If you're reading this Special Edition blog and wondering what the heck is going on, here's the scoop. I, Eva Shockey, along with cameraman extraordinaire, Todd Bissenden, have been sent on the first ever official hunting trip being filmed exclusively for Jim Shockey's Hunting Adventures that does not have Jim involved whatsoever. My dad sent me on a test-run, 12-day African hunt at Bombazi to see what sort of footage Todd and I can come back with for the show and whether we can pull it off without him, so the pressure is on big time. The deal with my dad is any plain's game is fair game. No charging hippos and no angry lions and nothing that can potentially maul my face. Fair enough I'd say.

So Todd and I finally arrived in South Africa after three long days of flying from North America. We must have pulled the short stick on layovers because they couldn't have been much longer.  10 hours from Vancouver to Frankfurt, 11 hour layover, 10 hours from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, another ten hour layover and then finally a few hours to East London where we were met by our guide, Tony Kruger, from Bombazi Wilderness Adventures. By the time we arrived at the lodge, it was just after dark and just after jet lag kicked in, so it was bedtime for me. Tomorrow we'll make a game plan for our hunt and we'll be off and running. 

The First Day of Hunting…

Not only is this my first-ever hunting trip without my Dad, but it's the first trip that I'm not using a muzzleloader. I've never shot anything bigger than a .270 but I brought a T/C 300 win-mag with me, so this trip is a test-run in more ways than one.

We sighted in the gun just after the sun came up and decided to head out to the hills for the morning.  We were out by seven this morning and spent the first half of the day hiking up the mountains. We spotted a herd of Impala from the road that had a big ram in it so we hiked up the hill after them. It should have been a fairly easy stalk but the wind kept swirling and they got our scent and ran into the thick bush. The terrain here is very versatile with some patches of open grasslands and others with thick, thick, dense bush. It makes it hard to stalk the animals on the hills because one minute they'll be out in the open and the next, they pull a Houdini and completely disappear into the thick stuff. 

We lost the herd of Impala but found a new group of three huge Eland bulls standing in the bushes. We climbed up to them and when we came out into the open, we were almost on top of them at 20 yards with no clear shot, so we had to turn around and get to higher ground where we'd have a better view. We got up higher and this time we came out 80 yards from where the two biggest bulls were standing. One of them was quite young, with horns that were still pointed and a lighter coloured body, and the other was an old, old blue bull with broomed-off horns. Tony told me to aim at the older one that was quartered towards me. I shot it through the front shoulder and it ran 20 yards and started to tip. This is by far the biggest animal that I've ever shot and it looked ten times bigger when I walked up to it.  I couldn't believe the body size of it, it was humungous with big, thick horns and an amazing bluish grey coat. I look itsy bitsy next to it. I was absolutely thrilled with it and everyone was happy when they realized that I can actually shoot - what a great opening day. 

Today we spent the day glassing the mountains for animals. I was here at Bombazi two years ago for my first-ever hunting trip but we never got a chance at a Kudu, so this is the main animal that I have my sights set on but the thing about Bombazi is that there are so many animals running around everywhere, we may go out looking for one specific animal, but along the way we'll spot a different herd of animals and get sidetracked for half the day instead - definitely not something to complain about. 

We glassed for most of the morning along the hills and did a few drives through some of the valleys looking for rams. We spotted a couple herds of Impala and made a few stalks but they're so spooky so nothing turned out for us in the morning. Later this afternoon we spotted a big, lone Black Wildebeest in the grasslands. We watched him running in circles for half an hour, chasing the females with his long tail swinging. Then he stood broadside and watched us walk in to about 100 yards from him, and I took the shot, he ran a little ways and started to go down. The Wildebeest are one of the toughest animals going around here, so Tony got me to put another bullet in him to be sure. It was a good-sized mature bull with long, rough horns that were all chipped away. His whole body is dark greyish black with a long, white tail that looks like a horse tail. He has a big tuft of black hair on his nose that stands straight up - it's a neat cool looking animal. 

We're back at the lodge now for the night. The cooks here are amazing and the food is never ending. Unless we end up hiking 20 miles a day, I definitely can't see myself losing any weight while I'm here. As far as hunting lodges go, this is definitely one of the more comfortable. Everyone's having a great time and everyone here at the lodge is amazing. No complaints from me, other than my pants not fitting as well as they used to. 

Today…

It's 11am right now and I'm sitting back at the lodge in front of the fire trying to dry out for a few hours while the bad weather passes through. A cold front came through today and we got caught out in the valley in the pouring rain. Todd's camera is soaking wet and I have mascara running down my face… I now know why makeup and hunting aren't friends. 

The hunt was great this morning though, regardless of the torrential downpour. We got up at five this morning and drove up to Bombazi Valley to glass for a few hours along the hillsides. The overcast skies got the animals to start moving through the hills so we didn't have a problem spotting them. We saw at least a dozen Eland before 8am, a handful of Impala and zebras and at least 60 Blesbok in the valley. Our guide Tony had seen a lone Blesbok ram in the area a few days earlier that was a good size so we started looking for him. As soon as we came over the crest of the valley, we saw him about 500 yards away standing a little ways from the rest of the Blesbok herd. We stalked him from behind the trees and came within 150 yards of him. Tony set up the Primos trigger sticks, Todd told me he was on the ram and I shot, a perfect shot through the heart. He ran about 25 yards and dropped. It all happened so quick and it's a beautiful ram. He had thick bases and big white ridges on the horns and amazing colouring. Todd said the footage was perfect, so I'd say this test-run is going according to plan - hopefully the guy in the big black hat will agree!

In the next hour or so the weather will hopefully clear so we're heading back out to sit on stand for the afternoon. They've seen a few big Waterbucks and Nyala come through, so we'll see what happens. Stay tuned for more of Eva Shockey's Africa Hunting Adventures!!!