Africa – Day 1 Friday, August 12, 2016
After a grueling trip with delayed flights, a business meeting in Chicago, a cancelled flight and a reroute through Istanbul with a 5-hour layover, I am finally in South Africa. I arrive on a Friday morning, but left Fresno on Tuesday afternoon. I meet my outfitter and professional hunter (PH), John Henry Keyser, at the airport as soon as I get through customs. We drive another 3 hours to arrive at the Greenland Safaris gaming concession – 800 hectares (about 2,000 acres) dedicated exclusively to bow hunting just outside the town of Thabazimbi in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. John mentions that I must be tired and might want to shower and take a nap. I tell him that aside from the 2 hours of sleep I was able to get on the plane, I have been up for 42 hours, but all I want to do is take a shower, put on some camo and go hunting.
The Greatland Safari lodge is nice. There is no Internet, so I am cut off from the world. I hope that does not cause grief at home, but I can feel the peace and solitude recharging my spirit already. I must be on my third wind because I am feeling very awake and alert.
John Henry is very accommodating. As I unpack and get my bows out to shoot and make sure nothing was damaged in transit, issues creep up. Prior to leaving, I had my dangerous game bow, the Mathews monster safari, tuned at The Spot Archery in Fresno and my plains game bow, the Mathews No-Cam was dialed in like a laser, twice shooting a 58/60, 3x at 50 yards on six arrows. (For those that don’t understand how good that score is, the gold medal for the Mixed Team W1 for archery in Rio had an average arrow score of 8.69 at 50 meters. I scored a 9.67 average at 50 yards). After installing my hunting arrowheads, they are not even close to accurate.
We take a trip to town and the local archery shop does a spin test on the arrows and finds the inserts were out of spec on my plains game arrows – something that would not be noticed with field tips that are used for target shooting. They replace the inserts and find the Muzzy Phantom broadheads I picked up in Fresno were not good either – they would not spin true. I buy some Montec arrowheads and my arrows started grouping tight again and my shots are right where I wanted them. I also pick up some new Grizzly Stick 150 grain Silver Flame broad heads for the Monster Safari bow and have nine arrows reflecthed to handle the newer, heavier broad heads.
Originally, my dangerous game arrows weighed 755 grains but with the heavier hunting arrowheads and larger vanes to add more spin and flight stabilization, they now weight substantially more, which slows down the arrows and causes them to drop more than they were. This requires me to re-sight my bow in. Unfortunately, I already have the slowest sight tape that my sight comes with and for it to work I am going to have to increase the draw weight. This will be a real chore for a multitude of reasons – the largest of which is that I struggled to handle the constant draw weight increases as I tried to up my strength to get enough power to take down a Cape buffalo. Now I have to increase it even more but without a scale to see how much I was increasing it or chronograph to see the change in my arrow speed. That means a lot of shooting with bow that was at the extreme edge of what I have the strength to draw and fire.
But back to hunting; John and I head out looking for some plains game. Honesty being the best policy, on the drive in from the archery shop in Thabazimbi, I let John know that I had never been hunting before and have been shooting a bow for less than five months.
I suspect he wants to work up to the Cape buffalo, which makes sense. If the buffalo was a more docile animal we were after, you can see what you have to work with but with dangerous game, it is best to minimize the surprises. I also would guess he wants to assess my skills and abilities.
While Impala, Zebra and Kudu are on the list of other animals I am looking for, we do not encounter any. We do see lots of warthogs, or actually I suspect the same three warthogs over and over again. They are ugly in a cute sort of way but could be better looking with some more hair.
We do see a group of five nyala, a nice animal but they were all young bulls. John knows there were some older bulls nearby and we eventually see them. It is time to see what I can do with a bow and get my first hunting kill under my belt. One of the two older bulls comes into shooting range and eventually gives a good quartering away shot and I let an arrow fly, hitting him from 18 yards away. The arrow completely passes through him, hitting both lungs along the way. They nyala runs off but doesn’t make it 50 yards and is dead within a minute.
I don’t get a measurement but John estimates his horns at 26 inches long. I suppose I can get a firm measurement in the morning, but the size of the horns isn’t really the point. Aside from killing stray, nuisance dogs out on our ranch in the country back home, this is my first hunting kill. It was a single arrow, completely passed through, clean and quick. I know some people get squeamish about killing animals, but I suspected that would not be a problem for me. I not only understand the circle of life and the nature of man as the top of the food chain, but I accept and am comfortable with my role in it. I don’t have any regrets or remorse, but I am also not jumping for joy either. I do notice now how incredibly tired I am though and that is most of what I feel now. I am looking forward to having some nyala steak tomorrow.
We head back to the lodge, have some dinner and I meet John’s wife, Trish and Tannie Pikkie, the cook (and I later learn, the mother of one of John’s best friends, KP). I retire to my room and start my journal. It is so relaxing just sitting without the stress and/or distractions that come with TV, Internet, email and a phone. I have none of those modern amenities in my room, which I like. I don’t know what to call it - perhaps a chalet? It isn’t part of the main lodge and to say it is a room just doesn’t do it justice. It is brick with a thatch roof - yes, you read that right - THATCH!!! It is rustic but very nice.
Tomorrow, we will be looking for kudu, zebra and/or impala. It is half past 8pm and I have been up for about 52 hours now, aside from 2 hours of sleep on the plane. I expect to sleep very well tonight.
That room looks very familiar!!
