Harold and I were up for breakfast to go look for my warthog. Jumping into the truck with Hans and Freckie at 6:15, we did the 20 minute drive to the property to again meet the owner. By 6:45 we had dropped Hans where we'd given up the chase last night and then we positioned us and the truck on a parallel trail in case the hog was pushed thru. After an hour we still hadn't heard from Hans, but then Bwana Pieter pulled up. He had decided to come out and lend Hans a hand, so he took Freckie and they drove over to the drop off point in his truck.

We waited at our truck for another half hour when all of a sudden Bwana Pieter was on the radio. He asked that we drive the truck over to where his was parked and to join them there. I jumped in the reverse driver's side, fired up the land cruiser diesel, figured out the gears and idled down the trails until we found them. When we could finally see Bwana Pieter's truck we could see all three of them standing there. A bit puzzled we drove on and when we got a little closer we got the big thumbs up. They had just found my warthog a couple of minutes after they had called us to join them. The reason they had called us before they found him was that Bwana Pieter had spotted a blood trail coming back across the trail so he knew the pig wouldn't be coming our way if he was still alive.

As it turned out the warthog dropped just inside the brush within 20 yards of where we'd had to stop the search the night before. If we would have had another 15 minutes of light last night we might have found him. And sure enough, I had shot him quite far back. So after pictures and high fives all around, we loaded my trophy into the truck and were back at camp by 8:30.

    
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We spent the rest of the morning and all afternoon wandering around the property, reading, packing, and just generally being lazy. This was the first time in twenty-five days we really had most of the day with nothing to do. Bwana Pieter presented us with our final bill for the meals, accommodation, hospitality and the hunting and it was exactly what we had been led to expect, and not one rand more.

      
      
      
      
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While I was wandering about, I took the opportunity to take some pictures of some of the different types of prickles that'll get you in the African bush. These are just a few.

      
    
      
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Dinner was after Rod, Quentin and Arlene returned from their afternoon hunt. Rod was looking for a warthog but by the time they got onto a good one they ran out of daylight. As well, Quentin was looking for a big tusker as but wasn't able to find one. Arlene, who is an avid hunter but came on this trip as an observer, finally couldn't resist and took a very respectable blesbok.

We spent our last evening at Cruiser's just visiting with our fellow hunters, the professional hunters and Bwana Pieter. I heard through the grapevine that Tiny even volunteered to do a pole dance. Also, I just want to mention here that Bwana Pieter is very playful and likes to play lots of tricks, like rum in your wineglass and plastic beetles on your plate at supper.

      
      
      
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We said our goodbyes to Quentin, Arlene and Rod as they would probably be gone hunting by the time we roll out in the morning. They're staying till Thursday and friends of theirs are being picked up in Jo'burg Monday morning for an eight day hunt. Got caught up on my notes before bedtime and turned in at 9:30.