The view from Farpost...
Again, Farpost is an elevated blind, roughly 20yds from the closest edge of the water & specifically placed with bowhunters (& more recently modified to better serve we traditionalists) in mind. Soon we were at a horrendous score of;
Guinneafowl 5 - Rob 0
Many choice words & heathen invectives were launched Guinnea-wards that afternoon!
Gert has a simple rule regarding guinneas; If you want to shoot nothing but fowl, that's fine. If you want to shoot anything else, stop playing with the birds at 2:30 & let them bring other stuff into the water. Wise words indeed.(from the lanky wingnut
)
Right on cue (2:30) we had a group of 3 Black Wildebeest spotted at 300yds & hopefully making their way to us. A half hour later, seven Black Wildebeest & a small, 30" or so Gemsbok came in to the water. There was a little to-ing & fro-ing between the Big Bull Wildebeest & the Gemsbok. Very cool to watch, but not too calming fro the rest of the herd! Both animals came to a grudging truce, with the Wildebeest giving me a excellent 28yd broadside shot. I took it. It was pure poetry. The pink fletched, Magnus tipped shaft whipping toward the perfect heart/lung placement & giving a swift, dignified & honourable end to this noble Patriarch....
Unfortuntely, the sodding thing wasn't there when the arrow landed :mad: It had performed an end-switch that would have left the most gunshy Texas Whitetail wondering what was going on & got itself skewered in the ass. Luckily this wasn't videoed as nobody wants to see a 'Gnusickle' Despite the 'Bum' shot, there was a LOT of blood coming from the Bull & Gert & I both agreed that it looked like a lucky femoral artery shot (2 of 3, remember) We elected to leave it an hour & go see what had happened...
Much hand-wringing & nail-gnawing later (This is a $1000 trophy fee animal, & a bloody good specimin!) we jumped down from the stand & made a start finding his spoor. There was good, if sporadic, blood leading us into an acacia thicket. We unfortunately bumped the Bull right at sunset, with the sun in our eyes, preventing a follow up arrow, or rifle shot from Gert (Which I'd told him to take, if he got the chance.)
The only cool part of the whole stalk being that we managed to get very upclose & personal with a herd of Giraffe, without even realising it! How in God's name do you NOT see a 18' tall Giraffe, standing 20yds away! Honestly :rolleyes:
We decided that the best course of action was to retire for the night & come back in the morning with a couple of Bushmen.
We drove back down to Mittelpost & found Andy looking as sick as a dog. It turned out that he'd shot his Buck Dik-Dik at 18yds & it had jumped, spun & run off, leaving virtually no track, little spoor & very bad blood.
If you can imagine for a moment, a Dik-Dik is tiny. I mean Rabbit-size tiny. A HUGE, old buck
may weigh as much as 9 pounds. It has feet the size of your pinky fingernail.
Andy shot it with a 500gn, Silverflame tipped carbon shaft from a
90# Bowtech (300fps, minimum) & it
still managed to jump the string. Now Andy is one of the finest field archers in England & if says he was certain of the hit, then you can bet he's right. He'd tracked the animal, along with Tokis until it was too dark to see & decided the same as Gert & I, to back out a return in the morning...
I don't recall much of the drive back to camp, or indeed that night. Andy & I were sharing a rondavel & spent the entire night either awake & feeling sick with worry, on in a fitful, nightmare laden sleep. Andy probably more so than I, knowing that his Dik-Dik (another $1000 trophy) could be easily carried off & eaten at leisure by any number of nocturnal carnivores; Jackal, Spotted & Brown hyena, Aardwolf, Civets, Caracal, Leopard & Cheetah. All are in residence. Not a feat so easily managed by my Wildebeest.
We anxiously awaited the dawn.
Topic: Back from Namibia (Finally finished!) (Read 7997 times)
