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It's ON! Semi-live from South Africa!
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Here's a few pictures from our fishing trip! We were after tiger fish, which come to find out we were not fishing the right time of year for them of course, but we were able to see A LOT of amazing critters that God put on this earth for is to enjoy! Really crazy to be fishing and have hippo not 200yards from you or a warthog come running to the water, and the best of all, getting to see RHINOS up so close! And to see all of them in their natural habitat running wild was truly amazing! It would be the equivalent of setting out on your favorite bass lake throwing a jig along the bank and all of a sudden all these critters are right there walking down the bank line lookin at you!
In hind sight, we prolly would have ditched the fishing trip since it was one less afternoon that we got to hunt and still had a couple critters we wanted, but to see to see so many amazing animals like we did and getting pictures in not only on film, but in our memories, looking back it was an afternoon well spent!
Giraffe driving in by the lake
And finally, one of the most memorable sights, a female and baby rhino. The PH's son, who grew up in Africa his whole life, was with us on the fishing trip and said he'd never been that close to wild rhinos before or seen sites like that, so that really put it into perspective how great the the trip was for us!
Disclaimer: One of my bigger regrets (or mishaps) for the trip was not having my big camera with me on the fishing trip, but I didn't know what we were getting into on the boat and didn't want to risk getting it wet so these are all off my cell phone and aren't the best pictures in the world.
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To say the anticipation was high in the first day would be an understatement! As soon as we pulled into the place we were going to hunt, animals were all over the place! Our main quarry the first day was going to be impala and warthogs ad we had already seen a TON of em by the time we reached our hides. Sahara would be hunting with the owner/PH's son Neil and I was going to be hunting with the main man Lammie. We were in the blinds no time and animals were already coming to water. Didn't start hunting the first day till around 9:30 or so, and it was already starting to warm up. Didn't take long (maybe 1 1/2hrs) and we got word that Sahara had already struck and the impala went down within 50yards! I was super excited for her and happy that she was able to hold her nerves back and make a great shot!
Sahara and Neil moved to another property, while I continued to hunt the same water hole until dark. Seen lots and lots of critters including impala and warthogs, but no boars came in and no impala rams would hold still long enough for me to loose an arrow!
Blesbuck females coming to water
Twisted horn nyala bull.
Right before dark my luck would change and the main critter on my bucket list for many years came over the dam of the waterhole, a zebra. First time he started to water, Lammie said I'd get one chance and if it spooked, it wouldn't be back. Just my luck, as I knocked an arrow in the fashion I always do, no more than three quills on my feathers brushed against my string, and my dream animal picked up his head and walked away into the thorn brush.. I was heartbroken. About 20 minutes passed and the zebra, unbelievably made another appearance. Lammie couldn't believe it came back and said it would only water if another animal or two came in first just to calm it's nerves a bit. As if on cue, two warthogs came to drink and the zebra followed right in. He began to drink and Lammie asked if he was close enough to shoot. I ranged him at 22 yards and without hesitation started drawing back to shoot. As soon as I let go, it felt like a good shot, but he had enough time to duck the string causing the hit to be a bit high and a touch far back for my liking. Instantly though, blood started coming out so that gave me hope. We took up the tracks, but unfortunately dark set in and we ha to back out. Lammie said he'd have the farms workers go look in the morning and acted extremely confident that they'd find him dead or alive. The sleepless night began right then. The next day around noon, we got the call they had found him, up and still on his feet. We took after him to try and get a follow up shot and finally after circling him numerous times with no luck, a 25yard shot opened up as he was slightly quartering and walking away from us and I let one fly! To say it didn't feel like a rodeo getting him down would be an understatement but finally it all came to a close and I had my zebra!
Gotta get back to yard work, been lounging to long! Don't want the wife to get on to me!
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