Its been a lifetime since you left home. The morning sun is rising and you are last to the cuiser, as usual. The boys have gotten it ready and your PH is standing, waiting for you. You can't help what your mind is flashing, the months of waiting, saving for this, another rip. You've saved every penny you could. Much of your food was from the wild, and your garden. The new car is put off for another year. The nights out, well they can wait. The kids new shoes, well the old ones still work. You've cut wood for the winters heat. And your wife understands. so much so that she is by your side. It doesn't matter. You're here, where you belong. The ride out of camp spooks a little shadow, it's the little grysbock that keeps the plants in the camp trimmed. Another flashi is the reedbok that hangs around the edges. You remember the cold of the ride back last night. Pulling the collar up on your jacket helps, gloves on, hat on, the sun is rising slowly. The road seems rougher than it did last night. It's the hippos that once again rutted it up. Oh well, you took one of them a few days back. Now it hangs in trees. Bait, Bait for the lion that you hope will be there when you come check.
Checking baits at times seems boring, but when you are doing it you are hunting. That is what drives you. Hunting is life, it is the spark that gives you life. The spark that means life, and death.
The road winds through the tall grass, and then the scrub mopane. All of a sudden there is a loud trumpet and the cow elephant is challenging you to the territory. It is after all hers, not yours. :Your PH steps on the accelerator and the cruiser starts to outrun her. A few hundred yards beyond, you are once again alone. It was just beyond this spot where the 44" buffalo was seen. The buffalo that you spent hours trailing, only to loose the track. You wonder where he is, will he return, will you get the chance. The dust cloud rolls on behind the cruiser. It rolls on for mile after mile. The firt bait shows no sign, the second the same, and the third, nothing yet. Its been 2 days since you've seen the buffalo, 6 since the big tom leopard was put into the salt. The huge waterbuck that you saw yesterday, you had to pass on for fear of spooking the lion. Mama warthog and her litter runs alongside of the truck for a bit. The baboons scream at your presence. The entire crews bursts into laughter as you chase the babos, and the big old dog throws the little one aside so he can take 1st place in the run. The sun has reached its peak and beyond. The jacket and sweatpants have long ago been discarded. The flies are biting. You have long ago decided that they are the scourge of the world.
It's getting late in the hunt, 11 days have past, and only less than a week is left. Yet, it seems as yesterday that you got here.
The fourth bait is getting closer. This is the one you decide. It has to be the one. The cruiser stops some distance away, and your PH studies the bait through powerful binoculars. It doesn't look good he says, but we must go check closer. Your heart beats faster. There could be a lion, an old boy with long dark hair. He could be waiting just beyond the bush. But, there is nothing. You see the hyena tracks, but no lion tracks. What is with these cats, you can hear them at night, but then they disappear. Its not a strange feeling, you've had it on 3 other safaris. This one will be different, you know it, you've always known it. Just give it time, a little more time.
The sun is going down, your long underatnding wife has already reached for her jacket. Steinbok run in front of the cruiser, and a duiker darts away in the bush. The lights of the camp are in the distance. Its been another day. Maybe the gun didn't get out of the case, but the day was not to be counted in your lifespan. YOu've seen much today. Another part of your soul now belongs to mother africa. And theres always tomorrow, there's always tomorrow.

Very nice butchloc!

WHY DON'T YOU WRITE A BOOK, OR A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES? YOU HAVE A GIFT FOR TELLING A GOOD STORY.

+1 on the book idea. I'd like to read it.