7 - Just Another Day

11 May 2010

Since the elephant hunt, there has not been a whole lot of excitement going on here, with one notable exception: my Quiksilver visor which has been with me through thick and thin for the past 5 years, ever since I found it abandoned on Hukilau beach, has disappeared without a trace. I had it in the morning when I hopped into the Land Cruiser to go out hunting, but when we got to where we were going it was nowhere to be found. I have even offered a reward for whoever finds and brings it back to me, but to no avail. And if that doesn’t work, then probably nothing will. I think I most likely dropped it on the ground somewhere and someone picked it up thinking it had been discarded, as it admittedly looked like a piece of trash. However, it was my favorite hat and there will never be another like it. RIP, old friend.

Other than that, every day has been fairly normal. We begin at around 5:15 am with a good breakfast, and then go our separate ways for the day. Our hunting client enjoys sitting in blinds at water holes, which doesn’t exactly make for great filming, so I often stay at the house and do stuff on the computer during those times. His son, however, enjoys walking and so whenever he goes out with the guys I follow. So far he’s only shot a zebra, but I did get some decent footage out of it. David sometimes goes with me, and sometimes not. Quinn has only partially recovered from being sick and so he has been staying with the vehicle during the day. I have no doubt he’ll be up and walking around very soon, though.

We all reconvene at the camp for lunch, which is often a heavy, greasy affair that generally suits my taste buds just fine but does mean things to my digestive tract. Usually after that we spend a couple of hours lounging and loafing around while the sun passes its zenith and the heat starts to drop off a bit. However, Mr Galke the hunting client is not accustomed to this midday time wasting and is often fidgeting and itching to get back out into the bush again by the time it’s over. He cannot be much less than 70 years of age but the man has an endless wellspring of energy. His talks constantly about anything and everything and never seems tired or worn out. It is an amazing phenomenon and I can only hope that when I’m old I have half the energy this man has.

After our afternoon siesta we go out again, walking or sitting in the blinds. So far the death toll has been 3 impala (although one was never found), 1 warthog, 1 wildebeest, 1 zebra, and 8 francolin (a small partridge/quail-type bird). Today Mr Galke is sitting by a waterhole, and his son is out walking around in search of wildebeest number two. I decided to sleep in today and update my journal, do some more work on Tokkie’s cattle program, and generally loaf around until a productive project comes to mind. I still have to find the perfect spot to hang up our hammock, fix the velcro on some second hand boot covers we’ve been given (it is an awful nuisance walking through the bush with all the pokies and grass seeds getting stuck on your socks and falling into your shoes), study for the GRE and research what kind of graduate school program I’d like to go into (any and all suggestions welcome), edit the latest footage so the Galkes can have a DVD to go home with, the list goes on and on and on. But what’s most likely to happen is that I will sigh, look around me, think that all those things can wait for another day, and go for a nice long walk in the bush.