The first shoot of the day will start around 06:00, and can be either shooting Egyptian and Spur wing geese over decoys, from pit-blinds in stubble or furrowed winter wheat fields, or you can begin the morning flighting various species of duck as they move up and down the dam local systems. Once that flight is over at about 09:00, you will be taken back to the Lodge for a lovely home cooked breakfast. Those who wish to take it a little easier may snooze until breakfast.
After a hearty al-fresco breakfast, you will have a choice to shoot Rock Pigeons over sunflowers from a hide using a magnet, or depending on the flight line coming to the field it’s often possible to shoot flighting Rock Pigeons & Doves, and these can be very challenging! They flight into the fields from about 10:00 until 13:00 where they spend the next 2-3 hours wheeling around amongst the sunflower fields, before flying back to the distant mountains from 13:00 until 16:00. These birds fly in Partridge like coveys from between six feet off the ground to 300 feet up. NB: A good pair of sunglasses is recommended as shooting against a pale blue sky can tire the eyes very quickly.
Another challenging option which can be quite an experience is a driven Guinea fowl shoot in the style of a classic pheasant shoot. (Advance notice and a minimum group size of 10 people is needed)
These birds, unlike their English counterparts can be in coveys from 20 up to 300/400 and many eyes make for a very intelligent flock of birds – they run like an old cock bird in January! The guide aims to chase them across the open plains using 4×4’s in order to get the coveys to flight twice and break the super flocks up a bit, they will then sit tight and it is possible to walk them up with GSP’s or in a walking gun line. If the guide gets it right, you can hardly load fast enough. A different strategy is for the guide to gather a group of local farmers, divide them into two teams, then one team will stand while the other team walks through the crops of mealies or maize as we know it.
After the pigeon & doves or other afternoon shooting, we break for a coffee and late afternoon snack and then prepare for the final shoot of the day. This can either be a Duck Flight over lakes, setting up for the last hour of daylight gives us 30-45 minutes of great action as the waterfowl fly back to roost on the dams, or we can guide you for walked-up Guinea fowl, Orange River Francolin, Grey & Red Wing Partridge and Quail over a pair of German Short Haired Pointers (GSP’s).
Once the duck flight is over, it’s back to the lodge to warm up in front of the fire, before sitting down to dinner and a chance to recount the day’s activity and share the plans for the following day.
This schedule will happen every day unless you have any special requests.