Day 2

Well today was a pretty stinking sweet day. Mr. van Vuuren took Trevor and I hunting. Yeah you read that right, hunting. I went hunting in Africa. I have joined the Africa club. Not only did I go hunting but I also shot something. My uncle Jim would be proud. So the day started early. We should have gotten up at around 5:30 but I didn't get out of bed until around 6:15. We quickly ate breakfast and then headed out to the game farm. Once we got there we met our guid and piled into the back of the truck. It was actually kind of funny. We looked like a bunch of militia men in a technical like you see in the African war movies. I mean here I was standing in the back of the truck with a rifle as we drove through the brush. Well the hunt started out pretty slow. We were out for the African Impala. Well we didn't see any for like an hour. We did see some Giraffes... I decided that those weren't worth the effort of trying to clean. So we kept driving. A couple of minutes later we saw three Impala, but I was told they were to small for shooting. So we kept driving. We drove around for around another four hours. Didn't see a thing. So we stopped and took a break. Mr. van Vuuren decided that it would be best if the guide and I got out on foot to see if we could get some. With in five minutes we found a herd of about thirty. I never could get a shot. We spent the next hour stalking that herd. Everytime we would get close, I never had a shot and then they would get spooked and run off. Eventually we lost them. So after all that effort all I had to show for it were some bleeding scrapes from the bush. We finally made it back to the truck and drove around for about thirty more minutes. I was begining to think that this trip was for naught and we would have to go back empty handed. However, since it was around noon the guide suggested that we head to the watering hole and see if we could get one there. Trever decided that he was tired of riding in the truck and so he followed behind us at a distance. Whe got the the watering hole and set up shop in a small blind. After thirty minutes of waiting we finally had some things coming to water. They were Zebras. I thought about how cool it would be to have a Zebra head on my wall, but I knew that they weren't what we were here for. A couple of them started coming to water and then we saw the shape of an Impala through the brush. Just then they must have caught a whiff of us because they got really spooked and started to run off. The final straw that sent them scattered to the wind was Mr van Vuuren driving up in his truck. So we decided to pursue on foot again. At this time it was about one in the afternoon. We walked for about thirty minutes until we finally found the herd. This time we got the jump on them. I got into position about twenty meters away. They started to move through a small clearing in the trees. Everything I saw was antler less, but I was looking for a ram (buck). Finally I saw one with horns. I raised the rifle and pulled the trigger. One shot one kill. It dropped like a rock. We ran over and made sure it was dead. Trevor and the guide then dragged it back to the road and we set off to find Mr van Vuuren. After thirty minutes of walking we finally found him. We all piled into the back of the truck and headed off to find my kill. It took us about twenty minutes to get to it. He had to drive all the way around the farm. We got to the Impala and took a couple of victory pics. Then we through it into the back of the truck to be processed. After we dropped it off we headed back to the house to get cleaned up. Trevor and I then packed up and then followed Beer's parents to Nelspruit. We were going to be staying at one of their friends house. Before I go on, I have got to say Beer's mom drives fast. I mean the speed limit it 120 (kph) and she was going at least 140. But we made it to Nelspruit in time to go to the store. I needed a sleeping bag and Trevor needed a jacket. We also needed to get food for the bria. After that we headed to pick up the guys from rugby practice. When we got to the house, I got out of the car and was immediately swamped by three of the guys that were on my rugby team last year. We hugged and then got the luggage out of the car and took it into the house. By this time the parents had already started the grill and do we went and set out in the cool night while the food was being cooked. We talked about everything. How we were doing, what was going on in our lives and just all kinds of things. Our conversation lasted at least an hour and a half. Once it was finished we went and served ourselves dinner. We had steak, chicken, vorsh (sausage), a sweat cornbread thing, and salad. It was a GREAT meal. The steak I had, to be at least two inches thick. It was fantastic. After dinner we sat and talked for a while. Menzi and Daniel headed back to the hostel about thirty minutes later. The guys
started their homework and the rest of us talked. Trevor and I then distributed the gifts that we brought. We got cowboy belts and belt buckles for the guys. I also got Beer a pair of cowboy boots. He was ecstatic. After he tried them on, he came over and gave me a big bear hug... so for those that didn't pick up on that pun, his nickname is beer which is "bear" in Afrikaans, so bear hug... Any way after a while Beer's parents left to go back to Komatipoort, and our host headed to bed. Trevor decided to go shower and hit the hay. So I stayed up with Beer as he finished his homework. We talked about rugby and school and what his plans for the future were. At about 11:30 I decided to turn in since we had a long drive in the morning.