Last night was a fantastic night. We went out, it was cloudy with lightening flashes in the distance so we didn't know if it was going to rain or not. We went out into the jungle and this time Larry Rudolph went out as well but he went with a different guide. We crawled around in the jungle from 9pm until about two in the morning, so five hours of crawling and creeping around on our hands and knees. It was slow, with vines strangling us and getting all cut up. We saw one big, giant snail and one really cool big bat that was eating fruit up above us. The wing-span was about 30-inches, but it wasn't one of the real giant ones. I actually have a fruit bat on license here in Ghana, but there's one size bigger than what this one was, so I held out and didn't take it. We also saw a bunch of birds on roosts - really cool stuff. 

Then we spotted a palm civet, way up on the top of a palm tree. I made the shot perfect and it came straight down stone dead and it is a beautiful animal. It's part of the Civet family but it looks more like a genet, with long, greyish brown hair and black spots - it's a really cool looking animal. So we were all excited. As we went on, we bumped into two poachers out there in the bush as they were sneaking around with their shotguns and flashlights. We talked with them for a second but we couldn't do much about it, so we kept going. 

Suddenly our guy spotted a royal antelope but I was carrying a different shotgun than I had been all day, so this one was the single-shot with the safety on the trigger, but earlier in the day I was carrying the double-barrel over and under that has the trigger on the top. So I went to hit the safety on the top, then tried to hit it again but realized that there was no safety, so then I remember that it's on the trigger. During that extra wasted second, the royal started moving and I got a shot off just at the last second as it disappeared into the jungle. We checked it on camera and it looked like a complete miss, so we went into the jungle and started looking and about 100 yards from where I took the shot, we spotted a royal standing. We weren't sure if it was the same one or a different one, but we think it's probably the same one. So this time I shot and I got it. It was fantastic. It's teeny tiny and weighs about three pounds. It's just an amazing, beautiful, wonderful little tiny antelope, the smallest antelope in the world. 

Then when we got back at three in the morning, we found out that Larry had hunted for an hour and a half and got his royal as well on his first evening. So for me, it was about day 8, but for Larry it's his first evening and for Matt Gibson, the intrepid cameraman, he was already here last year with Corey Knowlton, so he's been about 16 days in total hunting for a royal antelope and finally was in on getting one. So it was a great day for everyone. 

The Next Day… 

We got to bed at about five in the morning once we skinned the antelope and got it all salted then we got up at 8am and headed out again. We're doing pushes in the jungle and Larry is along with his wife Bianca this time as well. We set up on different stands and the team of pushers would push through the jungle in teams of six or so. We saw a mongoose and some squirrels but no antelope today. Then they found a giant pouched rat den, so they lit a fire in one of the other wholes and fanned smoke down into it. It came running out and I was supposed to knock it on the head with one of their machetes, so I did, but they're one of the toughest animals, so it took off running again. Then Steve Kobrine went after it and he klonked it and finally a dog caught it, so we got one of the giant pouched rats finally. 

We went a little further and they found a huge, giant rock outcropping and they figured it had a brush-tailed porcupine in it, which is one of the toughest animals to get here in Ghana. Steve Kobrine hasn't even got one yet. Long story short, Steve started beating on the rocks and the porcupine came running out like a rocket-ship and I drilled it through all the underbrush as it was running through the jungle. It was one of the best shots that I've ever taken - I'm very proud of it - and I got him. My first brush-tailed porcupine which is a cool looking animal. It has a bunch of big, fat quills on it's back with a long tail with a big white tuff of quills on the end. So it's been a long, great day but we're going out again tonight for maxwells duiker.