The Buffalo Hunt

I got up bright and early at 4:30 Friday morning for our hunt that day. It was at a free ranging reserve by the name of Klasserie. This place was a whopping 130,000 acres and is known for the big 5 hunts. For those that aren't familiar this includes buffalo, rhino, elephant, lion, and leopard hunts. Since I am the cameraman I am at the bottom of the food chain and got to ride and hour and a half to the reserve in the back of the buggy while it was only about 40 degrees out. Once we got there things started warming up and I got to meet the clients.

Today they had a tag for a female buffalo, so we were going to do our best to help him get a trophy. We stared out driving around looking for signs of a big herd. In that time I saw all kinds of animals. I saw probably close to 200 impala, a dozen giraffe, some waterbuck, bushbuck, blue wildebeest, zebras, baboons, and even a few hippos! Unfortunately I was not able to get hardly any pictures since we were moving too fast. 

After we got out of the vehicle for the first time we had our two trackers, Seepo and Paradise, start following the herds trail. We followed it for about 20 minutes and then ran into a Hyena! This was very strange because it was during the day and it did not run. They thought either it was close to its den, was much to tame for safety, or it was sick. I was thinking sick because when I zoomed up on it it was dripping a lot of saliva. Soon after that encounter we had to go back to the buggy so we could cross a river.

We followed the tracks for probably the next 4 hours and then due to us moving to fast we spooked up a large bull which alerted the rest of the herd and they ran off making all kinds of snorts and bellows. We then took a hour break and had some lunch. During that time I learned about the greater honey tracker bird. The natives would listen for the sound of this bird and follow it to a honey hive. Pretty neat right? There's and old legend though that says after you collect the honey you must leave some for the bird or it is bad luck and next time that bird will lead you to a black mamba.

After another couple hours of tracking and no luck the day was drawing close to an end. We got in the truck and started driving around in hope we would run across the heard and we did! We backed up and Hannes, the client, paradise, and I grabbed our materials and started looking for a trophy buffalo. After a while we spotted a huge one that didn't have a calf with her and was angled slightly looking right at us. The client got on the tripod and took aim. After about 2 seconds he pulled the trigger, there was a loud bang, the animal jumped a little, and the whole heard tore through the brush along with the target. There were bellows and snorts and huffing in all directions. After things settled down a little our trackers went to work. At first there was a good blood trail with bits of lung splattered on the ground. We followed it for maybe half an hour and then lost the track. Everyone was very weary since an injured buffalo is extremely dangerous. Then about 50 yards behind us we heard an odd bellow. As we approached I had the camera up, but was not filming because I wasn't sure what everyone was saying due to them talking in the Africana language. Then in the blink of an eye everyone stopped and this huge animal stood up. Everything went into slow motion for me as it began to charge only a mere 15 feet away from us all. I  jumped to the side and Hannes pulled up his rifle and shot the raged and charging buffalo right between the eyes stopping it 5 feet from his feet.

My heart hadn't beat that hard in a long time!  I got the truck and many pictures were taking. The buffalo was huge weighing around 1,300 lbs. Loaded it into the truck and went to get it processed. The client was extremely happy with his trophy and will be getting s shoulder mount done. This was the thrill I was hoping I would get coming to Africa. I learned a lot and, didn't die, and partook in my first extreme African hunt that will leave me with memories until the day I die. I'm just thankful Hannes has good aim and a quick trigger finger!