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I listened to howling winds all night long. At one point I felt the little chalet I was sleeping in was going to lose its’ roof! But while I certainly did not wish to see any harm come to Rocco’s spectacular property, I couldn’t help but get excited because this wind is what we’ve been waiting for.
We met at our usual time – 5:30 AM and everyone was in the same spirit. Today was the day. We hit the roads earlier than normal and started to identify tracks. We narrowed them down to three. One was a bull that had crossed the road near a watering hole – it was definitely fresh. The others were two fresh tracks leading into a thicket on the south side. All three were good options, but one bull is always better than two for a bow stalk. That was our target. We took up the track at 7:30 AM.
By 9:00 AM all winds ceased. It was dead quiet – again. We are growing increasingly more irritated. There is nothing worse than deflated expectations. By 9:20 AM the buffalo was crashing away. I never saw him, Jacques and Coleman did – he was apparently a nice one. Watch a narration starting at dawn and ending at 9:30 AM (6mb) The ground is very dry with little yellow leaves that are curled up and crunch with every step. Add to that the dry leaves hanging from branches or the prickers that catch every thread of your clothing – not to mention the birds that give you away - and you get the idea. How we are ever going to get close enough to arrow a bedded buffalo in these conditions is beyond me. We need wind or retarded buffalo. We backed off from that bull and tried the other two bulls. But as we made our way on their track I told Jacques, this is crazy. He agreed, and we headed back to the truck. We got a very quick bite and we went back to the bull we jumped and took up his track around noon. At 6:17 PM we reached a road, it was just about black by this time. We had tracked that buffalo for nearly 4 miles and never caught up to him. Final narration describing our frustrating day (4mb) Jacques, Jimmy and I discussed this hunt over dinner. We find ourselves with a growing anxiety about how this hunt is turning out. Seems we've been here before. Another thing looming over me is that we are literally bordering Kruger National Park and my (our) hope was that we'd have a buffalo on the ground and could spend 2-3 days visiting South Africa's most valued treasure. The dilemma becomes whether I should give up valuable hunting days to visit the park or put everything on the buffalo and when I kill one - head for the park then. We're going to play it by ear. Unfortunately, there is no more wind. Everything is still once again. |
Our Professional Hunters for this safari is: Madiakgama Safaris |
