The last hunt of the trip for us was what was previously described as the easiest hunt I have ever had in Africa..
We really didnt have anything left on the agenda, and were for the most part just riding the property in search of whatever the bush would provide. I'd seen a paid of nice gemsbok a few times earlier in the week that I thought if we could find them again, I might be interested in making a run at them. I'd also seen tons of blue wildebeest and had thought another wildebeest rug might be nice as a bedside rug to help cope with cold hardwood floors in the mornings, but we really had no plan..
While driving one of the main properties at Bos en Dal we spied a pretty good sized herd of blue wildebeest that had a few decent shooter bulls in it.. they were on the move pretty briskly though and were a few hundred yards away, and we werent really sure where they might be going.. It appeared that they had just left one of the larger dams and had been getting a drink, but where they intended to end up now was anyones guess..
A quick decision was made to see if we might be able to head them off, and if so maybe get a better look at them and see if one of the "shooters" was really worth taking..
We drove probably 1/2 a mile, took a 90 degree left turn on a crossroad, drove another 1/4 mile and took another 90 degree turn, essentially putting ourselves on the opposite side of a squared off piece of property, hoping that we could get to some higher ground, look into the area we had just left and see where the herd was going..
Believing we were probably several hundred yards ahead of them or more and we really didnt know where they were going, we parked the bakkie, dismounted, and got in no hurry to get the rifles out or begin to move to higher ground.. In fact, everyone in the vehicle needed to pee, so we each stepped off a few feet in a different cardinal direction, dropped trou, and began to relieve ourselves, with me facing rearward from the vehicle..
Francois, in a hushed, but hurried voice shouted "Dave! he's here!!!!!" not having a clue what Francois was talking about, I didnt get in any hurry to shake things off or move in his direction.. and Francois proclaimed just a little louder.. "He's here!".. Slowly I turned around, still not having zipped up my fly, to see a nice blue wildebeest bull just standing in the road, staring at Francois, about 80 meters in front of the bakkie, with other wildebeest periodically passing behind him going from one field to the next..
Hoping not to startle the bull, I grabbed my rifle (fly still unzipped
), and moved toward Francois slowly.. as I approached Francois put up the sticks.. the rifle went on top of them, and less than 5 seconds later the trigger was pulled and the bull dropped in his tracks right in the middle of the road...
We literally didnt even have to move him 6" to pose him for pictures
