Day 7
Wake again very early and get ready for the day. I gather my stuff for the day and head for the coffee pot. Excited for my day’s events, I get around quickly as Lori again is moving a bit slower as the week progresses. As Greg and I make a plan for the morning over coffee, Lori gets up and around. The morning sunrise is beautiful and I encourage her to move quickly as I want to take a photo of her with the sunrise on the deck before we depart. Greg says we need to stop and get fuel so we must get going soon. We take a quick photo and load our things in the truck for the 1.5 hour drive to the coast in search of a Blue Duiker.
Our destination for the day is a pineapple farm along the coastal area that is known to have a good amount of Blue Duiker. At dinner last night I learn about the property owner and find out he is quit a funny man. One of the guys in our group hunted his property earlier in the week for Caracal and said we are in for many laughs. He is known to play pranks on his hunters and loves to have fun joking around with them. We discuss a plan to play a prank on him over drinks after dinner last night. Upon our arrival to the farm, we are greeted by the owner who I will refer to as “Joker” the rest of the day. We discuss the hunting plan for the day and were quickly briefed on the lay of the land we would be hunting. He asks me if I have experience hunting with a shotgun and I explain my childhood passion was rabbit hunting with hounds and I also am a bird hunter and shoot skeet. His response was the first joke of the day as he replied oh great maybe you should use a 22… We laughed a bit and after gathering the dogs and handler we headed to the truck to begin our quest.
As we open the doors to get into the truck, the Joker says to me, you set in the front. I respond, no you can, I’ll set in back so you can show Greg where he’s going. He was quick to respond in a joking voice, OK but I really wanted to sit in the back with your wife. I chuckled and said, oh you mean my sister, I’m gay and you hunted caracal with my husband a couple days ago. His jaw dropped and was speechless as we load into the truck for one of the most memorable hunts of the trip. Knowing he has a thing for pulling pranks and his vocal jokes made when Terry hunted caracal with him, this was the perfect set up for what would be a great day of laughter.
We head off to our first stop as Joker tells us stories of hunts from the past, stopping to drop off the dogs and handler at the beginning of a thick ditch area separating 2 pineapple fields for our first run. We drop them off and move into position towards the end of the ditch that he expects the duiker to pass through. We get set up with Greg running video, Lori running snapshot and Joker standing behind me calling the shot. The plan is he will identify it animal and either tap me or tell me when to shoot.
Just after we get set up the dogs pick up scent and begin to work the track barking or (giving tongue) as Joker says. Hearing the dogs’ way off in the distance, he asks me if I am ready. I say yes I think so, he says take the safety off you won’t have time to do it when you’re ready to shoot. I take the safety off and ready the 12 gauge over/under for a shot. He tells me softly they could from the opening right in front of us or the one to the left. As I look for the openings he speaks of, I see nothing that resembles an opening but scan the area left to right in preparation of their arrival. As the sounds of the dogs giving tongue gets closer he says get ready. Suddenly he pokes me in the back and says yeah, yeah shoot. I lift the gun to my shoulder take aim and fire a shot hitting way behind the blurred streak that passed by us at a very high rate of speed. I shake my head in amazement at the speed these small animals move, and take some ribbing as Joker says that one was only moving in second gear. As we walk out to the truck he tells me that was the easy spot and the next place we are going they run past in 7th gear and 7000 rpm’s.
We make a move and set up at the second spot on the edge of the pineapple field where Joker says they usually run out. We were set up there for about 15 minutes with Lindile down below us at the creeks edge as a blocker. Suddenly Lindile starts yelling and jumping around. He sees the duiker coming and tries to turn it around so it will run up to where we are. His plan does not work and the duieker runs past him full speed. Lindile grabs the dog as it makes it way to him and we pick up to make a move. As we are walking back to the truck Joker is telling us one time that happened and they gave up thinking that hunt was over as another one ran right past them. He no sooner said that and we saw another duiker run right out of the area we were set up watching. We walk over look at his tracks; I take a photo of my thumb next to it and we move on to the next spot. I gave him Chit for a while for jinxing us at that spot.
We get to the next area, once again drop the dogs and handler off at one end of the ditch then drive around the field and stop midway at a crossing. We get set up and watching the direction Joker expects them to come from and wait, and wait and wait some more. The dogs were having a hard time with the scent at this spot and were working slowly back and forth the wide area. We faintly hear one of the dogs pick up on a trail and Joker says here they come. Patiently waiting I watch the areas he points out as the common spots they cross. The dogs all on the track now and getting closer suddenly sound like they are tracking it away from us. Joker says chit it crossed the creek and is running on the other side. Sure enough we wait listen and finally see the dogs as they run way across the other side of the creek that we are set up next to. Joker says we need to move up the hill a bit and focus the other direction. We make a quick move and soon the dogs sound like they have turned and are working back the other direction.
Joker says softly get ready the dogs are working it back this way. We listen to the dogs work the track slowly getting closer when Joker suddenly says yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!!!! He saw the duiker way before I could pick it up and by the time I had the bead on him I once again got a shot off hitting just behind the streaking duiker. Joker laughs and says, now that one was moving… We laugh about the experience as he says, that was the last easy spot we have to hunt, from here on the shots are going to get really tough. We walk back to the truck and wait for the handler to gather up the dogs as they continue to run the track.
After a quick rest as we wait to gather the dogs, we load up and regroup for the next spot. On our way I get a bit more ribbing from Joker and he says this will be out last spot before we break for lunch and give the dogs a rest. We drop the handler and dogs and drive to an area Joker again says they always cross. As we get out of the truck I tell Joker I’ve missed twice now so the third time is a charm, he laughs and said I think the first two were charming.
We walk up a gravel road on the farm that separates two pineapple fields Joker leading the way, stops in the road and points to a trail up in front of us. The trail looks to be heavily used and leads into the thick bushy ditch where the blue duikers like to call home. He says do you think you can shoot that spot from here; I chuckle and say you’re kidding right. Just as he was telling us they almost always cross the road right at this spot, we hear the dogs hot on the trail giving tongue as they move quickly towards us.
Getting closer and closer the dogs bark is getting louder and louder, all the sudden I see a dog but no duiker. Just at that moment I hear a person yelling and clapping down in the ditch behind us about 50 yards. Joker says the damn thing didn’t come out he passed right by us in the thick stuff. Not even knowing Joker placed a blocker in the ditch and he was able to turn the duiker around. The dogs were now barking as if they were nipping at the heels of the duiker and very close to us. I caught a bit of movement to my right; I lift the gun, take the safety off and out jump the duiker running full tilt. Making sure there is no dog near, I lead him about a body length and squeeze the trigger. As I shoot, my wife to my right taking pictures, and Greg to my left running video, both capture some of the greatest memories of the entire trip. The duiker flips over, rolls to a stop as the dogs come and join us in the celebration of success.
We celebrate the success for a bit, take some more ribbing from Joker as he tells me that is a bit of a small one, then go to an area up the road a bit for photos. We stop at a small stream that looks like we are in the tropics. Lori in heaven with the view gets into her photo taking while Greg and Lindile place the Duiker in the perfect place and cleans him up for photos. Lori is so busy taking her own photos she almost forgets about being in the photos with me.
We take several beautiful photos then load back into the truck to head back to Jokers house for lunch. We get to Jokers house, drop him off and run back out to find a place we can get a photo real quick with the sky and terrain in the background. After a few more photos, we head back to the house, drop Lindile off to skin out the duiker and have lunch.
Over lunch and a cold drink, we discussed the plan for the rest of the day. We tell Joker we are also in search of a warthog and he tells us there are several really nice boars around the property. We finish up our lunch, grab the trackers and dogs and head off in search of a big hog. Not long after we leave the house Greg stops the truck and says wow, it’s a bit late in the year to see them. I look around the truck and see nothing. Greg says look in the road, al the sudden Lori about jumps in my lap as we see about a 3’ snake in the road. The snake is just setting there motionless so I try to get a photo of it out the window. Lori said what is it, Joker said no need to worry about it if you get bit you won’t live long enough to feel much pain. We laugh a bit and Greg says give me your camera ill get better photos, as he gets out and walks right up to the puff adder. We tell the trackers they need to move it off the road so we can move on, they both say hell no in Afrikaans and probably some other choice things and we drive on as the snake moves on through the grass.
We go to an area where Joker said a big boar has been seen out around a waterhole over the last week or so and make a stalk. Lori now thinking there are snakes everywhere is hesitant to get out of the truck but we convince her that was just a chance sighting. Up the hillside we go thinking as the day is now near peak heat we should find hogs at the water. We get close and hear a noise in the valley that I am thinking are hogs feeding just to get closer and find a group of impala running and chasing each other around.
We hang out there for a bit glassing and waiting for a boar to appear, not seeing anything we decide to move on. Joker tells us his daughter is stopping by for the evening and wants to join us on the hunt. We stop by another area where we have a good view and glass for a bit seeing some hogs out feeding but no big boar.
We head back to the house meeting Jokers daughter, she jumps in with us and we set off to another well known area that warthogs come out to feed in the afternoon. We stop on top of a steep hillside and glass for a bit. Right away we see hogs feeding in a field at the bottom of the valley. We watch them for a while and decide to drive down the hill more and park and stalk for a better look. We park in an area where we can glass seeing the hogs below and see a real nice boar that had just came out into the field. Greg, Lindile and I jump out and start our journey down the hillside.
Everyone else stayed at the truck watching the hogs feed as we worked our way closer. We made it within 300 yards of the boar and had a group of sows and little ones between us. We decided to tuck back into the bush and move around them. We get set up around 160 yards away and wait and wait and wait. The big boar had fed past a group of others and was not in a good place for a shot. Finally after about 30 minutes he turned and made his way back in clear view. With him now in my scope, I wait for the other hogs around to clear, he turns broadside and I squeeze the trigger. We hear the bullet hit with a loud thawap and off they go. We wait for a bit Greg talking to Lindile and says he’s hit hard.
Lindile telling Greg he thinks I hit one of the other hogs in the butt as it ran in front of the boar just as I squeezed the trigger. We get up to where they were and right away see sign on the ground. What I saw laying on the ground simply amazed me that an animal could run with that much meat loss. There was a chunk of meat larger than a full family could eat at dinner with very little blood. Greg and I watch the video and think I hit the boar high in the shoulder as you could see a big red spot on it as it ran off. We watched the video a few more times and waited for the rest of the group to come with the dogs.
We take off on a blood trail and track the hog about 80 yards to a really big deep hole. Greg takes my gun and approaches the hole with caution. The dogs runny in and out barking like crazy all the way in. We are determined the animal is in the hole but it’s so deep we can hardly hear the dogs bark when they go in all the way. We go back to the truck, grab flashlights and the rest of the group and head back to the hole. We all get to hole as the dogs are still going in and out barking like they have a wounded animal at bay. We discuss our options as Joker tells the trackers to grab the flashlight and go in after the hog. They all laugh about it and we decide it’s just too risky to go in and its way to deep to dig to him. After some discussion we decide to call it off and move on.
Disappointed that I wounded an animal, I tell Greg we can call it a day if he wanted to. Joker said you have light left and at least it’s a cheap animal that we lost. He told a few more jokes to lighten the moment and we soon start another stalk. By time we made it to the area we saw another large boar, they had fed to the other side of a fence and out of sight. With daylight fading quickly, we work our way through the flat bottom of the valley we were in seeing nothing else and decided to call it a day. As we made it back to Jokers house, Lori takes some photos of the homestead, uses the facilities and we say our goodbyes. As we are shaking hands before we depart, Joker tells me; John you will be the talk of many, many more of my hunts. He says I can hardly wait to tell my mates about you and tell them I finally met someone that beat me at my own game. I will never forget you, your sister or your husband… We have another good laugh a good hug and load up for the long ride back to Mpunzi.
We make it back to Mpunzi we see we are the last ones back with them waiting dinner on us once again. We walk through the door to a lively group with the shot glasses setting on the bar and a few empties to show they had a good time waiting our return. We see Marius wife Kim has joined us for the weekend and will be taking the girls shopping tomorrow. Greg didn’t share the news with anyone yet and im quickly bombarded with questions about the days hunt. I tell them of my success and the defeat of the hog and go to my room for a quick shower before dinner. During dinner an awesome dinner prepared by Nichole and Michelle, we discuss our day as a group and I tell everyone how Joker opened the door for me to beat him at his own prankster game. The lodge is full as its Friday and Kim, Michelle and the boys joins us for dinner. We laughed through dinner and well into the night over a few drinks as we discussed the plan with Marius, and Greg for a day of fishing tomorrow. Before I headed off to bed Marius says, John I think I have a great place for you to hunt Eland on Sunday. I will know for sure by the time you get back from fishing tomorrow. We head off to bed to get some sleep before I spend the day fishing the Indian Ocean and Lori finally gets to go shopping.
. That shows the kind of person Marius is and why I returned to hunt with him in 2017 and will hunt with him again in the future.
