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I’m still on US time so my alarm went off (in my head) at 1:30AM. I had laid awake all night trying to get back to sleep. I know I went down again sometime between 4 and 5, unfortunately my wake up knock came at 5 so I am dreadfully tired. I hate jet lag. I got dressed and along with Jimmy and Jacques, headed to the main entrance to Rocco’s property. It was then that we met our Professional Hunter from the property. Coleman had been here for three years and although he was just 23, he impressed Jacques and I immediately. Coleman will be working alongside Jacques on this hunt. Both are PHs’ and both are skilled trackers and hunters.
Coleman was the first to spot buffalo spoor from the truck. I could tell this was going to be much different from last years’ hunt already. Coleman jumped out of the truck and said we’re on foot from now own. See you guys at lunch or dinner. Whoa! These guys were definitely going to hunt me the hard way and I had no problem with that. We hit the trail and by 10 AM had followed an old Duggaboy’s track to where he met up with a 2 nd bull, joined a small herd, broke off from the herd, and headed along a dry riverbed. Coleman was amazing and could follow that big buffalo’s track as if it was spray painted blaze orange. I’ve pretty much given up trying to figure out what they are looking at as it basically gives me a headache. Now I just defer to their expertise and follow them dutifully as a tagalong. We started to lose the track around 10:30AM so we took a break and decided to back off and pick it up from this spot in the afternoon. Coleman had a pretty good idea where they were headed and the late morning winds were getting flaky. So we walked a mile or so back to the dirt road and radioed for Jimmy and Rocco to pick us up.
As we were waiting, we started playing a game. It started with Jacques, he picked out a large tree and asked me how far I thought it was. “Fifty” I said. “No way” Jacques joked so I pulled out my range finder and sure enough it was 38 yards. So then I picked out a landmark and gave Jacques and Coleman a guess. Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Two respectively they said. I guessed 25. Coleman got it dead on. By the end of the half hour we had pretty much ranged every freaking twig, rock and blade of grass within 80 yards of us. If a buffalo walked by he was dead meat. After a nice brunch and a power knap, we were back on the trail of those two buffalo. We decided to sort out the trail first to see if the bulls had crossed the road. They had not, and while driving Coleman spotted the flick of a tail a hundred yards through the thickets. It was a buffalo, and it was in the right place for it to be our buffalo from this morning. So we drove a half-mile, jumped off the truck and began working our way downwind of the buffalo. We walked along a dry riverbed and up the opposite side. Then Coleman motioned – there they were. Two bulls were bedded on the opposite hillside out in the thick cover. We huddled to plan our approach, then we moved quietly down into the dry riverbank and up the other side. Coleman spotted the bulls and called Jacques over to look at the scene. They spent 10 minutes discussing before Jacques came back down to me.
The bulls are close, 30 yards, and they have no idea we’re here. This may end quickly. He said as I handed him the video camera and moved with deathly slow movements up the bank to look things over. There they were – only they were more like 25 yards (we still need more practice ranging). The bull was not in a good position for a shot, he was facing us but off on an angle. No shot, especially for a Cape Buffalo. We had two hours so the plan was for me to get on my knees and begin inching to the bull. I wanted my self-imposed 20-yard shot and was confident I could close that 5 yard gap to get it. If I couldn’t I was extremely accurate to 30 yards and could make that shot if I absolutely had to. But as we were just getting ready to exchange a bow for binoculars, we heard crashing from back at the creek. It sounded large, like another buffalo was coming, and we weren’t the only ones who heard it. The big bull on the right heard it too and jumped to his feet. If only I was in position with my bow – game over! But I wasn’t so we all just froze and waited to see what he was going to do next.
The crashing grew louder and the big bull ran off, prompting the smaller bull to jump up and go with him. Attention turned to our left as a Kudu emerged from the thickets and made his way in front of us where the buffalo had just been. We were so close, but we were all pretty stoked. This was day 1 and we’ve already had a tremendous stalk and opportunity. But nobody was more excited than Coleman – he had never stalked a buffalo that close before and he liked it – a lot! Watch the entire scene as filmed in HD (12mb, 3 mins). You see, as happens many times, this property caters exclusively to rifle hunters. While they were certainly open to bowhunting, I had to basically send them my resume with references before they would allow it. Even after we arrived, the sentiment was pretty discouraging. The PHs and owner did not have high hopes for a successful bowhunt, but Jacques and I were pretty confident. Now Coleman was confident too and we figured out right on day 1 that we were going to work excellent as a team. When we met Jimmy and Rocco after our stalk they were shocked we got so close, and we had video footage to prove it too! I even video’d that stupid kudu bull that blew the setup for us simply because nobody would believe me. The PHs are still skeptical, however we’re not. This is going to be fun.
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Our Professional Hunters for this safari is: Madiakgama Safaris |
