Don't tell my boss but I'm not very busy today so on with the report.
Hunting day number 8. Still waking up early. Usually around 3 am, which makes no sense since that is 6 pm at home. I always shoot my bow every morning just to make sure. It is dead on so have to shake off yesterday and move on. Shoot the crossbow as well and find out it's a couple inches high at 30 yards. Tell Barb she was right on with her shot yesterday and not to worry about it. Wasn't her fault. Just be confident.
Head to a new blind this morning in hopes of zebra. Had a young male eland show up and hang around for an hour. Average male blesbuck shows up and I ask if Barb wants to shoot him? She says no but you should. I have the crossbow set up and instead of moving it I decide I'll shoot him with that. Never shot an animal with one before so here goes nothing. He's at the far side of the water around 31 yards. Turns broadside and I shoot. Blood was pumping out of his side and his off leg was totally red in a few seconds. Thought he was going to go down right there but managed to stumble off. Whatsapp Gert and wait for him. Blesbuck ended up going about 50 yards into the bush. Carried him back to the blind area and took pictures. After we are done with that I'm going to go try and find the arrow. I watched it on video and thought I knew where it was.
While at the Afton House with Gert I told him, just to let you know snakes love us and every time we are here there is some type of encounter. Hopefully we can just get it over with right off the bat and be done with it for the trip. Usually we are here during the winter and it's always, the snakes are still hibernating you won't see any. Well apparently the black mamba that came into our blind in Namibia didn't get that memo so I don't believe the whole you're not going to see snakes spiel. September 1 was the first day of spring and it's warming up, so for people that see snakes in the winter we are absolutely going to see them now.
Anyway I'm off to look for my arrow. Chili, the tracker sees me take off and follows along to help. I get to this brushy patch, where I believe my arrow is and start digging around. Chili gives the universal sign for lets get the hell out of here and I oblige. Turns out there was a Mozambique spitting cobra in that patch about 2' from me that I failed to notice. Gert came over and took care of him with his 375.
Okay, glad we are done with that. Back in the blind by 11:00. Very slow. Had a monitor come in and drink which was cool. The one we saw a couple days ago and this one are the first I've ever seen over here. Decent waterbuck bull comes in then a nice warthog. Haven't seen many males pretty much all females with piglets. I ask Barb if she wants to shoot but she's not interested. I'm going to take him if he gives us a shot. Starts on the far side where the blesbuck was and wallows around. Then he walks around to the right and is at the most 10 yards away. I'm going to make a lot of noise trying to move the crossbow out of the way so I figure, what the hell, I'll shoot him with the crossbow. Gives me a broadside shot and blood explodes out of him with the impact of the arrow. Whatsapp Gert and find him fairly quickly. Man, that crossbow is almost unfair. Lots of fun though. I tell Barb it's dead on now and she can trust it's going to hit where she aims. Very slow the rest of the day with the highlight being a group of mongoose staring in the blind window at two feet. Only about 25 animals today after averaging over 100 up to now.
