Bow Hunting Safari in South Africa

On September 11^th Dad and I left Brisbane and arrived in Perth.

After a cancelled flight and delays, we finally touched down in Johannesburg on the 13^th of September and arrived at Port Elizabeth a couple of hours later, where we were picked up by Kelvin Milsom from Induna Safaris.

After an hour’s drive, we arrived at the lodge, eager to do some hunting but first, we had to do some minor adjustments to our sights on our bows. Then we were ready for an afternoon hunt. I was so excited to start my first Plains Game South African hunt. We went out into the bush to glass for animals.

We spotted a lone kudu bull and Dad was up for the challenge. While Dad stalked closer, Kelvin and I sat back and watched the event unfold through our binoculars. Dad managed to get in closer, and with some skilful stalking, he was able to close the distance between him and the Kudu bull. While watching the events unfold of our first hunt, we noticed a jackal to Dad’s left. Dad pulled out his predator call and started calling the jackal in closer. Amazingly two more jackals appeared and they were all coming towards him fairly quickly. To our amazement a Duiker came into the whistle, which really puzzled me; why a prey animal would come to a distress call? The Duiker noticed the jackals and took off. The jackals must have sensed something and took off. The kudu bull got spooked by all the commotion, and he too took off, disappearing into the bush. So dad, unfortunately, didn’t get another opportunity to take a shot, but we both agreed the afternoon in the bush, had been very exciting and enjoyable. Having seen the different species reacting as they did, this really got our adventure juices flowing, and only made us more excited for what was to come.

Day 2 September 14^th – we were up early ready for a long day of hunting. Dad and Kelvin went off hunting in one area of the concession, to look for another Kudu bull. I headed out with the tracker Ashley. It was great to be able to walk straight from the lodge into the bush. While we were walking through the rocky terrain, I couldn’t help but notice the open expanse of the land before us. At that moment I felt like I was finally hunting in the wild of Africa.  We walked for some time before we noticed a sow warthog, on a hill opposite us about 150 yards away, she was feeding towards us. We got into a good position and had the wind right, I ranged her at 60 yards as she was half quartering away, half broadside. I was ready to shoot her and in a good position.  My mind started racing, I knew that this was an easy shot for me on a target, but this was not a target at a range. While I was contemplating my options, which felt like hours but was only a few seconds, the wind swirled and she bolted off. My heart racing and excitement at its peak, I was ready to bag a South African plains game animal.

After about half an hour of walking, we spotted Impala feeding in the distance I was told back home that it would be very difficult to walk and stalk Impala as they were such weary animals from being hunted by lions for thousands of years, but I was up for the challenge. We closed the distance and got within 90 yards, we ran out of cover to get closer, I watched them for about half an hour then decided to abandon the stalk. We walked back to the lodge and had lunch.

We then headed out to the blind that afternoon we waited for half an hour then a troop of monkeys came in to feed on the oranges. It was very interesting to watch their interactions. They were chased off about 5 minutes later by a larger troop. I picked out the largest male with the bluest balls and shot it at 20 yards tight behind the shoulder and it ran about 15 yards and expired. I was happy to hunt my first animal but was now determined to bag a Plains game animal. Then about 45 minutes later, a group of Nyala’s appeared out of nowhere. Two bulls and three cows, they were quite alert and seemed very weary of their surroundings. They finally settled down to feed on the lucern. I patiently waited for the biggest one to present a shot, and finally, he did, a perfect, quartering away shot at 20 yards. I tucked it right behind the shoulder my arrow took out his heart and exited right on his opposite shoulder and out the other side. I was thrilled with my beautiful animal.

Day 3 September 15^th – We were up early again and did some walking and stalking with no luck. Although Dad did manage to call in two Duikers with his predator whistle, we believe they came in because they thought it was another male in their area, but neither presented a shot so we retired back to the blind and had a delicious packed lunch while we waited for the game. After a while, a group of kudu came in they were even more skittish than the Nyala. We waited for a shot the biggest one, he finally turned broadside at 18 yards I put my 20-yard pin right behind his shoulder and he ran off into the thick brush. As we waited for him to expire we spotted two Nyala bulls and Kelvin excitedly whispered: “it's one horn, it is one horn!”  We had seen a one-horned Nyala the day before, that Dad really wanted to get. Unbelievably this same Nyala presented himself at the blind. The two bulls slowly walked past each other as if they were about to fight and then they came into feed. Dad was up, he ranged it at 16 yards and took a semi-quartering away – semi broadside shot and it ran about 50 meters and fell over and expired. After a quick photo session we looked for my kudu but ran out of light so we headed back to the lodge.