Day One
Looking back now, even though I took notes, I wish I’d taken more. One of the main reasons I decided to write this report is so I can remind myself of everything that went on because as we all know, the small details start to fade quicker than you’d like. I took as many photos and videos as I could, but even that didn’t seem like enough. My goal for the next trip is to keep a detailed daily log and, hopefully, have the whole hunt filmed.
Anyway, Day One was off to a great start. Godfrey, our camp cook, will legitimately make you anything you want for breakfast. I’m not a big breakfast guy, so it didn’t matter much to me but the rest of the family thoroughly enjoyed his pancakes, bacon, and eggs.
We loaded up into three different trucks 2x1 setups. I rode with Jaco and my wife. My brother and his wife rode with Gilbert, and my parents went with Quentin. We all used the PHs’ rifles on this trip, so first stop was the ranch range to fire a few rounds and check zero. Ammo is extremely regulated in Botswana, so one shot each was all we needed.
My parents stayed on the main home ranch to track eland, while my group and my brother’s group headed about thirty minutes away to another property. Now here’s where the trip already showed its uniqueness Botswana had gotten an unreal amount of rain the week before we arrived. Everyone in camp said they’d only seen it like this two or three times in their entire lives living in ghanzi. For the first four days, we battled water everywhere not just puddles, but lakes big enough to crest onto the hood of the Cruiser.
The first ranch we hunted didn’t have the deepest water we would see that week, but some crossings still came up just under the headlights.
Before noon, we’d already seen four kudu bulls in the 51–54” range and plenty of gemsbok. The only inconvenience was that we often had to skirt the edge of the property, hunting for a shallow crossing spot. Honestly though, it was one of the coolest sights some of those ponds stretched a mile or two long, and we circled them most of the morning without luck.
Around 10 a.m., we spotted a group of wildebeest laid up in the shade. March can get hot, so they weren’t moving much. We bailed off and started the stalk through thick stuff until I could make out a bull standing to the left of the group under the trees. I put one in his chest, and just like that, I had my first Botswana animal a beautiful blue wildebeest.
The brindle coloring on these things is something else. We took photos, admired him for a bit, then loaded up.
We decided to sit a blind through midday to kill some time. I’d brought my bow on this trip, but with all the water, sitting a waterhole didn’t make much sense. The grass was waist deep in most places, making smaller animals nearly impossible to spot, and the trees were fully green visibility was minimal. Bowhunting was basically out.
While in the blind, I could’ve taken a gemsbok, but it wasn’t on my list for this trip. My brother and his wife joined us for lunch there, and not long after, a beautiful gemsbok wandered in. My sister-in-law, Skyla, had gemsbok high on her list, so she got on the sticks and made a perfect shot. She’s still fairly new to hunting, so the calm setting was perfect for her.
Later that afternoon, we drove another thirty minutes to one of Jaco’s cousin’s places. (Everyone is Jaco’s cousin, apparently.) My wife and I both had waterbuck on our list, so we went looking. I’ll admit, by this point I was struggling to stay awake. We arrived about an hour before dark, but didn’t see much early on. Ranch staff told us the waterbuck usually moved right before sundown, so we set up in a likely area.
Sure enough, about 30 minutes before dark, a beautiful bull stepped out. We played cat and mouse for a half mile but he never gave my wife the shot she needed. We hustled back to the truck to try another spot. With about ten minutes of shooting light left, we found another big bull tucked under a tree. My wife got on the sticks and dropped him right there.
Waterbuck are one of those animals where no picture can do justice to the sheer mass of their horns. Just a super solid trophy. We loaded him up and headed back to camp, music up, smiles all around.
Day One was in the books.
Here’s some footage from the day
