We get back late from the vets as it took the Forest Cobra over 2 hours to react to the anaesthetic.

But no sooner did we get back and install the Forest Cobra in the garage near the heater to heal, than we were off catching Nyala again.

It is about 16:30 by now and we have only a few hours of sun left, but we need to get another one! We have already dropped our target of 10 down to the more believeable target of 5 – but this already is starting to look impossible!

As we round the corner of the fence line on the quadbike we see our friendly cross-horn nyala munching away at the grass, slowing down we see a pair of curly horns emerge from the bush and stand next to cross-horn. It is one of our full grown Nyala bulls with his horns just starting to curve out once telling us his age.

Anton raises the rifle slowly – it is already loaded with the sedative dart – and carefully takes aim.

*thduff* the dart flies straight and lands in the fleshy part of the bulls rear. He turns and darts into the bush once more, we hadn’t realised that the bush there was quite as thick as it was! We quickly lost sight of him in the bush and had no choice but to wait for Johan to get the transceiver to us. It is getting dark and we have no torches but push on. But we have to find him as he could die without the reversor drug.

We were not expecting him to be able to get quite so far into the bush after the quick reaction that it had on the other bull. But we now had the transceiver and pressed on trying to find him in the dark – all fingers crossed that the transmitter was still attached to the nyala.

Eventually we find him and call in all hands to help carry him. But how to direct people to where we were? Even we did not know! Not even the moonlight was penetrating the thick bush. All we could be sure of was that we were still in the bush somewhere at Umkhumbi Lodge.

It is now 9pm and we are all exhausted after leopard crawling through the rest of the bush, under branches and between vines, avoiding the caterpillars and the buffalo thorns which will inevitably end up in various unmentionable parts of your body – all of this whilst hoping there are no snakes!

We decided that as he had been drugged for too long already the safest option was to reverse the drugs rather than risk his safety. Not to mention the fact that it was too dark to even see the Nyala never mind the way out!

We all retreat from the bush blood running down faces, arms, legs, hands and feet at the end of day 1, but we have no Nyala in the boma despite our hard work – tomorrow can only get better!

Ok, here it is. We told you we would tell you about what was so important that we neglected our faithful wildlife quiz fans.

The morning started at 5am – just as dawn was breaking, the golden light casting dappled shadows on the leaf littered floor. We were stalking our Nyala.

Our little Nyala population has exploded and now we have in excess of 20 Nyala, many of these male. So, we thought, lets sell some to another reserve and then we can get some new blood in and strengthen the genetics.

The process is easy, locate the Nyala, shoot the dart containing the sedative, watch the Nyala so you don’t lose it, get to Nyala and sit it up so that its stomach acids don’t fill its lungs. Put it on the blanket with carry handles, carry to boma, inject with reverse drug. Rinse and repeat.

Easy peasy, hey?

Well, actually – No!

Find them, no problem! Everyday when we do the fence check we are greeted by Bella (the impala), mummy and baby Nyalas and and a handful of protecting bulls. Then around the corner we find the rest of the bulls doing whatever it is that Nyala bulls do when they aren’t looking after the little ones…

…Except today!

Johan loads the dart

.

So we switched to stealth mode (before we ran out of petrol) and decided to walk around the fence line instead. Then we glance them, through the trees, some of the relaxing bulls. Picking our way through the barbed wire fence we then have to battle with the harder obstacle, the trees themselves, thankfully the lightning storms we have had have cleared a few dead trees here and there and we managed to find a way in. And the bulls are still there so we wait for the shot, then one of the bulls takes a step forward as Anton squeezes the trigger – crack! -
the dart is in and the Nyala bulls run.

But there he is, stumbling, before turning a circle and laying down.

Keeping the bulls head raised so that he doesn't suffocate

Thankfully he fell in a fairly open part of bush, making our way to him quickly, radioing in for the others to come and help us carry him. They are not small animals by any means, they stand taller than me!

This all seems too easy…

Johan arrives at the scene to inform us that this bull is too small, his horns are not long enough, we must let him go again. So in goes the reverser drug, and the animal that was previously so paralysed that he was unable to keep his tongue in his mouth nor even grunt, was on his feet and charging us in less than 5 seconds!

Everything is in place... except another 2 years growth for the Nyala

Run away!

The next three hours we spend traipsing through the bush, it is not even 8am yet and already we are hot, grumpy and tired as the humidity climbs higher. From one fence line through the bush to the other we clamber, gorse, sickle and buffalo thorns pulling on our clothes and catching at our skin. We even found new sections of the property, various parts look like Jurassic park and there is even mud and soil – in a Sand forest this is most unusual.

We stumbled upon a pair of sleeping Suni, walked past 6 red duiker, drove past possibly 3 more Suni – and had one run past us, saw Bella the Impala lots and even saw a big Natal hingeback tortoise. Whilst hot and humid it really was beautiful seeing all of these little and lesser seen animals – we need Nyalas!

But enough traipsing in the bush – off to the vet with the Forest Cobra – who still needs a name…