friday turned out to be a down day. some time at the beach with duncan, deanne, and the girls. the wind was still blowing rather hard, which made the waters cold. we moved from the main beach to the kaeriga river which was mostly shielded from the strong winds. the water was still cold. in my typical fashion, i took about fifteen minutes to fully submerge myself.
duncan had a few errands to run, so he dropped me back at milkwood manor. i wanted to check on my pictures, and it was good that i did. i was running out of hard drive space. but shaun helped me out. he phoned a friend of a local business and she had a 500gb hard drive she’d sell me. perfect!
i walked into town and got the hard drive. i then tried to back up as many photos as i possibly could in order to leave some room on my netbook for the pics i’d be taking from addo elephant park on saturday.
more dinner with shaun and tess. justin is starting to warm up to me but still won’t hold my hand when we pray. i also had my first taste of boerweors. heard my dad talk about this all growing up. it was good.
the evening after the hunt, we got cleaned up and had some dinner. both david and cathy were great hosts. and after dinner, they introduced me to leon schuster, who is a well-known prankster in south africa for his candid camera type of hijinks. with commentary from david, cathy, and duncan, i learned more about the culture of people.
we hung out with david’s family on thursday morning. duncan had taken some times to help soften his water supply. we put all that together. david had written a book along with some other guides he worked with in botswana years ago. they were a collection of some of their memorable events. i had read a couple of his stories and asked for a book to bring home so i could read them all.
after some lunch with them, we started back to kenton. the sun sets around seven-thirty in the evenings. needless to say, we were able to watch the sun set over the south african mountains. again, another amazing spectacle.
we drove over the hill and found our next arena. as soon as we came down the hill, dunc was able to see some kudu hanging out on hill. (how does he see these things?) but wasn’t the season for kudu. we parked near the windmill and saw a few on the hill. more wandering around in the trenches. this time, we ended up moving far enough above them that it gave us a bit of an advantage.
they seemed to spot us…but they didn’t bolt. i moved slowly to a couple of different trees to get a good shot. this field was harder because it left me a bit more exposed from one spot to another.
i scoped one in the distance just looking at me. she was standing perfectly lined up for a kill. i didn’t look back for duncan this time. closed the bolt, BOOM!
the jolt of the rifle cause me to lose my sight of the animal for a moment. i tried to find them, but they had all moved at the sound. having made noise enough to scare, i took the other three shots. nothing hit. but oddly, after a short run they all started moving back into the field. not too bright these animals. i asked dunc for another four bullets. i quickly reloaded and looked around. i don’t remember if i spent a bullet from that four first, but as they continued to walk back into view i picked another doe and fired. i didn’t believe i hit her, but then i saw her jump funny.
“she’s down!” duncan yelled. “let’s go!”
we ran down the hill to make sure she wasn’t still alive. as ran, we passed a dead springbok. “there’s your first shot,” dunc said as we kept running.
“i hit two?” i asked.
“ja, that was your first shot.”
we got to the other doe. she was indeed dead. dunc cut the throat anyway to be certain. we lugged this beast back up the hill to the first. we then gut them, leaving behind the stomach, intestines, bladders, etc. i told him i wasn’t going to eat the liver raw, despite having all my shots. we packed up all the good stuff and headed to the bukkie.
i really didn’t have a probably pulling the trigger. i think some prethought about that had already brought me to a conclusion in my head. we would eat these, and it helped david keep his springbok population in check.
bloody hands
the first hit was a clean one. the second one hit the stomach emptying the contents all over the inside. that was quite a mess.
we took them back, cleaned them up, removed the edible organs, and hung them up to dry overnight.
the next day, we would skin them and cut the meat off them. i was surprised how easy this was. the eating would come later.
on tuesday, we loaded up the car and headed off to david hood’s farm. the three hour road trip up took us over some of the most beautiful terrain. duncan had put together a massive mp3 mix. we found toto’s “africa” and did our own music video toward the end of our journey. already, duncan is pointing out some of the local wildlife. most of them were on farms.
david’s farm is another amazing place. we found our lodgings and went out for a ride in the bukkie to pick up the laborers. we had dinner with david’s family, wife cathy and two little girls. lara is a very adorable three made only moreso by her accent.
after dinner, we headed outside. it was very dark, but i believe this was the first time in my life that i’ve seen all the stars in the sky at the same time. no city lights bleeding out the view, no haze or humidity dulling the stars. it was the clearest i’ve ever witnessed a night sky. david had his binoculars with which we could see four of jupiters moons. and the stars move very quickly in that location.
after a morning breakfast, we (i) familiarized ourselves (myself) with the weapon we’d be using. then dunc and took the bukkie and headed to find some springbok. our first camp had several to choose from. they were way up the property. we took cover in some water gulleys which let us move around out of eyeshot of these animals. we scared a few, planned again, hiked, tried to find them, spotted some, planned again, hiked some more. at last we had a group of six which included a buck that was our initial goal. we snuck around and moved into position. i crept…not too well. i made to the bush for cover and when i rounded the edge, the buck was right there. he was looking at me. i backed slowly back and looked for a “go” from duncan. he wasn’t looking at the moment, so i turned around deciding to take this shot. i closed off the bolt and took aim…at nothing. these animals had jetted–and i mean jetted–down the hill and out of range. lesson taken: don’t hesitate.
we chased them for a little bit longer. we found another opportunity to take a shot at them, but no hits.
we did find a lone buck in the bushes with the sheep. duncan pointed him out, moved over to let me get a shot spot, but from my vantage there was a tree in the way. it was perfectly lined up in the kill zone of the buck. he moved around but never gave me another chance.
after missing the group on the hill, we decided to check out another farm. it was already two in the afternoon. i was a little dehydrated. but we really couldn’t leave empty handed, right?
i had dinner with shaun and tessa the first night. i met their two boys. justin, the older, took a strange interest in my camera.
justin and his dad
tessa had made up some chicken, very tasty. we had a good evening chatting. after dinner as we were relaxing, duncan came over. i remember telling him: “you are much taller in person than on skype.” we all talked about the flight over, expectations, and of some of the plans for the week. duncan despite admitting not being much of a planner had quite a few things on tap.
the boys
on monday, i got to see uncle alex as duncan, he, and i headed out for a trip to port alfred. before we left town, i found aunt jackie at shaun and tess’s helping watch the boys. it didn’t seem like four years since we last saw each other…or maybe it was just the jet lag.
in port alfred, we dropped off some wood to richard, a craftsman who makes some beautiful tables with scraps. we then headed down into town. i saw the kowie fm radio station where both shaun and duncan had once worked. their broadcasting station is in a small mall. uncle alex and i did a little shopping while duncan was troubleshooting some computer matters. after that, we drove up the coast of port alfred and had lunch at a little place. burgers and chips. saw some more of the ocean. the wind was still high and a walk at the mouth of the inlet for water into the town left us with sandblasted faces.
after a small stop at a super spar, we went back home. i ate over at duncan and deanne’s monday night. i met their two very excited girls. i delivered some items of request to them: cherry coke, coffee, and chocolate. we chatted for a good long time until we felt it was probably a good idea to get some sleep. our next episode would take us hunting.
the trip was a long jet flight. i slept as well as anyone can on a plane. that is to say, my neck hurt when i disembarked in joburg. the jump from joburg to port elizabeth was aboard british airways. those guys server food on their flights still! i felt like i’d been thrown back in time to more civilized time.
shaun picked me up at the jetport in port elizabeth (a.k.a. p. e.). this was the first time in 37 years that i’ve seen him. he drove me from p. e. to kenton. it’s about an hour’s drive east. he pointed out a few interest spots along the way. i took pictures of the drive out. not much to see, but this was my first real viewing of the south african countryside.
milkwood manor b&b was my lodging for the duration. the place is very nice situated at the mouth of the bushman’s river. the view from their lounging area was amazing. i found myself always taking pictures of the view when i would sit and look out. the blue water of the indian ocean filling up the river at high tide. the sand dunes on the far shore had a haze from the blowing sands. it was very windy when i landed. this apparently is bad weather for them as they all kept apologizing all week for it. i however enjoyed the strong winds.
sunset at milkwood manor
chester and jean were the hosts and made me feel right at home. shaun left me to get settled in and told me that he’d come back around for me at six. after unpacking my stuff, i grabbed my camera and headed for the beach. a small path leads right down to the beach/bank of the bushman’s and from there it’s a short walk down to the rocks which make up the our corner of the river’s entrance.
i’ve seen our american beaches and i’ve seen greece’s mediteranian beaches, but nothing compared to these beaches. massive sand dunes unlike anything i’ve ever seen. and the rocks were a playground for exploring.
it was about this time last year that i returned home from my journey to south africa. in fact, i had already begun work on blog posts of that event which i had planned to deliver a day at a time shortly after my return. however, i got sidetracked and the job grew daunting in my mind and it never go completed. it was a shame, actually. most of the work was done.
with the arrival of the springbok horns a week ago, i decided to revisit getting this done. plus it was the anniversary of my trip just now, so another good reason to get these posts out there. the pictures, of course, have been out on my flickr account since last year.
over the next week, a new post will show up highlighting some of that adventure. some pictures are from the set but not on flickr.
i had hoped i might get another chance to go this year before i started my new job with scripps networks, but the schedule wouldn’t allow. maybe next year. we’ll see.
