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DAY 7

Mick wanted to change things up a bit for today so we hiked a mile to a waterhole surrounded by a rock covered hillside. When we got there it was breathtaking. We climbed to the top of the mountain to film buffalo cows swimming in the waterhole. As we sat there more buffalo showed up and for almost an hour straight we watched at least 20 buffalo come and go. No shooters, however.

The bird life was as amazing. We watched sea eagles, ibis, snakeneck shags, hawks, jabiru, and tons of ducks and geese.

We stayed there until the buffalo left and then climbed down the mountain to see where the buffalo were heading. Before we got 100 yards Mick heard a noise and stopped. Pigs!

Patrick narrowly missed this hog in the tall grass. It came out to see what was shooting at it before it trotted off.

The hunt was on!  Pat Jr. and Mick stalked the first boar. It moved in and out of the swampy grass as they slipped closer to it. Pat drew his bow and shot low - the arrow disappeared in the grass. The boar came right at them, stopped, then ran off into the trees.

pat and mick find another, larger boar and put the stalk on it. Pat makes a perfect heart shot and the boar dies within sight!

Mick and Pat moved on another boar as I stayed back with the camera. This boar was huge and they snuck up to within 20 yards in their bare feet. The hogs were about as dumb as they come. It was quite the experience to hunt truly wild pigs in the swamps of Australia. Pat and Mick moved in on the largest pig and Pat hammered him with a perfect heart shot.

The boar came screaming out of the swamp and ran at me before dropping dead next to a tree. I turned to the camera on Pat who had a big smile on his face.

A half hour later Patrick made a one lung hit on another big boar and stalked him again for a finishing shot.

A third hog is stalked and shot. Pat Jr. has two hogs down and both are huge!

In all the excitement we failed to realize that our legs and ankles were covered with leeches. It was far better we hadn't known. When I removed mine my ankle bled for 30 minutes.

Good thing we didn't realize that our legs and ankles were being fed on by leeches.

It was quite the morning with two big hogs running close to 300 pounds each on the ground. I had heard how much fun pig hunting is in Australia and was thrilled Pat got to shoot. I hope we find some hogs again.

We came back late and Mick noticed smoke from forest fires. We took his quad out to check them. Patrick stayed behind to try for a Barramundi next to camp.

We hadn't gone far when we saw the glow of fires all around us. Someone lit grass fires in the meadows to the west of camp. It was quite a scene. Fires are set by Aborigines to make room for green grass and to control the brush. There is not a soul out here so having the fires so close to us remained a mystery.

Fires burned all around us. These were set fires, likely by the aborigines.

We headed back and picked up Patrick on the Quad to show him the fires. It was an eerie feeling seeing watching the glow of the burning meadows light up the night sky.