Gene's Day - Up at five, a quick breakfast and on the road by six. Lee came along again this morning and we headed back to the same property as yesterday afternoon. It was quiet when we arrived so Hans and I jumped off the truck shortly after 7 and did a sneak through the brush for 45 minutes. Nothing happening there so we jumped back on the truck and started cruising again. However, we did manage to spot a young kudu bull and two immature nyala bulls in the next little while.

The vegetation on this property is very thick and the big problem we were having was that due to all the unseasonal rain last month everything is still lush and green. Normally, the leaves would have already dropped. Not so this year.

At about 9:30 Han's and I attempted another sneak, this time on a waterbuck Hans had spotted while we were driving. The wind kept shifting so the buck was taking us in circles, but we did manage to get close enough to him at one point to see that he was decent. We finally had to give up though because he was just keeping far enough ahead of us so we couldn't get another decent look at him.

Back on the truck again we hadn't gone 20 yards when we spotted him standing in the trees at about 150 yards or so. We had time to set me up, but when I shot I missed because I believe I just didn't have a good enough sight line on him. Even so, we did spend the better part of 45 minutes looking for signs of a hit. There were none so we started back towards the entrance of the property and out.

Thinking about the missed shot on the ride back to camp, a little something came to mind that Harold's Professional Hunter Pieter told him on their first day of hunting together. PH Pieter told Harold that when you miss, it's usually "the dick behind the stick" and it's seldom the rifle. I don't think I missed because of the rifle.

When we arrived back at camp at noon, we learned that Harold had shot his impala. Brian also had bagged an impala, and both Rod and Quentin downed very nice waterbucks. Again, a successful morning for the camp.

    
    
    
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At 2:30 in the afternoon Hans, Freckie and I went to the same concession as the morning looking for kudu or waterbuck. At 3:15 we did find a waterbuck alongside the river but he was on the small side so we passed him up. Shortly after that waterbuck sighting, about 40 vervet monkeys came flying out of the bush and across the trail in front of us. Biggest bunch of monkeys I've seen in one group since we arrived in Africa.

Shortly after 3:30, Rod and Johan pulled up behind us and informed us we were in the wrong concession. The only problem was that no one had bothered to inform Hans of any changes before we left for the afternoon hunt. No problem, we just headed over to the concession where I had shot my impala yesterday.

The first thing we saw when we pulled in was an impala buck totally demolishing a clump of trees with his horns. Then, a little further on we came across a monster nyala lying under some low trees but he was across the fence in the next concession. Next we herded a very nice waterbuck down the trail 20 yards ahead of us for a few hundred yards. We let him go though because one of his horn tips was broken off.

As we continued down the trails we rustled up three ostriches, another big nyala buck riding herd on several does, a lone nyala buck, a very good sized eland bull and a nice blue wildebeest. I didn't attempt to take anything but had a great afternoon with all the animal sightings.

When we got back to camp, we learned that both Harold and Quentin had scored on blesbok. Quentin and Cruiser Bob had taken warthogs and Leesa had dropped a big zebra. Another busy night in the skinning shed.

Harold's Day - Harold took a very nice impala during the morning hunt and a record book blesbok in the afternoon.

    
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Back At The Ranch - Supper was again excellent with roast eland and roast pumpkin fritters. Have to leave at 5:45 in the morning as we were going to be travelling a fair distance for kudu so I called it an early night at 9:30.

      
      
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