I am back from my third trip to South Africa. Each trip has had different and new experience each time! How a hunter determines the success of a hunt varies by their definition. Some measure it by the number of animals harvested, some by the number of trophy record-book animals harvested, while for some, just the experience is all that matters. I love South Africa, the scenery, the people, the animals and meeting new people who are there all for the same reason. We love bow hunting and the camraderie that comes with our sport.

We flew out of Peoria to Chicago on Wednesday, August 1, then on to London for our usual lay over and a day of play in London, then on to South Africa arriving on Friday, August 3 at 6:30am. We flew on British Airways. We arrived all excited and ready to gather all our baggage and head out to Illanga Reserve to begin our twelve-day hunting adventure. This trip, I had nine fellow hunters and two spectators with me.

What do you do when the very reason you have traveled the nine thousand miles to hunt and your bow is still sitting on the docks of O’Hara airport in Chicago? That’s right! Our bows are still home in the USA: Chicago, Illinois to be precise, and we are ready to hunt but without any gear. British Airway agents informed us upon arrival in Johannesburg; it was due to “homeland security” in the United States. Keep in mind; the bows were leaving the country, not coming in! What do you do? Fortunately, for our group, we were going to Benito Van Leewan’s and Illanga! Benito is a fellow archer but he also is a representative for PSE bow manufacturers in South Africa. After a few phone calls on our drive to camp, a detour here and there, by the time we arrived in camp, we all had bows to use until our own equipment would arrive, which we later found out would not be until Monday evening. Most archers are creatures of habit and in tune with their equipment. All we had was borrowed equipment. This left us with some adjusting to our way of thinking and some major adjustments and fine-tuning to the borrowed bows provided. We practiced for a few hours of shooting practice-arrows and acclimated with our borrowed equipment and then we were ready to start hunting Saturday morning. Most hunters put in this situation would have to sit around camp and lose three days of hunting experience. Being the only woman hunting in camp, Benito gave me his daughter's bow to use. Bernadette’s PSE is a lightweight, pretty, blue bow set at low poundage used for target shooting. We increased the poundage up to around 50 pounds, which is in comparison to where I have my Mathews Switchback XT set for hunting and all around shooting. I was ready to hunt! Fortunately, we packed our arrows separate from our bows so I had my own arrows.

The first day out the adrenaline was pumping through my veins. The reality of being back in Africa was hitting home like a ton of bricks. Here I am sitting in a blind by myself, watching the game come and go. When was the last time you sat in the tree stand deer hunting and could say “just a heard of deer” came under my stand. I guess I have seen Impala enough that when the first timers in our group asked me at the end of the day what I had seen in my blind, I replied, “Nothing, just a bunch of Impala and an Eland without ears.” This would become a standing joke in camp at night thereafter. I did not shoot any animals my first day out but I took several pictures. Many of my fellow companions had shot their first African animal. Since this was my third trip to Illanga, I was grateful my husband Al shot an Impala so we could enjoy the meat at dinner that night. He harvested it with his borrowed longbow made by Jaco. What an accomplishment! It was the first animal he had ever taken with what many consider primitive archery equipment.

The next two days were the same: impala, giraffe and rhino would be all that came into the different blinds I hunted. I took many pictures with some up close and too personal with the rhinos.

On Monday, I decided to take a spike impala ram. I was a little nervous since I was not used to the PSE bow, even though it was a very smooth shooting bow. Since I was fortunate enough to have my own arrows, I knew I had enough arrow weight to get the job done. He came in and I shot him at ten yards. I had just taken an impala with the borrowed equipment provided to me and it proved to be a success! The draw length was short but I managed to overcome this obstacle.

On Tuesday, after our own equipment arrived in camp, Jaco took four of us to another concession a few hours away to hunt Black Wildebeest. I guess I was the fortunate one, as I had a herd of Wildebeest in on me all day but without shot opportunities. It turned out to be my first cold day I had ever experienced in Africa. I had never experienced this in my prior trips and I was not ready for it. After several hours in the hide, and tons of pictures of the wildebeest, blesbok, and springboks, I had a shot at a wildebeest at about twenty yards. I was so cold, so when took the shoot, my arrow found the mark I aimed for. I hit the tire lying on the ground under the wildebeest. The tire was dead to rights! The entire heard of wildebeest thundered off leaving me in a cloud of dust and rightly so! Jaco came to see if I had any success only to discover I had killed the tire. We went back to the main camp so I could use the washroom and then he took me to another hide to hunt. This time I was after Fallow deer. These are not native to South Africa. After a little while in the hide, a trophy fallow deer came in and this time, my arrow was true to the mark and it only went ten feet before it fell to its demise.

Three days later, I took a Kudu cow to go with my Kudu bull I had harvested on my last trip. This trip was different from any other. My hunting companions also shared great success. As a group, we harvested many animals in our twelve-day hunt and memories we will carry for a lifetime.

For me, this trip held bitter sweetness. The month prior to leaving for Africa, I had gone in for a routine mammogram. The doctors did not like what they found and this resulted in multiple biopsies. No person wants to hear the word cancer coming from his or her doctor. The emotions that one experiences are unbelievable. Just when you feel you are on top of the world with everything within your grasp, reality sets in and you realize just how thankful we should all be; to enjoy each day, let alone the sport we all love and I will never take it for granted that it will always be there to enjoy. I was not up to par this trip and shooting the bows caused a lot of pain and discomfort. I have learned the hard way not to take hunting for granted or that I will always be able to bow hunt. I guess I measure the success of a hunt by just being able to go and do what I love most. I do not measure my successes by the size of the horns or antlers on the animal. What I take home in my heart when it is all over is what matters most. I am already making plans for a return trip to South Africa and Illanga in 2009. Time will tell all, but for me, this trip was indeed a great success in many ways, for many reasons.