I found the hunt to be very challenging in several ways. I only had one instance on one of the wildebeests, in which the stalk was under 1/2-1mile. That one only required a roughly 1/4 mile stalk because we happened to find a lone, old, bull that had apparently been kicked out of the herd. Obviously sneaking up on a lone set of eyes is easier than the alternative, which leads into one of the more challenging aspects of, at least, my limited experiences in Africa. There always seems to be 10-40 pairs of eyes watching. An 800 yards stalk can easily turn into an hour or more. Several of my stalks took 1-2 hours due to the number of eyes and the fact that the animals always seemed to be moving around, doing whatever the do. The mtn zebra stalk lasted a total of app. 7 hours and many miles. We were in range 3 times during that time frame but had no shot due to brush being in the way. A combination of arthritic knees and the up and down the sandy and rocky terrain made it most difficult for me. The grass was also knee high and it helped hide the rocks, so footing was very, very tricky as well. As far as actual physical conditioning, I'd say it helped that I have now weighed 225lbs instead of the previous 250lbs for about a year. Navigating the flat, somewhat sandy ground, accompanied by the fact that it was a slow process, really never bothered me much. You do have to be on your feet for sometimes several hours though.
To sum it up: Mtn Zebra was very tough for me, kudu moderately so, rest of plains game taken was not easy, not exceptionally tough physically, but very time consuming and mentally I had to stay in the game at all times. You never knew, during the stalk, what you'd stumble into, besides the fact that every bush out there would rip your skin to shreds, so you had to pay attention to that as well.
The whole package was a truly unforgettable combination.
