The first stalk was originally to go after a red hartebeest, but Jordan ended up shooting a nice springbok that presented itself nicely. He was extremely happy and his dad couldn't have been more proud. Next we decided to stalk a black wildebeest, and Skip took him down with a 250 yard shot. Next we drove through some beautiful terrain and once we reached the top of a ridge we spotted a nice red hartebeest. We stalked it perfectly through some lone trees and Jordan shot him at about 130 yards with a beautiful shot. The morning was going amazing up there with 3 animals by noon. We headed in for a quick lunch and a short break and then Hannes proposed that Nico, Jordan, and I do a bit of crawling to stalk some nice blesbok. We had about a 200 yard stalk, but it wasn't too bad. We came up on him perfectly at about 160 yards and after steadying himself, Jordan took the shot and dropped his 3rd animal of the day. After loading that one up we decided to treat Skip a little and try to get him a nice big eland bull. After searching for quite a while we found a group worth going after. We stalked it and got within 200 yards. It took a lot of noise to get these big bulls to stand up, but once they did Skip took his shot. He hit it perfectly, but the beast wouldn't drop. He eventually took a second shot and it headed towards a cliff side. Everyone was freaking out because we didn't want it to go off the edge of the mountain and lose it. We lost site and eventually after a long search and careful steps not to fall off the cliff side we found it and Skip finished it off with a neck shot right next to a waterfall. It was a great start to their hunt and the Alaskans couldn't have been happier.
The next day was a traveling day as we headed down the mountains and took it easy that night. The following day was going to be their first hunt in the lowveld. They both wanted a kudu and a gemsbok, and also an impala and a zebra. The first day was a lot of walking, probably close to about 8 miles. I was told to follow Nico and Jordan to be their camera man, and although no animals were shot I still got some good footage. I would have to say the most exciting part of the day was when we were driving and out of no were a huge bull buffalo popped out of the bush and started charging our vehicle. 2 more followed and Hannes stopped the vehicle. Luckily there was a fence between us or our vehicle probably would have been flipped. This thing continued to chase us as long as it could and it was pretty awesome to watch. As the chase went on the buffalo's eyes got so red that it looked like a creature out of a horror film. That defiantly topped off the day with a nice meal and a couple beers to finish the night.
It wasn't the most successful day, but at least it was still interesting. The clients went with Hannes to Kruger today and then it's back the hunting. Hopefully our clients have some luck and I continue to enjoy my last 10 days here in Africa!
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