Days 9 & 10
Now that I had gotten all the animals on my list plus the wildebeest by the eighth day of a ten day hunt, Marius found himself in the position of having to keep us somewhat occupied for the final two days. I'm pretty easy to entertain, so that did not pose a problem. On the second-last afternoon Graham was going down into the Mpunzi property to set a live trap for Caracal. Marius asked us if we would like to go along, and of course I said yes! It was very interesting to watch them set the traps and brush them in. The setup consisted of two live traps set end-to-end together. In the back trap, a live chicken was used to lure the cat into the front trap. Tina was quite perturbed by this idea (even though she is an enthusiastic chicken devourer herself) and this became a source of great entertainment for Marius and myself! At one point, while cutting branches for concealing the trap, Marius came our of the bush carrying the pelvic bone from some medium-sized antelope. As he tossed it to the ground, the way it landed somehow reminded me of some kind of alien face. I found a piece of twine in the back of Graham's bakkie, and in no time I was transformed into some kind of terrifying African Alien Warrior! I'm sure Marius and Graham figured my elevator didn't go all the way to the top, but poor Tina fully understood that I'm just different!
After we had the trap set to satisfaction, we drove around to check another one. The trap was sprung, but instead of a cat inside, there was a porcupine. As this porcupine was not close to the bushpig bait, it was released to live its life doing porcupine things.
When we dropped Graham off, I noticed a tub by the skinning shed that contained all of my skulls in the salt. I must say that it was a pretty impressive sight, but I guess I am a bit biased!
We then went back to work on the bushpig baits. Actually Marius and Lloyd went to work on the bushpig baits...I was more than happy to be an observer and stick thrower for Flex. Trail cam pics told the tale of a new boar on the scene to replace one that was shot a couple of weeks prior which was good news for another hunter that was scheduled in after we left. However they also revealed a problem. Porcupines were coming in ahead of the pigs which is not favourable. So now my hunt, which I thought was over, was back on!
That evening Tina joined Marius and myself in the blind. In anticipation of shooting a porcupine, Marius exchanged his .300 Win Mag with a nice little CZ in .223 for me to shoot. It was quite a feeling sitting in the blind in the pitch black waiting in silence for something to show up. After a period of silence, Marius said that sometimes a bat would fly through the window into the blind. That is NOT what Tina wanted to hear! Luckily for her, a bat never made an appearance. But unluckily for us, likewise for the porcupine. So back to the lodge for supper.
The next (and last) day, Marius offered to take us for a BBQ lunch in the bush. He would grill us up some buffalo burgers over hot coals. Yes please!!!
It was a beautiful little spot in a shady open area and was a lovely, relaxing way to spend my last day in the Eastern Cape bush. Delicious burgers were a bonus!
After lunch we spent the rest the afternoon relaxing at the lodge and enjoying the weather on the deck.
All too soon the sun began to recede, signaling that our time in Africa was really coming to a close. But there was still one more evening in the bushpig blind waiting for a porcupine! This evening, Tina opted to stay back at the lodge, so it would just be Marius and myself. This proved fortunate, as just as full darkness came in the blind, I saw something fly through the window and flutter around and around in there with us. It was the bat that Marius mentioned the night before! It must have flown around in there for a minute before it found it's way back out. Each time it flew past my head, I could feel the wind from it's wings on my face! I whispered to Marius that it was a good thing Tina wasn't with us because she would have flipped right out!!! Unlike last night, tonight we could hear sounds coming from outside the blind. Marius said it was likely pigs coming in but not quite committing to the bait. A little while later, the red light slowly came on. We looked through the binoculars and saw that there were two porcupines at the bait. We quietly got into shooting position and Marius told me to shoot when ready. I fired and one porcupine went down. But these African porcupines move a lot faster than ours in North America and the second one escaped unscathed. I was amazed at the sound that was coming from the dead porcupine as it's quills rattled together. It was a fantastic, unexpected trophy to end my trip. It would have been nice to get both of them, but hopefully getting the one will help out the bushpig hunter get his boar!
