Day 8


As our PH put it, we had our cake, now all we needed was the icing and the cherry on top.
We had basically bagged all the animals we had come for and we still had a few days left. The pressure was off and as Jeff said, anything from here on out would be icing on the cake. After a nice breakfast washed down with several cups of good coffee, we hopped into the rover and headed for the hills.

This is my view from the back of the hunting rig.

We sit quite a bit higher than the driver.

Kyle sitting directly across from me, gun at the ready.

These zebra appeared out of thin air when spooked from the sound of the rover.

These creatures are eland. They are some of the largest animals in Africa. The trio pictured here are cows (and they are the size of real cows). The bulls are at least a third larger.

In Africa, you don't have to go far to find trouble, and sometimes trouble finds you. Case in point is pictured below. This is a cape buffalo and it is known to the natives as Mbogo. They are VERY large and have a VERY bad temper. They are known to big game hunters as "Black Death" or "Widowmaker" and one would be advised to give them a very wide berth. In Africa there is what is referred to as the "Big Five". These are the five most dangerous animals on the continent and consist of the elephant, black rino, cape buffalo, lion, and leopard. Several hundred people are killed by the cape buffalo every year and when wounded, they tend to head for heavy cover, circle back on their tracks and wait in ambush for the unlucky hunter that did not make a clean kill.

It was mid afternoon when we happened across a grey duiker while driving a two track road in the rover. The animal ran in and out of heavy cover and would show itself briefly for a moment at a time. I readied my rifle and as our driver slowly moved the truck forward I spotted him in the low hanging branches of an acacia tree. I took the shot and it felt good. I was sensing some doubt from my hunting partner and the rest of the hunting party. We all went for a 100 yard walk to check it out and our tracker instantly found blood and then within 20 yards,the duiker. A grey duiker (duiker comes from the Dutch word "diver" for the way the animals dive in-and-out of the bushes) is a small deer-like animal. This one is fully grown and i'm told will most likely make the record books.

Later in the day, after a fine lunch we head out for what will be our last day of hunting. We are still looking for a couple of really big warthogs, but know our chances are slowly fading away. As we drive through the bush we spot hogs! We shoot a few smaller hogs that are doing damage to the landscape and then out of the corner of my eye I spot a bruiser of a pig. It's choppers can clearly be seen at 200 yards. I swung my rifle and fired while kyle rolled video. The shot was good and the big hog went down! Within 30 minutes another large hog is spotted and this time the gun is handed to Kyle who quickly puts him down!

We have two giant wallhangers in the back of the rover within 30 minutes. The gods of the hunt are smiling upon us. We have just put the cherries on the cake.

This is video footage of one of the big warthogs pictured above. I used a 300 Win. Mag. and the distance was about 150-180 yards.