Had two friends try for buf with them for a 7 day first time Africa hunt and they were taken over.
One brother never saw any buf and the other was told to shoot at one in the dark. Had to pay for groceries. One brother with ph hunted inside of a national park area and caught ph fined $500.
Camp near a coal mine and mine fire, the sulphur dioxide would makes you sick.
What a great first time experience.

Mike

Wow,sorry to hear about their bad experience. that's incredibly stupid on the camp situation, any chance of these guys getting their money back?

Mike,

Are there any more details? Who was the PH? How did they find ZimAfrica? What was the deal?

Sounds like it might have been in the Hwange area.

Mike,

The more details we can have about this, the better it is for all of us as hunters.

These are the sort of operations that should be avoided at any cost.

Especially in the light of so many great and honest operators running safaris in Zimbabwe.

And this is where AR comes into its own, all prospective hunters have to do is just ask about any operator they are thinking of hunting with, and they will get all the facts.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Mike,

The more details we can have about this, the better it is for all of us as hunters.

These are the sort of operations that should be avoided at any cost.

Especially in the light of so many great and honest operators running safaris in Zimbabwe.

And this is where AR comes into its own, all prospective hunters have to do is just ask about any operator they are thinking of hunting with, and they will get all the facts.

+1

All information on how the hunt was booked - show, booking agent, website. Name of ph and area hunted.


Ar is great at sorting out great outfitters from crappy ones. Reputation is the main enforcement tool and sorting mechanism in this service business.

Mike

Again, it highlights the importance of checking references. There is enough information out there, and just here on AR, to ensure nonsense like this is prevented.

quote:

Originally posted by Neil-PH:
Again, it highlights the importance of checking references. There is enough information out there, and just here on AR, to ensure nonsense like this is prevented.

+1 +1 +1
An checking to see that they belong to a reputable hunting body in their country doesn't hurt either.

Was this a discounted / cheap hunt?
As you know sometimes if it's to good to be true .....

It's just a shame though that good people have been given a shitty experience

I will get more info. Wayne Jardine was the ph.
http://zimafricasafaris.com/about_us.php
Wayne and Dave were the ph's.

Mike

I know the guy and have known him about 25 years. He has stayed at my house many times. He was, at one point, a hell of a good PH. He was as good as anyone I have ever hunted with.

Sadly, he has apparently gone to the dark side. I hear far too many bad things these days. He learned from one of the biggest crooks in Zim.

Too bad as they use to be a top notch operator. My first hunt to Africa was partially out of their Sondelani camp in the lowveld. That was in 2002 and there was lots of plains game. I think after the death of Sean (motorcycle accident) and the pressure from the land seizures they have taken a bad turn. I believe ZimAfrica was also censured by SCI. They were breeding lions back then, but denied having canned lion hunts. However, I see they are offering a 10 day lion hunt for $49K with lots of photos of MGM lions in the gallery so I guess that has changed also.

I feel terrible for your buddies. Any chance they would file a report in The Hunting Report? May help others avoid similar anguish.

Mike, don't forget the Kudu.

Dutch

Before you read this, you may want to check out the ZimAfrica website referenced above.

I went on a ZimAfrica hunt about a week after Sean Steyn was killed in the motorcycle accident. I didn't know anything about the accident before I arrived. Understandably, it was a mess. Sean's father came to Zimbabwe and tried to sort everything out, but was unsuccessful. (He even picked me up at the Bulawayo airport.) Unfortunately, everyone was grabbing up pieces, so to speak.

I left after only three days. Upon my complaints, Rebecca Steyn refunded 100% of the monies paid.

What's happened since then (about 2003?), I don't know.

This is the story of the immature kudu. The one brother was at the top of a mountain or escarpment and the Ph and game scout are talking in Shona and the client looks way down the hill and sees a tree moving. Looks thru glasses and see a kudu. He told me, "Mike it looked like a monster huge horns mass and length." Ph says it is over 55inches but it is immature! The brother tells me, the ph and staff did not want to have to bring that animal back up the hill. So they leave and later the only other animal he sees is another bull kudu and the ph says to shoot it/ bang, its down. How big, I ask and I tell him let me see the pics again. It had mass and length and I say it is 50 or 52inches. A mature one the ph says. Ha! Over 55 is immature and under is mature.

Mike

As an aside, is the P.H. (Judea Ndou)on the website the fellow with only one eye? And $.10 says that the 10 day trophy lion hunt is in South Africa, not Zimbabwe.

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
Before you read this, you may want to check out the ZimAfrica website referenced above.

I went on a ZimAfrica hunt about a week after Sean Steyn was killed in the motorcycle accident. I didn't know anything about the accident before I arrived. Understandably, it was a mess. Sean's father came to Zimbabwe and tried to sort everything out, but was unsuccessful. (He even picked me up at the Bulawayo airport.) Unfortunately, everyone was grabbing up pieces, so to speak.

I left after only three days. Upon my complaints, Rebecca Steyn refunded 100% of the monies paid.

What's happened since then (about 2003?), I don't know.

I helped Sean get that motorcycle. My last words to him were, " Sean, please be careful. You guys are too wild."

Horrible situation.

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
This is the story of the immature kudu. The one brother was at the top of a mountain or escarpment and the Ph and game scout are talking in shona and the client looks way down the hill and sees a tree moving. Looks thru glasses and see a kudu. He told me, "Mike it looked like a monster huger horns mass and length." Ph says it is over 55inches but it is immature! The brother tells me, the ph and staff did not want to have to bring that animal back up the hill. So they leave and later the only other animal he sees is another bull kudu and the ph says to shoot it/ bang, its down. How big, I ask and I tell him let me see the pics again. It had mass and length and I say it is 50 or 52inches. A mature one the ph says. Ha! Over 55 is immature and under is mature.

Mike

How very sad!

We were hunting in Tanzania with Alan Vincent.

We stopped to glass from a high point, and saw a herd of kudu about almost a kilometer away in the valley.

Amongst them was a big mature bull.

To get there, we had to walk alongside the embankment for several hundred yards. Then go down and try to follow them.

WE did just that, and managed to shoot the bull.

It was late afternoon, and there is no way to get the truck down.

So we cut up the bull, and carried him back to the truck.

I would guess the walk back and up the embankment was well over a mile!

This attitude certainly separates the real pros from the wannabes!

Saeed and Larry,

The old farts (clients and P.H's, both) that have been in this community for a long time have surely have seen some ups and downs, victories and defeats, heroes and villains and now have the scars, full walls, empty pocketbooks, great memories and some not so subtle disgusts to show for it, don't we.

I stayed a Sondelani in 06 with my wife.We where scouting a buff area for Zim.
Place was a mess. Had a hunter in camp an they were struggling for leopard. The lodge must have been amazing in its hay day.

Sean's father had come up from SA to do something. We where sent to the railway farms in the gwaai as well as malindi. That's the last I've seen or heard of them

quote:

Wayne Jardine was the ph.

Enough said

quote:

Originally posted by leopards valley safaris:
I stayed a Sondelani in 06 with my wife.We where scouting a buff area for Zim.
Place was a mess. Had a hunter in camp an they were struggling for leopard. The lodge must have been amazing in its hay day.

Sean's father had come up from SA to do something. We where sent to the railway farms in the gwaai as well as malindi. That's the last I've seen or heard of them

It was amazing back in the day. It probably had as much or more than anywhere else I have ever seen. The lodge was second to none. The last time I was there was the mid 90's.

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
As an aside, is the P.H. (Judea Ndou)on the website the fellow with only one eye? And $.10 says that the 10 day trophy lion hunt is in South Africa, not Zimbabwe.

Judea is very skilled and an extremely nice guy. He wife was killed when a cobra bit her in the hut at night. The last I saw Judea, he had both eyes but it has been a very long time since I have seen him.

I hunted sondelani in 2000 and Gary Hopkins was my PH- the place was awesome then. Tons of plains game, they had good ph's (Gary Hopkins, Tristin Peacock for leopards, Brian van Blerk). I had a great hunt. I had some issues with my leopard and a couple of skins that Sean was going to resolve for me when he had his accident.
It is ashame the stories that are now associated with the outfit, they seemed like a real up and comer in the industry. There are more negative reports than positive, that is for sure.
How much land is now part of Sondelani? It was pretty substantial what was inside the main fence, and they had some low fence areas that we hunted as well. I never felt like we overhunted it at all, and on the smaller chunk of land opposite the road they called hawkeye it was so thick you had to walk to have a chance at anything.

quote:

Originally posted by Len Hawkins:
I hunted sondelani in 2000 and Gary Hopkins was my PH- the place was awesome then. Tons of plains game, they had good ph's (Gary Hopkins, Tristin Peacock for leopards, Brian van Blerk). I had a great hunt.

Tristan Peacock is my neighbour

hes managing a large sheep ranch and still runs his hounds, this time for caracals killing the lambs. bloody small world.

Retreever, yes I have had some experiences with this outfit (Wayne Jardine at Zimafrica). That was many years ago at Sondelani Ranch. I stay as far away as possible now. I'm sorry to hear that recent experience remains bad.

It was a seven day buf hunt.


Mike