Day 10, Thurs 4 Aug
Headed out to a blind we had set up on day 1. It was a dried out waterhole that showed some pig sign. We had also put out some food and added some water from a truck. We figured that it may now be ready after 2 days of being left alone. We got there and unfortunately there was no new sign - oh well at least we tried. We did see a group of giraffe on the drive back out.
We decided to go back to the brick blind. 15 minutes into our sit an ostrich came in for a drink and some pellets.
After 2 hours and no activity we got out to go for a walk. After getting out of the blind we noticed a smaller drag mark going from the waterhole past the blind and off into the bush. PH saw the tracks and said Caracal. Another pretty cool find. Seems like this place was loaded with cats. We walked back towards camp and saw numerous tracks - Zebra, Wildebeest, kudu, more caracal. Then back to camp for lunch.
I went back to the large waterhole and the climbing stand at 1:30. At 2:10 an Impala walked in from the right to water and came in to 43 yards. It was only of average size, nothing huge, and was a little farther then I wanted to shoot from as they are known to string jump, but I figured give it a go. I waited until it seemed to calm down and lowered its head to drink. It was a slight quartering away shot with its head looking slightly away in a good position. I slowly drew back the bow and just when I hit the valley and started to take aim it somehow turned and looked at me and in 1 second was gone. Incredible sixth sense as my bow made no noise. It must have saw movement in its peripheral vision. Another good hunting experience that made me appreciate the Impala I took with the bow in 2014.
I decided get down from the stand and set up on a section of the bank that had some cover in front to it. Also, I had the gun with me this time in case longer range opportunities presented themselves, as this was the last night of our visit to this concession. At 3 pm on the far left side of the waterhole some Impala appeared. They came out of a thick section of bush that ended only 15 feet from the waters edge, so I didn't see them arrive, I just caught a glimpse of one and all were already drinking. There were 4 rams and 3 ewes. Two were small Rams and 2 good sized ones. The same 2 from the previous night. Similar length, but one had typical shape and the others tips angled in a little. I had determine previously that the one whose tips came in had a slightly better mass and this to me overrode the slightly angled tips. It was at this time that I realized how much bush was a few feet in front of me. I actually rested the gun on the top cam of my bow, picked a spot through a 5 inch hole in the bush and shot. The Impala dropped like a rock without a single twitch. The others vanished. I think they all cleared the 15 foot distance into the bush in one leap. I walked over and was excited to see the nice ram. He measured 23" and 22.5".
I put him a short distance away and went back to my position overlooking the waterhole. This site was now named "the impala waterhole". I wondered if the bigger Impala that came in near dark the previous night would show again. If he did I was going to let er' rip. I noticed quite a few zebra tracks and hoped to get a visit from them before dark.
I heard a distant shot at 4 pm and figured Bill or Doug may have connected on something as well.
Around 5 pm I heard some hooves and saw zebra were approaching from the right. I decided to use the bow and let them move in. I got my bow ready and waited for them to get closer. The lead zebra passed by my right side and I froze. He moved out in front of me at 20 yards, but the others were now to my right so I had to freeze until they also moved past me and down to the water. Bad luck as I had a clear broadside shot on the lead animal. The lead stallion had moved farther to my left and was now 15 feet into the waterhole, distance approx 28 yards, as he was just past a branch I ranged at 25 when setting up. I drew but then ran into the problem of finding a hole in the bush/sticks that were in front of me. The shot was closer and more downhill compared to the previous rifle shot and I had to extend my torso higher to get to a triangle shaped hole. Kind of awkward as I was kneeling. At the shot I saw the thorny stick that made up the bottom of the triangle hole twang and my arrow deflected a few feet under the belly of the zebra hitting the water directly under his body. I had a lighted knock, and the arrow seemed to go in slow motion. Score was now zebra 1, Lee 0, but that is hunting. The single zebra exited quickly and stopped about 75 yards Behind me to the left for about 10 seconds trying to figure out what happened. I looked at him through my binos and all was well. He kept circling and met up with the other 6 out about 150 yards before running off. I thought about the .300 win mag sitting by my side but thought he earned his freedom. 30 mins later some blue wildebeest ran by 150 yards out in a hurry. Not sure what had startled them. That was it for the night except for this view of the sun going down over this location which proved to be a good spot.
Bill also took an Impala. I believe it was out of this elevated blind over the other good sized waterhole on this property.
Another good day in SA had come to an end
We had the usual good food, a fire and a lot of stories back at the lodge. A little BS also thrown in as well. As the temps dipped at night, one of our PH's, Johan would shovel a pile of hot coals from the fire under his chair. We all gave him a hard time until we tried it and found it quite effective at warming up the body.
We are lucky we didn't burn down a chair
