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You can go too low
By. M Stuiver |
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My first bow hunting experience....
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My friend Ann Horsman from Michigan, USA visits Southern Africa once a year to hunt. After three years of doing this, she has great experience and is destined to hunt a Buffalo in Zimbabwe this year - something most of us are only dreaming of.  Ann arrived on 5 August at Johannesburg International where I picked her up. We were planning for our first hunt together and were looking forward to it very much. I only started archery a couple of months ago so once again the "rookie" was out to try and gain more experience….
 After clearing through customs, we set off to Kitty Hawk airfield close to Pretoria where we were to be flown by Chris Brand, owner, Outfitter and PH of Njiri bow lodge to his exclusive bow hunting concession on the border of Botswana, Limpopo Province. Last year during Ann's visit for those that keep track of the articles on this site, we paid a visit to the concession as an introduction to Ann and this year Ann was booked to hunt Warthog (Njiri means Warthog and believe me - are there Warthogs!) and an Impala.
The 45 minute flight to Njiri in Chris' Baron 6 seater went smoothly and Puma the blue tick hunting dog and myself were snoozing in the back of the aircraft (had a couple of severe late working nights in order to be able to go and hunt.
Cindy Wheeler, a photographic Safari observer was to join us at Njiri lodge upon arrival and poor Chris was going to be stuck with us three women on the ranch for 4 days.
As always the home fires were burning in the lapa - Muzi and Tuli, the friendly staff carried all our luggage into the lodge and the first thing that came off were the shoes…..both Ann and me love walking barefoot. Chris has a shooting range available and the bow that I was using (courtesy Gittie, Chris' wife) needed some adjustments. Chris took care of this in his bow "shop" and I curiously looked on as he used the bow press to make the necessary adjustments.
 Ann and I shot a couple of arrows together at the shooting range in preparation of our hunts - what a golden moment. Chris observed and advised us to improve our archery techniques. Our arrangement was that if Ann gets her animals provided that there is sufficient time left, I could shoot a Warthog.
Cindy arrived from Botswana quite late that evening and after a delicious dinner, we all called it a night. At last some sleep, something that eludes me most of the time. There were very strict instructions that I was not to move should I wake up at my normal 2:00 am or 4:00 am in the morning……
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