Day 9
Alarm wakes me at 5 am to hunt the last time in South Africa. I jump up quickly as I’m excited to be back out to the bush after a relaxing day fishing yesterday. I can’t really say the same for Lori as I think she would be just fine sleeping in. She struggles a bit but gets up and around as I go get coffee and make her some toast for breakfast. Knowing it’s the last day we will spend in the bush; she hangs tough, getting up and moving and gathering her things together. Greg and I meet for coffee as we have for the last 8 days and after a quick bite to eat we gather Lori, Lindile and Tasco and head out in search of warthog and maybe an eland. We depart Mpunzi in a heavy morning fog, creating a very picturesque drive as the sun works its way over the mountain tops. As we leave the lodge and head down the long bumpy dirt trail they call a road, the rising sun illuminates the fog in the valley below. We stop briefly to take a photo then drive on cautiously to our first stop.
The plan for the morning is to stop in town just a short drive away from the farm we would be hunting to pick up our additional tracker for the day. We arrive just before 7am to a filling station here he jumps in the back of the truck with Lindile and guides us in the direction we need to go. I don’t believe Greg had hunted this farm in the past so a familiar person is again very helpful. We arrive through the gate by 730 and drive to the first spot we plan to have a look at. The tracker tells us we will walk a bit through a flat brushy area then make our way to a hillside to glass a valley in search of some known large eland bulls. As we slowly work our way up a trail, scanning the brush as we go, the tracker leading the way to the spot, suddenly stops and points to a thick bush. Greg quickly set up the sticks and says big, eland bull. I take my 300 off my shoulder, rest it on the sticks and slide a bullet into the chamber.
Greg is whispering to me, can you get a shot there? Just as he says that the bull moves deeper into the bush. Greg whispers, move quickly to your left. We move a couple feet as the bull in now quartering slightly away from me with his head tucked deep into the thick bush. The massive bull is less than a hundred yards in front of me but I never get a look at his head or face. Taking Greg’s word for it, I prepare for a shot. He whispers can you take the shot? I reply, it’s too thick, I don’t feel comfortable. He whispers to me it will go man it will go, shoot it on the shoulder. I take a deep breath, slide the safety off and trust in Greg that this is the eland we were looking for. With a squeeze of the trigger the big bull backs out of the bush, runs slowly around the thicket and falls about 30 yards from where he stood. The tracker runs over a bit to watch as Greg and I celebrate a bit with a hand shake and a high five. Lori standing behind us taking pictures not knowing what just happened, says what was that? Greg quickly replies a very large eland bull.
We walk over to get a closer look as the eland struggles a bit but gets back on his feet. As we watch him I lift my 300 and place another 180 grain bullet directly into his vitals. The bullet hits him hard and in slow motion the eland falls over from the impact. Lori standing behind us again captures the moment on photo as Greg runs video.
We watched from a bit of a distance and the big bull fought a bit longer never returning to his feet. For a moment it appeared he could possibly get back up as I drew my rifle, I asked Greg, again? Greg replied no, he’s a big animal and will need some time to go down. Within a few minutes, we were setting him up for photos and reliving the moment. This would turn out to be the earliest animal taken the entire trip for me and was also the most up close and personal experience of the hunt.
As we waited for the sun to raise a bit higher Greg went to retrieve the truck as Lori and I stood in amazement and the size of the animal laying on the ground in front of us. As I walked around I couldn’t hold back my emotion and said to Lori, if Marius wasn’t such an awesome person we would not be standing here with this magnificent trophy right now. It was then that I really realized the sheer size of the big bull and really took in the qualities he displayed. This bull had it all, the massive body, the huge set of horns, thick brush running down his face, the black markings above his nose and the large swaying blue dewlap that hung way down. As I wiped the tears of joy from my face, I turned to my trouper of a wife and said, this bull will make Marius a very happy man… It wasn’t long and Greg returned with the truck, the sun came up a bit and we did a bit of cleanup on the bull and captured some great memories.
As we were prepping and taking photos, the tracker went to retrieve some great help and the work began. They quickly lightened the load a bit and with 6 guys on the ground and Greg and a crank winch in the truck, they loaded the massive beast into the back of Greg’s truck. I wanted to help but would have only been in the way as these guys have done this before and are a great team with a system that worked well. Once we get everything loaded up, we head to the skinning shack, get the eland hung up and take a short break and watch Lindile and the crew start the skinning and cleaning process.
While Lindile is at work skinning with the rest of the crew, the other tracker, Greg, Lori and I continue on in search of the warthog that has eluded me for 2 trips to Africa now. We drive out past the area I took the eland and stop at the top of a hill and make our way to the edge and glass for a bit. With it still being fairly early in the morning we are hoping to see some warthog action before they head for thick cover and a rest after their morning feeding. It’s the last day hunting so just being in the bush is where I want to be.
We set up overlooking a valley and see movement right away. We see a group of smaller warthogs off in the distance and keep an eye on them as they feed toward the thicker cover. After watching the area for a while longer, we see nothing that looks promising and decide to work our way across a ridgeline to another area. After a half hour or so slowly working deeper into the bush, Greg spots a large hog feeding on the hillside in front of us. He stops for a bit glassing the hog as he feeds away from us and says let’s move closer quickly to have a better look. As we get closer we spot several warthogs feeding throughout the thick bushy hillside. Suddenly the sticks go up and Greg says he’s behind the bush to the right. Hearing the clicking of his tusks while he feeds gets my heart pumping as we watch him feed through the thick cover waiting for him to move to my left for a better look.
Greg thinks he looks good but neither of us has really had a chance a good look of his tusks as he’s mostly been facing away. As we stand still watching him feed, a kudu cow moves slowly to our right less than 60 yards away. She stops for a moment looking at us trying to figure us out. She acts concerned for a bit as we stand motionless hoping she moves on without blowing our cover. As she settles down and begins to feed we watch 2 smaller boars chasing each other around as another feeds towards. With the kudu now calm and feeding away, our focus turns back to finding the big boar as he has moved up ahead of us. We decide to stay put and glass from there in hopes the big boy works his way to the bottom and up the hillside directly across from us. As we stand there in total silence, out of nowhere we hear loud music directly behind us. Greg and I turn around at the same time to watch the tracker dig his phone out of his pocket. He not only makes a ruckus digging it out, he answers it like he’s in a loud stadium filled with screaming people. I turn around just in time to watch the kudu cow running down the valley chasing all the animals in the area off with her. I look ahead further just in time to watch the big warthog run over the hillside and out of sight. As Greg and I stand there a bit dismayed, we chuckle a bit and Greg says something to the effect, well I guess that one gets to live another day. As we stand there silent for a moment, Lori said to us with a look of disbelief, what just happened. Greg takes a deep breath and said he just blew our hunt, let’s head to the truck and go have lunch. We head back to the skinning area and drop the tracker off watching the crew finish up cleaning the eland as Lindile capes out the skull. After watching for a bit Greg says lets hop in the truck and drive away from hear and have our lunch. We eat our lunch in the field for the last time and discuss the day’s events so far. We have a few laughs at what took place, finish our lunch do some paperwork for the eland then grab Lindile and head back out.
