22 November 2021, 08:17
nmhunter4lifeNiassa Mozambique 2021
Location: Mozambique, Niassa province, Coutada Marangira, September 2021Outfitter: Graham Sales Safaris
PH: Chris Van Staeden
Trackers: Alex, Lino, Isaac, Kamwana, Felizberto
Travel Agent: TWG travel, Steve and Tricia
Rifle: camp rifle Remington Model 700 .375 H&H, with Swarovski 1-6x scope
Animals taken: Liechtenstein Hartebeest, Sable, Waterbuck, Cape Buffalo, Livingstone’s Eland, Niassa Wildebeest
Animals seen: Liechtenstein Hartebeest, Sable, Waterbuck, Cape Buffalo, Livingstone’s Eland, Niassa Wildebeest, Boehm’s Zebra, Southern Greater Kudu, Johnstone’s Impala, Grey Duiker, Klipspringer, Sharpe’s Grysbok, Warthog, Common Reedbuck, Elephant, Lion, Wild Dog, Yellow Baboon, Vervet Monkey, Genet
Birds of note: Crested Guinea Fowl, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Ground Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Grey Hornbill, Lilac breasted roller, Racket Tailed Roller, Grey-headed parrot, Crested Francolin, Purple Crested Turaco, Hamerkop, Saddle-billed stork, Marabou Stork, White-Faced Duck, Marshall Eagle, Fish Eagle, and many more that I could not identify. I regretted not bringing a bird book.
I will keep it short and sweet and let the pictures do the talking. I booked the hunt just prior to Covid after meeting Graham at a local SCI show. Fast forward to Sept. 2021 and my wife and I were on our way via Qatar airlines through Doha, Johannesberg and then Pemba. Took a charter from Pemba to camp.
We stayed in both the main camp, which was tents with en-suite bathrooms covered by a thatch roof, and a fly camp on the Lureco river that was a little more rustic but a similar setup. The main focus was buffalo, which were hunted by finding the tracks of small groups of bulls and tracking them down. We did not track the herds. The area is huge and we were up and out of camp by 5, ate lunch out in the bush, and then got back to camp after dark. Buffalo were tracked every day but one, until day 8 when I killed my bull. The most difficult part was the wind, which was constantly swirling and buggered up multiple stalks when we were in close on bulls. The trackers were excellent. The area was very beautiful and mostly untouched. We did not see any trash at all and many of the hunting tracks were only recognizable due to blazes on the trees. There were no hunts conducted there in 2020 and we were the second hunt of the season. This was our first experience with Tsetse flies, of which there were many.
The most numerous game animal was Hartebeest followed by Sable for a close second.
We had a wonderful time in a truly wild piece of Africa. Communication with the outfitter was excellent. Chris was a great PH who hunted hard and really worked to get mature animals.
Greeting party on arrival
Our tent at the main camp
Chris and I at lunch
Liechtenstein Hartebeest
Sable
Waterbuck
Cape Buffalo
Eland
Niassa Wildebeest
Recovered Barnes X bullets from the Eland and Buffalo. Eland was at about 200 yards and buffalo a little under 100 yards (far right projectile).
Now for some live animals. We brought a Sony RX 10 Mark 4, which I had heard about reading posts from Saeed on the forum here. I wish I had spent more time learning how to use it before the trip, but I did okay figuring it out on the fly.
After the safari was completed we flew back to Pemba and got our covid tests. We stayed the night at the Pemba Beach Hotel, which was very nice.
View from the balcony
