Ah . . . safari in the good old days - 1843:

"On the evening of 2nd December with considerable difficulty I collected my drunken servants, my oxen and horses, and, taking leave of my kind entertainers, I trekked out of Colesberg, steering west for the vast Karroo plains, where the gemsbok were said to be still abundant.

. . . I did not proceed very far that evening, my men being intoxicated, and having several times very nearly capsized the waggons. I halted shortly after sundown, when, all the work with the oxen and horses falling upon me, and no fuel being at hand, I was obliged to content myself by dining on a handful of raw meal and a glass of gin and water.

[The next day, having] breakfasted, we started on horseback to 'jag' springbok and wildebeest . . . . We galloped about the plains, loading and firing for about six hours. The game was very wild. I wounded three springboks and one wildebeest, but lost them all. Campbell shot two springboks. The first was entirely eaten by the vultures . . . and skinned as neatly as if done by the hand of man.

Next morning, having bathed and breakfasted . . . I trekked on all day [towards the Karroo], and, having performed a march of twenty-five miles, halted at sundown on the farm of old Wessel, whom I found very drunk. My road lay through vast plains, intersected with ridges of stony hills. On these plains I found the game in herds exceeding anything I had yet seen--springbok in troops of at least ten thousand; also large bodies of quaggas, wildebeest, blesbok, and several ostriches.

I had hoped to have purchased some horses from Wessel, but he was too drunk to transact any business, informing me that he was a Boer, and could not endure the sight of Englishmen, at the same time shoving me out of the house, much to the horror of his wife and daughters, who seemed rather nice people."

Excerpted from Five Years Adventures in the Far Interior of South Africa, R. Gordon-Cumming, 1850.

That is what you call a candid hunt report.

I love this guy.

Had Cain been a Scot, God would have changed his doom,
Not made him wander, but continued him home.--Anonymous

I also love reading the older, original reports. Candor is a funny thing. Because it's so unexpected it has a unique, almost mystic potency.