AUSTRALIA: Walkabout Safaris

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Well I’ve been back for a week or so now and just about stopped grinning.. what a trip!
Being a kiwi (they’ve adopted me) a trip to the Northern Territory is pretty easy, flying to Melbourne and then upto Darwin. Rifle paperwork was a bit of a stress but all came together well.
The trip had been a long time in the plan with my good friend Chris. Unfortunately he had to drop out due to work issues two days before we were due to leave. We’d also already roped in one of NZ’s foremost taxidermists David Jacobs to come along for a holiday….
Frantic phone calls two days out meant that we were to be joined by Jarred a good friend who lives in my village. He’d managed to swing the last minute time off of work and Walkabout Safaris had managed to get the online firearms licence approved by NT police in 12 hours!
An easy transit in Melbourne where all the paperwork was in order, I even got a complimentary walking boot clean, and we were off to Darwin…
We landed at midnight and were met at the airport at 6am by Stephen and his assistant Ron. A quick stop off at Bunnings for David to get some supplies and we were off to the Murgenella Flood plains.
Camp wasn’t on the flood plains but rather a short drive away on the coast…

 

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Day one dawned bright and warm. Mid 30’s was the usual temperature most days, and whilst there was a breeze on the coast there wasn’t much of one on the flood plains…
We’d had time to zero check the rifle (my beloved Lancaster 375) the night before.
A quick light breakfast, coffee and litre of water and we were off in the Landcruiser down to the hunting block…
As we drove down to the entrance to the flood plains I noticed my first banteng. I mentioned to Stephen that there was one in the paperbark..

 

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A quick assessment and we were on.
Quite a short hunt maybe 500m with the bull and his three juniors slowly moving through the paper bark forest in front of us.. after maybe an hour he gave me a good shot opportunity and he was down.. old, heavy and worn out.. a perfect banteng bull.

 

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