Ok, so the final post of the hunt itself...always a little sad for me as I want the hunt to continue!
The local farm manager shows us the blind and Dieter and I get setup while Luke and the tracker stay at the baakie a few hundred yards away, out of the wind. The video shows daytime activity at the watering hole at 8, 11 and 2. We are there early but the wind is a little unsteady. We sit until 12 and back out for quick lunch at the truck and then back to the blind. We sit for the afternoon and see nothing but I feel like it’s the wind. This is a better setup than the beginning of the week and we have multiple video clips from yesterday.
How do you like our little Barbie tent blind? The animals don't care as long as it doesn't move to another spot or make noise.
We come back the next morning for the final sit and are in place early. A few outrageously colored birds and a big mongoose comes into the water. I've never seen a mongoose during the day and the PH agrees.
Almost right on schedule, the female comes to the water and stays for a few minutes. We are looking out the edges of the tent windows for any sign of the male. Nothing visible and she leaves. Several hours later she comes back and this time we see the male in the bushes 30-40 yards back…no shot but we see him! We think he will come in but he doesn’t. The female leaves again and about 1 hour later she returns to the water. I’m watching her from 15 meters through the binos. She is exquisite! Her features are very delicate and she is on high alert, sniffing the air, wired for survival. There is no sign of the male and after a few minutes, she turns and leaves.
Sigh…our time is up. So many times, I have persevered and gotten the target in the last minutes. Not this time. We were very optimistic after seeing video but the little blue has beaten us on this trip. It’s a mixed feeling as we really put some time into this…7 sits and 3 full days of effort focused on the blue. We head towards the airport and my mind goes to lessons learned, which will be my next post.
