Day 5
Up at 5 and a quick cup of coffee then out the door. We arrived the new property, a beautiful valley with pecan orchards surrounded by high, steep hills that had dense cover. We saw Kudu , Nyala, Impapa and Warthog almost immediately. By eight, the first Red Duiker was spotted - female. I am shocked at all the females we have seen. It is so difficult to ID these tiny antelope in the heavy cover. Before 11 we spotted another female and were successful calling a pair but it was so fast I could not get a shot off on the male.
The afternoon proved to be slow but I helped out the farmer by taking an old Warthog male out of the pecan orchard. They have a constant battle keeping the pigs out and this old boy had nice tusks so he went to the salt. We cut out shortly afterwards to get back to the farmhouse for an early dinner so we could start night hunting by seven.
The weather was perfect tonight, only a light breeze and crystal clear sky. The stars shined like diamonds on black velvet and we were very thankful for the pleasant weather change. Apparently another front is arriving tomorrow so we plan to stay out as late as the hunting is good.
Thirty minutes into the night we spotted an Aardwolf. He was in the grass at about 90 yards and difficult to see but I got comfortable and squeezed off a shot - I missed. We went to the site and searched for blood but there was none. I was disappointed in myself and I felt like I had blown my opportunity to take an Aardwolf. These are a difficult to find little animal but Ian was confident we'd get another chance. We carried on - Not three minutes into the drive we spotted eyes in the distance. As we stopped to glass it, there was rustling in the high grass next to us not 20' away. Ian said Serval, Serval take the shotgun. I grabbed the 12 ga. Double and they cat stopped and looked over its shoulder and I shot. It was instant, as all I had was a head shot and the cat was down. A gorgeous animal I have only seen once before in all my years of hunting Africa. The shot was 7 paces - I'm just glad I didn't miss that one!
After the photo session and retelling the story we were elated and carried on in search of Aardwolf. Another thirty minutes go by, we spot another White tail Mongoose but no shot. Then eyes off in the distance, a Aardwolf! Ian stopped the vehicle and I asked the distance (for me judging distance at night is difficult) and he said 120. I cranked the scope up to 12 and could see the animal clearly and took him with one shot behind the shoulder. I was speechless, two incredible trophies and it wasn't yet 8:30.
We decided to keep on and see what else we could find. We spotted another Serval, two more Aardwolf and another Whitetailed Mongoose. A little before 10 we got on to some porcupine but tried to get into shotgun range and it didn't work. This four hour night hunt has made up for all the bad luck I have had this week on Suni and Red Duiker. We then decided to call it a night and give try the morning hunt for Red Duiker before calling it a week.
