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Frustrating. That was the only word I could describe for today which was technically the last day of my hunt. But I extended the hunt 2 additional days. No thanks to South African Airways. They would not let me adjust my tickets and I had to purchase a $1500 one way flight. Ouch! We could not make heads or tales of the buffalo tracks. And to make matters worse, he headed into the mountains which, we’ve determined, is the worst place to stalk him. Making out the tracks between rocks is extremely difficult. You may have one print in 10 steps. Contrast that with the sand where you have every print, or the grasslands where you have maybe every other, or every third print.
In addition, there are brushy trees in the mountains that are everywhere. Under them are these little yellow leaves that are bone dry and sound like little firecrackers when you step on them. We really didn’t know exactly where the buffalo went, but we took up his track anyway at 3PM, basically because it was all we could do. We did get on the right track and we jumped the bull just before dark. But it was a hopeless situation with zero chance for success. We tracked him down the valley until it was too late to make out his prints any longer. Everyone is pretty down and frustrated. I told Jimmy and Linda that I was losing confidence in our tactics. Nobody’s fault when the buffalo goes into the mountains. This is like stalking deer in their daytime beds back home. Only there is one old, smart deer and you spend all day figuring out the general vicinity of his bedding area, then you have to track him to his bed on dry maple leaves. With this bull, I’d give us a 5-10% chance that we’ll find him before he detects us. So far the only time we’ve had a shot was yesterday and that was because he made a huge mistake of bedding close to the dirt road. We hoped to find a situation like that today but he wasn’t going to oblige us. Even if we do see him first, getting a shot in the thickets that he buries himself in is yet one more challenge. This animal is completely nocturnal. He never walks during daylight. Killing him will take a miracle at this point. I am losing hope.
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Our Professional Hunters for this safari is: Madiakgama Safaris |
