Archive for January 11th, 2001
Day 8
The last couple of nights were hot, but this is ridiculous. Apparently its 45 degrees centigrade. That sounds about right.
In the morning we went with the doc to dart a tsessebe (topi). We managed to find it and dart it, but it ran off too quickly and we lost it before the tranquilliser had chance to take effect. The vegetation was especially dense, making it impossible to find. We spent an hour looking for the downed tsessebe, but eventually had to give up.
We did some shooting today, which was a great experience. Tyse radioed the anti-poaching patrol to let them know what we were doing first. We used a gong-style metal target, a simple round metal plate about 30cm in diameter swinging from a frame. I fired a few shots of a .303 caliber rifle using various types of bullet, some heavy-load, others lighter. I wasn’t quite prepared for the loudness of it, it left my ears ringing a bit! The target was a good 60-70 meters away, but thanks to the rifle scope I hit the target first time.
I also tried a revolver style gun, which was a lot more difficult. I could rarely hit the target just 20 meters away. He also demonstrated a larger-caliber rifle, using solid brass bullets, which was even more powerful.
We did an evening drive today. We didn’t see that much, but one sighting was well worth it - we found a group of 4 wild rhinos, a small family which was spectacular.
There was a massive thunderstorm tonight, which was cool.