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The plan was the same for today. I'd hunt a waterhole while Dries and Ben checked the baits. If something hit -they'd call me.

My two objectives for plains game animals were gemsbok and zebra.  On my first trip to Africa I had killed many of the major plains game species otherwise you'd be seeing a lot more "hero" shots.

Dries has a spot that held pretty good promise for zebra (anyone who knows Africa realizes that zebra are very difficult to get at a waterhole).  It is an elevated blind overlooking a natural waterhole made out of rocks. I could tell right away that the area would be enticing for the zebra since it was more open than the other waterholes I'd seen.

I saw many animals here, including warthogs, waterbuck bulls, a big gemsbok who winded me, and a nice kudu bull that appeared out of nowhere and gave me several opportunities to shoot him.  I passed up on all of these animals waiting for a zebra. Unfortunately the zebra never came.

I got a call from Dries after lunch. The female leopard fed again, but nothing hit at the river.  This made me nervous given he was onto us (remember the tracks next to the blind?).  But Dries remained confident that he'd be back and assumed that he had caught something and was busy with that.  We discussed setting up a 3^rd bait as an insurance policy.  The trip was now ½ over and we had no male consistently on bait.

When Dries got back to the ranch, he swung by to pick me up and try a different spot.  He suggested a radical approach for zebra. It was a two-treestand set up over a game trail. They had placed some alfalfa here but there was no waterhole.  It was different to be sitting in a treestand in Africa.  From the stand I could see all sorts of critters moving in and out of the bush.  Unfortunately, no zebra or wildebeest came in.