Up at 6:15 a.m. -- breakfast at 7 a.m. -- scrambled eggs, 5 pound bread, banana, jelly -- let's go hunting!
Out to hunt at sunrise, and it is beautiful out today. Clear skies, few if any clouds, and wonderful cool air. No pollution, no noise other than that what we make. Namibia in the bush is a unique and marvelous place. We are headed out to the location we were at last evening when we saw a dozen springbok, 3-4 oryx, and about 5 blue wildebeest in a small valley. We drive to the same hill as yesterday and park in the same flat spot. We hike ever so slowly and silently up the rocky slopes to the top of torture rocks mountain to look out over the "valley of death". We see game as soon as we arrive on the top of the hill. Dax and Sigi are after a BIG kudu bull today. We see some kudu cows and calves. We see some oryx, some springbok, and way out there in the veld are some blue wildebeest. Yeah, Dax wants a blue wildebeest and Sigi has about 5 grazing in a small meadow about 1.5 kilometers away. I stay in place to guide them with hand signals while they drop off the hillside and into the 10 foot tall bushed up veld. They can walk to where the blue wildebeest are grazing and if they get confused or the wildebeest move I am in place to watch the game and give the hunters signals as to which way to go to intersect the wildebeest.
Sigi, the PH, and Dax work their way into the veld with hardly any sound and the wind is coming from the wildebeest to them so all is right for a stalk. As the hunters get closer to the game I loose sight of them even with my 10X40 binoculars. They have dropped down to crawl the last 200 to 300 yards and really sneak up on the wary wildebeest. I am waiting and watching the wildebeest still grazing in the small meadow for what seems like a very long time finally I hear a shot. A single shot and the sound of a bullet smacking meat. I know someone just made a great shot. I am sure it is Dax and he has never taken a wildebeest before so I am glad for him. The wildebeest run away from me and the hunters direction. I don't see any of them limping or any lagging behind. Could Dax have missed? No more shots and I still can't see the PH and my son. I decided to hike down to them and see the prize. I have marked my GPS with the location of the truck and if I get disoriented I will just walk back to the truck.
Once off the hill I am totally disoriented. I don't really know where Dax and the Sigi, the PH, are in the tall brush of the veld. I just kind of go on instinct and head toward the meadow I remembered seeing for so long with wildebeest grazing. I walk for what seems like a long way and can't seem to encounter the meadow. I yell loudly my son's name with no response. I turn to the right as maybe I have veered off course or walked too far. I walk another ways and yell again without response and then decide CRAP-O-RAMA, I am lost. Everything, every direction, seems to look just the same here submerged in the veld. I can see above me about 1.5 kilometers away the hill I was watching from but really the various landmarks visible from the hill top are gone to me now standing among them. I take out my GPS and start to walk back to the truck. I come up with an idea -- I will shoot a shot and they will yell or come to me to see if I have something down. I pick out a large tree about 50 yards away and take aim. I shoot a .338 Win. Mag. round into the smallest knot hole in the tree trunk and paralyze the tree instantly. {I wonder what the trophy fee is for an acacia tree?} Just as hoped Dax came to see me within 1 or 2 minutes and asked what I was shooting at. I told him I shot a tree and need to be un-lost. We walked together to where his wildebeest was down and took some photos. It was a nice one. Dax had done his usual great job and harvested it with just one round. He is a good shot at which I kind of am ticked. Dax doesn't practice shooting hardly at all and is really a good shot. I practice lots and try to be a good shot but end up occasionally providing "warning shots" as I did last evening at the springbok. {Sorry, I am off subject.} Dax took a nice wildebeest and the picture is below.
 |
| location 23º12.597' S 17º38.436' E |
Sigi sets to harassing me about the shot I took to get un-lost. I told him I had never taken an acacia tree and wanted to put one down. I explained how I had paralyzed it with one shot and he congratulated me and offered me a stick for my hat to show I was a successful hunter. Of course Dax already had his bloody stick in his hat as he was indeed a Waidmannshiel hunter. Sigi is really a great person and so fun to hunt with. Sigi had asked Dax if I ever got lost when hunting. Dax answered truthfully "yes, a little sometimes." {You can look up my other documented lost incident in my blog post in December 2008 when I lost my whole pickup truck in Wyoming while pronghorn hunting.}
We load the wildebeest and head back to the farm house. In route we see a very large trophy kudu bull on a hillside. We drive considerably away from the kudu bull and then stop the truck. Sigi thinks we can go after the trophy bull from our location and he won't expect us. We will have to hike up on a small mountain then ridge-line for about a kilometer back towards his location but we should be above the kudu we are after and we will be able to get a shot at him. Tobis, the tracker takes the truck and heads to the farm to process the wildebeest meat. We set out up the mountain. I am old and not in good physical shape both from laziness and from recent treatments of chemo-therapy and radiation-therapy. Dax and Sigi are 37 years old and seem to be jogging up the small mountain we are on. I tell them to go ahead and I will stay low and try to catch up as I am able. I promise to not get lost, and I will go to where we got off the truck with my GPS mark if I get close to being disoriented and I will not scare the kudu away. I have already "limited out" on acacia trees today. I gradually make my way up the mountain. I am on top but can't see Dax or Sigi. I walk the ridge-line to the east and glass a valley below. I see springbok, and oryx. No kudu. I decide to walk to the west and start on the ridge-line to the west. I hear a shot. I hear another shot. Both sound like they hit meat with that tell tale splat sound. I continue to the west and then see Sigi standing on a crest of the mountain west of me. I hurry over and he tells me Dax has an oryx down, supposedly, and there is a poacher on his farm he is going after. I am to go help Dax find the oryx he has down and wait for Sigi or Tobis to come pick it up. Sigi takes off. Dax and I meet just under the cusp of the top of the small mountain. He shows me the brush area where the oryx is supposedly down. We start the decent looking for oryx and that big kudu bull if possible. We get down on the valley floor and Dax tells me the oryx was at 309 yards from his shooting position. A do-able shot. We look around and I find the oryx laying behind a large bush. I call to Dax and he comes over. It is very dead. We congratulate each other lots. We set it up for some photos and I take them for Dax.
 | |||
| location 23º12.903' S 17º36.439' E |
No comments:
Post a Comment