Oh, go on then. Since you asked nicely!
We managed to get a bit of a lie-in on the Sunday morning. There's no point trying to follow blood & spoor in the dark.
By 09:00 we were back at Sophienhoff. Andy, Gert, Tokis, Timu, Sarel & I. We decided that as my Wildebeest
should be easier to recover, Andy & Tokis would stay & try & find his Dik-Dik while th rest of us would quickly run off & grab my Bull. Well, Gert (the big lug) told me to pack very light, just bringing my bow, arrows & water & ready myself for a day-long hike. So no camera then. Bugger.
I'd taken a GPS locationof the last blood we'd found the previous evening. Huge waste of time. The trackers, with neither prompt nor direction, wandered straight out into the bush & straight into the bloodtrail. Honestly, I'd never have believed it if I hadn't seen it! We faithfully followed the trail (I just stayed well out of the way, feeling totally un-nescesarry) for 30 minutes, crossing back & forth over the dirt track until both guys just stood & pointed.
There he was!!! He'd managed a grand distance of around 1/2 a mile. The arrow had severed the Femoral artery in his right-rear leg, continued on into his gut & nicked the rear of his right lung!
I had my first antelope species down! I honestly felt like I could fly, run a marathon & then fly home. I was elated! Handshakes were offered & received & Gert ran off to fetch the truck. We loaded him up & went to help Andy. In the back of the backie I couldn't help but marvel at this beautiful, if odd looking, creature. From the hide, he'd looked huge with small horns. From the ground his body was tiny (compared to the more common Blue wildebeest) & his head looked immense!
We got back to Mittelpost to find Andy still dejected, downtrodden, downcast & generally really, really pissed off. Lucas had arrived from the other farm to help out & had only found a Guinnea that Andy had shot & lost the day before.
We gathered around the backie & everyone congratulated me on my trophy & commented on it's horn-size. Bouyed up by my good news, we all got back to Andy's bloodtrail.
It looked like the tiny antelope had run a full circle & dissappeared. The trackers stood at the last blood lookingtotally bewildered. Certainly something had come in the night & carried off the Dik-Dik. As an inexperienced stooge, I backed out of the way & let the trackers start circling, grid searching & casting around for any spoor. All they found were Caracal & Jackal tracks. Not good. Not good at all.
Whilst standing around, feeling as helpless as a kitten, I started looking around, to see what I could see. Twigs. Dry leaves. Grass. Twigs, Bloodspot. Gra.. wait.
WHAT!!! I called for the trackers, assuming that they'd probably seen this spot & being prepared to be made to feel like a fool. Timu & Sarel came up & started talking very quickly in Bushman (lots of chirps & clicks. Amazing!) Shaking me by the hand & diving headlong into thorn bushed. Apparently I'd just found the thing! Well, I was damned if I could see it, but sure enough not 5 yards away lay a perfectly unmolested, intact & perfectly shot Dik-Dik.
Andy was close to tears with relief, Lucas & Gert were both overjoyed & Tokis thought it was hilarious!
Andy reverentially carried the tiny animal out to a clearing for photos (No camera for me, remember :mad: ) and promptly pulled out a 35mm rig. So now I can have the photos & I'll gladly show 'em all to you. I just need to wait until Andy gets 'em developed
We took 2 full rolls of film, one each of me & my Wildebeest & Andy & his Damara Dik-Dik. Lucas (an S.C.I. Measurer) got busy with his tape measure & assuredus
both that we'd just shot SCI top 10 animals, Andy's probably taking the number 1 spot for bow-killed Damara Dik-Dik!
We had a good half hour of back-slapping, handshaking, laughing & playing around at this point. The pressure was off & we could finally relax. Lucas came over & told me that Sarel (a 65 year old Native Bushman) had been admiring my Morrison. Well, any excuse for a stumpshoot! I gave Sarel the bow & let him go nuts shooting at trees, bushes & lumps of dirt. Quite possibly the funniest experience of my life! He was expecting something similar to the short Bushman bows he'd grown up with (25# at most!) not a 57# bow! His pride refusedto let him give in though, until he'd hit something! I think he actually managed a 12" draw, at one point, before nearly blacking out with the effort! Tokis & Timu were, by now, completely incapacitated with mirth. Tears in their eyes, rolling on the floor, nearly choking with laughter!
Sarel finally turned & handed me the bow, making the 'universal Strongman' gesture (stand up straight, arms out, flex biceps & go "Grrrrrrr") before collapsing into fits of giggles himself.
What a morning & still half a day left to play with!
And a very entertaining afternoon it was, too.....
Topic: Back from Namibia (Finally finished!) (Read 6044 times)
