Day 4 it cooled off and we got a few sprinkles, rainy season was starting! I don't remember exactly the order things happened on days 4 and 5 but they involved the story below and I do remember the full gambit of sticky hot sweaty to the almost unbearable point and being cold, wet, tired and hungry t0 the point of pure misery . We got the full experience on this adventure!
The light rains we good for tracking, the light rain on the bushes was soaking us to the bone! Ann brought a light plastic rain coat that was absolute shreds by the end of the day. She was not letting me get pictures but Quinn thought it was very funny! First thing she lost was the entire pocket, and we had to go find it because she had something in it, can't remember what but I remember we glad to find it. I thought I was all set with a brand new "breathable", soft, quiet, light rain jacket... Well I think the breathable part must have drowned because I was soaked through and through! I have to find the receipt and take it back... Worthless! The guys on the back of the truck just sort of rolled up into a blue tarp. In fact the one morning Quinn was too tired to drive so Fanni drove and Quinn was rolled up in tarp as well.... Ann and I stayed in front with the heater! So went from something like 43 C to the heater running full out.
Close Encounters of the Buffalo Kind!
So we are driving the rivers and there is a suspicious elephant track, not real big but looks like we "may" have one more in than out on this day. But it is confusing and we are not sure, and not a real big track. The prudent thing to do is finish the route to see what else is going on. Well we come up on two fresh buffalo tracks going up the river bank. Quinn asks what I want to do, go back and check on a possible elephant or follow the for sure buffalo tracks? No question, a bird in hand and all we are following these buff!
We are hoping to catch them feeding so we have a chance to spot them before they spot us... Well we follow the tracks and they are fresh and obvious. We glass ahead a few times but are moving along when suddenly about 30 yards ahead the two bulls jump up out of a bed and one is a big old boy (one track was real big) and the other is a youngster yet. Of course the old guy is gone into the bushes in a flash and the young one turns around and give us the "buffalo stare". I have my gun up and Quinn is glassing but he says too small... The bull turns and runs off into the bush after his mentor.
Quinn does not want to push them so we pull out back but find another track far enough away that they are sure it is a different bull.... We are following this track and it is obviously fresh.. No words necessary, you can cut the tension with a knife now, we are slowing and walking much quieter. The tracker, Quinn, me, Ann, and Ben bringing up the rear... Now there are no more breaking twigs and all of us are sneaking along slowly bunched up tightly... Now this is not just bush, this is almost crawling through tunnels in the bush, an open spot is open for 20 or 30 feet. The tracker and Quinn split up where trails split up and they peak around the corner. No talking, a few hand motions. We are holding thorns aside and unhooking each other when we get snagged, (Ann is still losing pieces of rain coat, almost marking our trail). Then the tracker and Quinn are motioning about how fresh this track is, I am a foot behind and we jammed in between literal walls of bush and thorns when suddenly a Buffalo pops up 10 feet from us!!! The guns are up and we are stuck with no room to maneuver and no real view of him.... We cannot see more than bits and pieces and he is right there just as surprised as us! I'm poking the gun barrel through a little opening about 6" in diameter and just pointing at black, if I have to shoot it is going to be futile and from the hip. This is one of those split second things where time slows down and you kind of get tunnel vision... I've experienced this before but it was while flying through the air after having been launched off my motorcycle and heading face first into the poplar trees of Minnesota. This is after having done something really stupid a fraction of a second earlier, you know, right before the ground and trees meet up with your body and the next thing you know is you really would like someone to come slide you onto a piece of plywood and haul you to the hospital...... Well the buff turned and ran the other way and we all stood their mouths agape and eyes wide, breathing!
That was it for buffalo hunting that morning and we went off to do something safer... So we went looking for that elephant and found sign but no elephant.
There was (actually probably still is) a really nice dugga boy living in the irrigation project (more later on that) so we also went looking for him and had his water hole on our route, he was on a routine of drinking there every two day but the rain on day 5 seemed to screw that up. So we went on several walks on different days looking for him but never saw him.
However we did follow another whole group of tracks, 10-12 buffalo total, into the bush. We were on the tracks and it was a similar deal, real slow and quiet, when suddenly about 30 yards ahead again the bush exploded with buffalo!.... And Ann almost got run over! By the tracker running the other way.... This was a bit of a look at things to come... Apparently he did not get the memo about running?
And then head out on the long drive to Diti region.... Basically take that main road we came in on until we get to the second left turnoff a drive a long ways into the bush on donkey cart trails and then turn right at the mud hut and take a left into this shitty (literally) little river. These areas are heavily used by the elephants and livestock, if you know what I mean!
