Day 9 of 19

A new water hole in the northwest

Monday, 27 August 2012

Two hours' drive northwest to a water hole Robert says no one has hunted before. A big old bull track on a dirt road two and a half kilometers off the main road — yesterday's late-afternoon print.

Two hours northwest to a water hole Robert said no one had hunted before. A big old bull track on the dirt road two and a half kilometers in. Yesterday’s late afternoon. Semi-hard sand and grass. We started at ten past seven.

Five point eight kilometers on, the bull crossed the main road we had just driven. We had been going too fast to see his print. Florian went back for the cruiser; we kept tracking. Three and a half kilometers more and we found his brown, dried dung and hardened urine in the sand. Yesterday afternoon’s.

Tracking through hard sand and grass, day 9 — Hard sand, tall grass, and a bull nine kilometers ahead of us

He was traveling — straight in one direction, no stops to feed. Robert said from the print this was a very good old bull. We could not catch him. We turned back for the new water hole.

An hour more on a road tangled with branches and saplings — it had been years since anyone came this way. Cow-and-calf sign everywhere along the road. Several old bulls from last night. Felix’s spirits were up again — this country was promising for a hundred-pounder. We would be back at first light.

The new northwest water hole and its sign — Old-bull sign everywhere at the new water — come back tomorrow

South in the afternoon for fresh spoor. Young-bull track, kudu cows.

Back to camp in the late afternoon, day 9 — A long, dry drive back — but we have a country to come back to