The next morning it was near freezing as we headed to the hides. Our PH, Tetrius (Terry), Bobby and I sat together in a pit blind. It was my turn to shoot first being I'm a girl and all.
There was a HUGE baboon at his blind. They put out alfalfa, fruit, nuts and corn at the blinds.
The baboon started making his way in, I tried to draw, but it was a no go, way too cold for me with 55#s and given the room in which I had to draw. Rearrangements in the blind were made, so next time he came it, I would be able to draw back. The baboon came in again, quickly grabbed a square of alfalfa, tucked it under his arm like an old lady with her purse and took off, looking over his shoulder the whole time. I could not help but laugh out loud. I drew back on him 4 or 5 times, but could not get a shot off at him. The only sure shot I had was at 30 yards and I hesitated until my PH gave me the okay, but it was too late. We had some sow warthogs with babies come in and eat.
As I was looking out of the hide, I saw the Kudu bulls approaching. Two younger bulls, but my PH gave me the go ahead. I drew back, but they alligned each other and I did not want to take a chance. We also had a nice wildebeest bull there. Then a great Kudu bull came in, over 50". I decided to take him. We waited for him to get in position and he was about 18 yards. I knew my "Mary" arrow would not let me down. I drew and aimed a little lower than usual and let it go. The bull took off, but I knew that I had hit high. We followed blood for a ways. The tracking dog was unavailable at that time, so we decided to break for lunch and give him some time. Frustration!
After lunch, it was Bobby’s turn, not much happened that afternoon. We had the Wildebeest, but that was pretty much it. It was getting close to dark, so I started glassing and I spotted this reddish, yellow cat in a tree fork. Thinking it was probably a caracal, I asked our PH. He said it was a leopard. Gulp!! We sat for awhile longer and an Eland bull started making his way in. A huge bull, which is the main reason Bobby wanted to hunt Africa. It was too late for a shot, so we called it a night.
That evening we moved to the BJF Lodge. We enjoyed South African cuisine much of the time we were there. We even had a liver casserole for breakfast one morning. I did not realize how much cheese, yogurt and bacon were eaten in South Africa. Our chef prepared many delicious dishes. At the BJF Lodge, we also were able to order off of the Tye Restaurant menu, so we had a little taste of Americana on a couple of occasions, T-Bones and Spareribs.
The next morning we were put in a different blind.
We had baboons and a sow warthog with some little ones come in to eat.
The baboons are fun to watch. They have such human like characteristics. Some of the bigger ones kept picking on a smaller one and it put it’s head down and went to the side and sat down like it was pouting. Then we had the white rhinos, which are fun to watch for about 5 minutes. It take you that long to realize they are going to eat all of the food and they cannot be run off.
We also had a huge boar warthog come in after the rhinos left, but there was nothing to eat, so he left in a hurry. Bobby could never get a shot off because he never stopped.
The next day we sat at a Wooden Stick blind and saw two Egyptian geese. That is all we saw the entire day. Here is a pic of the PH and trackers setting out the food plots.
View from the Stick Blind~
The next morning, we were hunting a pit blind with Franz. He was a PH from the Calali Bush Lodge. He was staff for Tetrius and Karien. We had some young Impala show up.
There were two larger ones that passed through the area, but were out of my range. This was a very lucky little squirrel, as he came in during prime hunting time, so no shots were taken.
We had Warthogs and Wildebeest come in to eat.
We decided to sit all day, instead of breaking for lunch. We discovered a lot of game moves during this time. There were several animals eating and then everything scattered. Bobby looked out the side window and grabbed his bow. I knew it was either the Kudu or a mature boar warthog. First African game down.
Bobby and Franz
The young Impala and Wildebeest game back through later that evening, but the mature Impala were a no show.
Our group had been split up for a couple of nights. We were at three different lodges, hunting several different concessions. The next morning, Bobby and I packed for an overnight stay at the Badger Bush Lodge. It was about an hour and half from the BJF facility and the concession, which we would be hunting was about another hour after the lodge. It would give Bobby an opportunity to take an Eland.
On our drive there, we saw numerous people lining the roads selling their goods, fire wood, oranges, etc. They were just sitting on the side of the road. We saw people walking out in the middle of nowhere; in isolated fields, miles from any town. I assume they were walking to find work or food. We saw women carrying baskets on their heads and families in carts being pulled by mules. Some were walking to rural bus stops to catch a bus to work. In towns and cities, you saw razor wire at the top of many fences and yards, along with other security methods for keeping people out.