Day 6, Walking with Elephants II
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Ok I hope to be brutally honest with this, It was probably my best and worst day of hunting ever... Let me explain.
It is the day after the big rain, tough going in many places and actually better in others. Not sure how much rain but we must have gotten an inch or two. The morning river drive was mostly un-eventful. It is mostly easier driving in the wet sand right now. It is very cool but looking like a nice day. We had actually slept pretty good and had closed up the screens and added blankets to stay warm but much easier to sleep in the cold than the heat!
I felt great, I think Ann did as well... So we are off to Diti again to go after one of those elephant bulls we had spotted. Lots of mud and puddles on the road so more challenging drive but we got there and found a different guy in the little seasonal village who said yes the elephants were around but had headed up river further and pointed us in the general direction.... The thing about this local advice is that you have to realize that when they say they saw a big elephant, they mean the saw an elephant.. After all they are
elephants! All of them are big!
With the rain this river is not so forgiving and very soon a front wheel falls into a hole but we back right out and Quinn thinks better of it and we get out to saddle up and walk. And walk! We don't quickly find the fresh sign and hear the breaking trees as we did 3 days earlier... We climb a hill to glass, nothing so back down and up a bigger hill... Quinn had stepped in a pothole and took his shoe and sock off to dry them out on top of this "almost mountain" and we all spread out to glass... I head way down to the far end and glass that back end, nothing but donkeys and cattle. After quite a while, I head back towards the rest of the group and Ann gets some biltong out to share with everyone... the Tracker and Ben are off by themselves and Quinn seemed to be on his phone or text or something, with one shoe on... His father was having some minor medical issues so he was trying to stay in contact.. I go over and give the guys some biltong and mention what a nice day it is, not to hot and not to cold, beautiful weather! They are agreeing and chewing when I mention that all we need are some elephants... The tracker chews some more and casually waves his hand at the distance and says, oh they are right over there... "WTF!!! Why didn't you say anything!?" Oh Quinn knows but he is over there... I run over by Quinn and point them out and he is hopping down the hill with one shoe trying to get a better angle to glass them!...... Now bear with me; Quinn considers himself a prankster or fellow of good humor and is constantly commenting about the "African one shoe phenomenon"... It is actually a great mystery but all over Zimbabwe, you come across a single shoe laying on the road and in the bush and about everywhere else.... where I the other one? Are these folks walking along and "oh, my left shoe is worn out" kick it off and continue on with one???? Or are they drying out a wet shoe when they suddenly spot the herd of elephants!?
So we are off hot on the trail of the elephants! We put on the miles that day, 10 of them to be as close to exact as Ann's pedometer got us. That is 25,000 steps for her
... And about 10,000 for Quinn
Would have been easy enough if it was a nice paved trail... But of course it the anti-paved trail! And the anti-flat trail... Actually it is not a trail.. It is thorn bushes, rocks, hills, gullies, sand, and mountain wanna be's!
But there are elephants! Lots of them! The cows and bulls are mixed together today and we are on the trail of 40 to 50 elephants! I'm loving it... Ann was taking some video but mostly just walking. We get close, real close and the devastation is incredible.. The bush is mowed off like a giant brush mower had gone through about 6' high and shredded everything above that. We stalk in to get a look a a cow or young bull is in the way and we need to back out and circle around. elephants are everywhere and moving through feeding on everything it seems. This on the border away from Kruger and on the other side are South African farms, paved roads and huge fields of tomatoes. Which it is apparent the elephants go over at night and raid the fields as there are tomato peals in the dung and the older stuff has little tomato shoots growing in it. Anyway, they are making their way right back to the river where we started from.... We are almost running to get ahead of them because Quinn has determined the bulls are up front. We get up where we think we are ahead of them and get stuck with the wind shifting again so we back out again and to my horror , the tracker lights up a cigarette! He gets away with it so must know something?
We actually get right up to the river and spot several bulls, most young bulls but we can see bigger bodies up in there so Quinn and I stalk along the river bank alone when this little guy (well he still out weights us by several tons!) is on us like a blood hound! He is sniffing the ground and then snorkeling and steadily working his way right at us and getting close. When he stops and flairs his ears out I though he had made us but he notices a yummy looking bush which he starts eating! We have a small tree between us and him so we keep that in line and back out and go out into the river. We are all back together and making our way down the far side of the river to look at the bigger bulls. Ann was videoing and Quinn and I are up front when we come up on two big bulls... Looks like the tree killer and the broken tusk bull. Quinn whispers " what do you want to do?" I instantly said "shoot one of these two".... Ann had earlier told me the experience was great but she was ready to be done and did not want to keep making this miserable drive cramped into that little truck. She wanted me to shoot an elephant out of this group and she wanted to move to the main campo and be done with the tent as well!... Now you have to understand, in spite of this , she was in no way going to stay sitting in camp bored and possibly miss out on something.
So we have tree killer on the opposite bank and I suggest we sneak over there and shoot him in the ear! Quinn keeps saying he is not 40 pounds and still young... So I say ok then let's shoot the other one! We are looking him over and he has his backbone sticking out and I remember asking if he is old and maybe he is a pretty good animal to take. Quinn comments that he is over 40 on the good side, maybe mid 40's, but the left has a foot broken off. He is kind of quartering away just a bit but moving around and presents a shot then turns a bit too much again, back and forth and he is bit farther than I want to brain shoot at this distance off hand. I look for the tracker with the sticks and he hiding on the far bank. So I ask Quinn "how about a heart/lung shot" to which he say "no, I want him to drop instantly". Which makes complete sense and shows his experience. He did not want a wounded elephant running into the middle of that big herd. Much less across the border! So I really want the sticks but now, and some direction from Quinn as to taking the shot. Dammit we talked about this, Quinn said when the time came he would talk me through the shot, angles and all. Shit! the elephant is moving up the bank and into the bush. I remember working at it to remain calm at this point. Quinn says "come on" and we head in after it, Quinn is whispering that he is not certain this is the biggest bull in the herd. He wants to see the rest of the bulls but it will be dark soon... We get up on a small hill and there is a sea of elephants everywhere! Lots of cows and young animals, then a young bull works his way around below and behind us, they are oblivious to us so far but we are in real danger of being surrounded. This is the first time, no the only time, I really felt a bit if concern for our safety so when Quinn whispered "lets go", I was ready to go! But when I looked back, Ann was still videoing! I almost had to drag her out of there. I think at that point she was still convinced we were going to shoot an elephant that evening. So we had a great day but also a very disappointing one. We were exhausted and hungry and still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. But the low point was still to come....
or 
and maybe this 
BOB....
