wants to shoot a waterbuck. That is why we came here" Walter said "Ima not going to complain to Saeed. He is just as crazy as you and your father. I am going to complain to the boss in the camp" I said "Fine, you can complain to Leoni, and tell her you would rather have Alan take you to a beach full of naked women. I am sure she would appreciate it". Walter said "This is all a bloody conspiracy! Everything is stacked against me. I don't know I even bother to come" Alan said "You must be a glutton for punishment, you come again and again every year" I said "If you don't want to come next year, that is fine by me" Walter said "You all NEED me! None of you would have as much fun if I did not come here"

A beautiful African sunset

Ready for dinner

This was Nelson's 62nd birthday, and a cake was prepared for the occasion. Poor Nelson, he was over come with emotions, and tears of joy were flooding his eyes.

In the morning we drove around looking for buffalo. And we came across this bush buck feeding at the edge of the reeds.

Nelson and Paul, wishing us good luck as we left in the morning. Notice how clean they both are. At the end of the day, they would look quite a bit different

This is the famous reedbuck! The one Walter forgot to BBQ. Instead cooking the leopard bait!

This our second camp, named The Fish Eagle Camp.