Day 10
Monday, July 28th. Last day. Trying to keep a positive attitude. I’m satisfied with the two animals that I have, but yesterday’s depressing experience with the bull nyala was still heavy on my mind. Terry and Tina had earlier sat in the blind that I was going to occupy today - an elevated stand (about 12 ft) overlooking a small waterhole - and they assured me that they had seen a lot of animals, including nyala. As we drove out, the fields off to our left were absolutely lousy with impala, all racing around and crossing the road in front of us. Many very nice rams!
Once again, the wind started out variable. The first animals to appear were a sow warthog, followed by 5 or so gemsbok, slowly heading towards the waterhole in single file. Maybe my luck was about to change! The first 3 or 4 were clearly cows (thus off limits), but the 4th animal in line was a nice bull. Unfortunately, as this species (like zebra) is known to do, they all stopped and appeared to rethink the whole matter of continuing on to water. Don’t know if they winded me or not, but after 30 or so minutes, they drifted back into the bush. Hopefully they would return. Warthogs were continually approaching, including one very nice boar, however they would spook, circle, spook again, then leave. Although they were not necessarily coming in from downwind, if the wind shifted at all as they approached (which it did), they got very nervous and refused to come closer. After circling to approach from another direction, the whole process would repeat itself. Frustrating!
About 11:30 a big cow eland with one ear missing (ticks) and one deformed horn came to drink. After she left I sat back in my chair and started enjoying the moment. High noon, an nyala bull appeared almost as out of nowhere from beyond the far end of the waterhole. It took only a brief glance to confirm that he was a shooter! As I nocked an arrow and moved to the shooting window on the other side of the blind, he began to drink broadside at 18 yards. The arrow zipped through him in what was clearly a double-lung shot, hitting a rock and bouncing back under the bull towards the blind. He was gone in a split second. I could see that the arrow was covered in bright pink blood, and realized that I finally had my nyala. He went approximately 200 yards.
I climbed back into the blind around 12:50, after Neil and the tracker left with my nyala. I hear zebra braying in the distance behind me. These never showed, but shortly afterwards a large warthog approached from my right, but got nervous and left as the others had all done earlier. He repeated this a time or two. Looked like a warthog was not in my immediate future. A few kudu cows and a young bull visited the salt block, and warthogs continued to spook. At 2:20 a movement to the right caught my eye: it was the big warthog, and this time he was marching straight in. He stopped once or twice briefly in front of the blind, then proceeded to the waterhole to drink, not at the farthest point from the blind, but at the front of the waterhole and broadside to me! I got to the shooting window on the other side of the blind at about the same time that he started to drink. The 14-yard shoot looked low, and in fact I thought I missed him with all of the noise of arrow hitting rock and stone. He was gone in a flash. The arrow was laying several feet beyond where he had stood, and was covered with blood. I assumed that I had pierced his brisket, but upon examination of the arrow it was clear that it had passed through his lungs! The blood trail was immediate and profuse – gotta love those Woodsman BHs!!!
The last thing Stewart said to me before I climbed back into the blind - AGAIN - was that gemsbok often will return. However, with the exception of the return of the kudu cows and bull that had hit the salt block earlier, and a sow warthog with 3 little ones, the rest of the afternoon was quiet. At 5:15 I heard (big) animals approaching from behind me. Thinking that it might be the zebras I had heard earlier, I got ready. To my surprise, I was soon surrounded by at least 15 Cape buffalo. They entertained me for the next 40 minutes, leaving as the sun set and the sound of the approaching Land Cruiser grew louder.
What a day, and what a way to end a hunt of a lifetime!
Hope you all enjoyed.
Topic: 08 Melorani Reports (Read 5061 times)
