BUSHPIG BASICS PART 3: WALK AND STALK

The sun was just dipping beyond the horizon as my Hilux ground to a halt. The warm Zululand air hit me as I stepped outside the comfort of the bakkie’s air-cooled cabin. Almost immediately I heard the annoying sounds of mosquitoes buzzing around my face.

It was the end of September and far too warm to wear a jacket or longs. I dosed myself with Peaceful Sleep, gulped down some water and unpacked the .308 Winchester. I checked the Yukon and headlamp’s batteries, slid my Gerber into my pocket and chambered a round without closing the bolt.

I slowly trudged down the hillside to an area where the pigs had been damaging the sugarcane over the last two weeks. The sounder was travelling from a local nature reserve through a 70ha patch of thorn bush and down into the cane fields to feed. This was my third successive evening, and I was determined not to leave empty-handed again. The first night the bushpigs did not show and the second was interrupted by a group of poachers with dogs and torches trying to chase bushbuck; extremely frustrating to say the least.

There were several used paths