Arrival in Pakistan ... We made it from Toronto to Islamabad, it was 13 hours in the air, cleared customs everything went really well ... we were through within two hours. Hung around for a three-hour layover, caught another flight for Karachi which is in the southern part of Pakistan. It's the 20th largest city in the world, about 13 million people, I believe.
Once we landed we then headed off in the vehicles. We drove for three hours to this area which is about 5,000 square miles owned by a prince. The people work this land and he gets 50 percent of whatever they produce and he manages all of the hunting out here.
I am with a fellow named Chance from Texas, good guy. Todd Bissenden is my cameraman, and we're doing great. We got in at 3 a.m. and by 6 a.m. they are waking us up to go hunting. We're going for Sindh ibex, we'll see. Supposedly there are quite a few, but they are telling us it's tough this time of the year because it's so hot.
I feel safe, everybody is really nice and I don't get any feeling that we're not welcome ...
First days hunting the Sindh ibex ... Day from hell ... after traveling for 48 hours straight and only a few hours of sleep, we got up to go hunting. We went to the first place, and the ibex started coming up on the hill. I saw right off the bat a herd of about 30 males, some real beautiful ones, but we couldn't get close enough so we went to a different area where some guys had seen a real big one that had been sleeping in a cave! It was a two-hour drive, not one road the whole way, just desert. We got to the mountains which are mounds of old sea beds pushed up from the bottom of ancient oceans ... those are the mountains the ibex are on. The mountains have real nasty ravines and rotten rock. It was two hours climbing to get to the top. We got there right at sunset and no ibex in any caves, so we had to come all the way back down and I was exhausted. The temperature had to be 100. The sun was baking down on us, cooking hot. Of course, I forgot my sunscreen and was wearing too heavy clothing. Blisters ... I was really crabby after only three hours of sleep.
The other fellow in camp, Chance from Texas, went a different way for the afternoon and got a beautiful ibex. He said it came to within eight yards of him. The guys were hiding in a rock blind and they had to wait til it got out a ways so Chance could move to shoot. Eighty-yard shot, perfect. His was 43 x 41, it was one of the big group we saw in the morning.
Fossils everywhere. I was picking up all kinds of cool fossils laying all over he place ... it was like walking on a sea shore.
The Next Morning ... So this morning we went out again. They have the local villagers walking around the hills which moves the ibex around ... it's not beaten drives or anything, but they can walk around in the mountains and the game warden is with us at all times. Good night's sleep and we found that same herd from yesterday that we'd seen. We were waiting for them to come up from the bottom to the top where they cross over. There was a big, beautiful one ... the ibex were getting to within 80 yards. The first six ibex were there and the rest were coming ... you could see their horns coming at 80 yards. I went to lean on the rock wall, and it caved in!
It was fantastic footage up to that point, but I haven't been working out much lately, so I'm a few pounds overweight and the wall caved down and that spooked them. They passed us at 100 yards, but Todd said not to take the shot because the footage wasn't as good. I was disappointed, but we watched them and saw where they went into a valley. We got into a position above them and waited for work their way up. An hour later under a blistering sun they started moving up. The second one in line was the big one that I'd seen in the morning. Made a good shot, but the ibex took off running and I hit him running at 175 yards and dropped him. The ibex is 41 inches on one side and 37 on the other, gorgeous animal ... the guys are fantastic ...
Later in the day we went and video'd the local culture. I met three different snake charmers. These guys carry bundles of onions and produce around on their heads and they also carry these baskets with cobras inside. They do their pipe thing and the cobra rises up and flairs the skin around its head. I got to work one of the pipe things and then held a cobra by the tail. It was scary but cool! I got a ride in a donkey cart that was carrying onions ... I haven't had a shower in a few days, so the onions helped me a bit. And then I got a ride in an oxen cart which was spreading manure, so that helped some more. Then I got to milk a goat!
We had a fantastic, unbelievable day. The people here are so cool. This is one of the most fascinating places I've ever been; I'm definitely going to come back.
Corey Knowlton the Professional set up the hunt for me and everything has been excellent. I'll see Corey tomorrow as we're headed back to Karachi and then to Baluchistan, Pakistan where we can hunt Blanford urial and a type of gazelle.
I'm a snake charmer and a goat milker!

