The crows had been squabbling with each other for almost twenty minutes, and one was foraging noisily amongst the camp utensils in the strengthening dawn light, when I was forced to concede that sleep was no longer an option.  It was time to clamber out of the swag and fire up a morning coffee, so I wandered over to the solar pump on the bank of our "home" billabong to fill the brew pot.

Glancing across the lily-fringed waterhole I was jarred to full wakefulness by the sight of a large black boar snuffling his way along the waters edge directly opposite!  Placing the coffee-pot carefully on the ground, I strolled over to the Landrover and retreived my hunting rifle, a vintage Jeffery double express, and plonked a couple of .400 Nitro cartridges into the chambers.  Without making a sound, I retraced my steps to the bank of the waterhole and was pleased to see that he was still there, rooting up the soft earth beneath a clump of pandanus.

Taking a careful rest alongside a paperbark sapling, I nestled the gold bead into the shallow vee of the standing leaf express sight, centred it on the boar's ribs, and gently stroked the front trigger.  The report was deafening in the crisp morning air, and the stricken animal bounded up the embankment and took off in full stride across the flat.  Although momentarily distracted by my two mates leaping out of their swags in bewilderment and demanding to know what had happened, I watched the hog go down in a pile some 30 metres back into the low scrub.  As the flailing legs and flopping head gradually ceased, I mentally marked the location and turned my attention back to the coffee pot.  This early in the morning its a matter of priorities!

After breakfast, still in my "pyjamas", we headed around the end of the billabong with the camera to make a permanent record of the event.  What a great way to start a new day in the hunting field!