We met Chris and Nelson at the First Class lounge at Dubai airport, had breakfast together, and boarded our flight to Dar. It took just about 5 hours, during which we had lunch - except Walter! He was sitting next to me, and decided not to have lunch. When mine came, he decided to share it with me! The lady asked him if he wanted lunch.

"No thank you. I just don't want him to eat too much. He should not get too fat. He has to chase buffalo up Mount Kiliminjaro"

She said "Aah, you are going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro?"
I said "Ignore him please, not all the wheels between his ears ara functioning properly!"

The pursor was listening to this conversation, and he knew we were travelling with guns. So he said "You are going hunting! I love hunting"

Walter "Not the sort of hunting he does. He has friends from Zimbabwe who are nuts. He goes with them every year. They are all mad. They use a very powerful gun. If you can shoot it, then I would know you are a real hunter"

Pursor "I would love to shoot it! But I cannot go hunting with you"
Walter, opening his National Geographic back pack, and getting a Champions DVD "You can have this, You will see what happens to people shooting this gun. And if you give me your phone number, we will call you when we come back ande you can shoot it"

Pursor " Thank you very much! I would love to do that"
When the pusrsor left, Walter said "I got you anothet VICTIM. I will tell him he can bring his friends too. Ha ha ha this is going to be fun"

Me "Can I have my lunch now? In peace and quiet please?"
Walter "Go on and eat. I will have a llittle sleep"

The flight took about 5 hours, and Donald was waiting for us at the airport. He took our passports, to be propcessed, and led us to the laggage belt. We collected all our bags, and got through customs. All this took just a few minutes, and we headed over to our charger flight. Again, a few minutes all it took to load our stuff, and and off went went.

And hour and a half later we landed at our bush strip, where Alan, Roy, Wayne and Paul were waiting for us. The drive to camp took about 30 minutes, where Rene and Leoni were waiting for us with cold towels and cold drinks.

Had a great 3 course dinner, and we all hit the sack. The plan is to wake up at 5.30, sight our rifles, and head out hunting.

I woke up at 4.00, and decided to write this report, and get unpacked and ready for breakfast.

Well, we had our breakfast, and went out and sighted in our rifles. After that we parted company. Chris and Nelson went off with Paul, Walter and me went off with Roy and Alan.

We saw roan, reedbuck, giraffe, duiker, warhog and zebra. But, we were after buffalo. About 9.30 we saw a herd, and left the truck to see if we could get close. They were in a valley, and the wind was going all over the place. We played what Walter calls "silly buggers" with them. We get as close as 200 yards, then they either see us or smell us. Off they go, with us trying to keep up.

Eventually we got very close to them, about 50 yards, and I managed to shoot two. We had both lying with a few feet of each other.

It was lunch time, so we set our table close by in the shade of a tree, and had lunch while the two buffalo were being skinned and cut up.

We radiod to camp, and another truck was sent to go and put some baits up.

Later in the afternoon, we headed out again, and shot a nice kongoni.
We saw a young sable bull, many warthogs, reedbuck, zebra and giraffe.

We arrived at camp just as the sun was going down.

Chris, Nelson and Paul are still out.

Keep them coming!

Next year, Walter needs a PithCam to live stream video!

Sounds like you are off to a fast start.

Very nice Saeed and thanks so much for sharing your trips with us.

Poor buffalo that they dont know what is coming next, cant wait to hear the rest of the hunt.

Well done on day 1

Two buff already? A fast start to be sure.

Nice Shootin Tex

Saeed,

I know how close you and Walter are so I am just womdering...does Walter pay for his own hunts or do you foot the bill for him?

Clearly a very good lung shot on the first Buff; where was the other hit?

Enjoy!

Enjoy and be careful!

quote:

Originally posted by Bill C:
Next year, Walter needs a PithCam to live stream video!

I think Bill is on to something!!! Good work Saeed!!!

Brett

What rifles were you and Walter using Saeed? Good hunting to you all. We anxiously await your next report.
Cheers,
David K.

Saeed

Congratulation to the start of a great hunt and pranks.

James

Talk about making it look easy!!! I'd consider myself lucky to take one buff on a 7 day trip and you take two on the first day???!!

Very well done and another vote for the PithCam!!!

Regards,
Scott

Cry havoc and let loose the buffalo slayer.

Outstanding start, Saeed! Keep up the daily reports! Is Walter with you just to shoot the bull, take pics or to really shoot a bull?

Saeed, Congrats on the 2 buff. I'm sure you aren't through with them yet. Good luck!!

Dead buff everywhere
Congrads

Saeed, You and Walter got out of town at the right time... I went to the Abu Dhabi Hunting Show yesterday. The first person I saw was your good friend Mark Sullivan!

Are your baits for leopard and/or lion?

Nelson also shot a buffalo today. Apparently they all had a fantastic day out, so we are all off to a good start.

Walter, of course, has been doing nothing but complain about everything under the sun, to the great amusement of us all. He had a bigger backpack than usual with him on the truck. In it he had 4 seperate digital cameras, a video camera, 2 GPS units, 2 Thuraya phones, an Iriudium phone, and - I am NOT making this up, In fact I took photos of it and will post it in my hunt report later on - his iphone, in its plastic case, with 3 seperate SIM cards!!?? I asked him why he brought his iphon to bush.
"mind your own bloody business. And try to hunt buffalo better than you did today. I saw the who episode. It was like watching a National Geographic movie of lions hunting buffalo. Except the lions kill one quicker than you three did"

He actually had a granstand view of what happened yesterday from the back of the truck. Apparently he sat on top of the truck and watched it all with his binoculars! We went after the buffalo as the herd fed up a hillside opposite where he was on the truck. They were going away from him, then after a while they changed direction and turn around, heading the opposite direction. Of course, they passed opposite him, with us behind. His complaint was we did not manage to shoot our buffalo until we rounded the corner, so the finalle was hidden from him.

It is 4.30 on our second day. Breakfast is served at 5.30, and we then head out.

We all breakfast and went our seperate ways. Abou 8 ks from the camp, we came across the fresh tracks of a buffalo bull. When we stopped to have a closer look, we found that he was with several bulls. We were debating how long before us they passed. We decided to give them a go. A few minutes later we found them. They were less than 500 yards from where we stopped the truck. They were feeding in a valley with some high reeds, and the wind wasn't sure which way it wanted to go.

We got to the reeds where they were feeding, we could see the reeds move a few yards from us, but no way to see them. We re-tracted our steps, and went to the other side of the reeds - this was a very narrow valley, but quite long. From the other side of the reeds, we could hear them moving no more than a few feet from us. We decided to go up the hillside, and wait, and try to shoot one as they came out.

Eventually they did coome out - about 50 yards from us. We had a look at them, and as usual, the one we wanted to shoot was partially hidden, as well as another one behind him. We waited. He then moved behind a tree, and I was worried the he might continue in that direction. And I could see that the one behind him had already disappeared.

Luckily he changed direction, and came into the clear. I thought I better drop him in his tracks. I aimed for his neck, and fired. He dropped. The rest of them milled around him for a bit, then ran off. As we usually, do, I fired another shot into the bull.

When we got to him we found him stone dead from the first shot.

We skinned and cut him up, and took him to camp to have lunch.

After lunch we went to put up some baits. After that we drove around looking for a sable. We sae a terrapin, and we stopped to takes photos. While we were doing that, we heard elephants breaking branches close by, and a leopard calling.
We saw some oribi, but none was good enough to shoot - despite Walter screaming that they taste great, and he wants to have a BBQ.

We got back to camp, and found that Nelson has shot a zebra.

Excellent real-time update.

Since I will most likely not return to Tanzania, I especially enjoy your stories of the camp life. For reasons unknown your statement "
It is 4.30 on our second day. Breakfast is served at 5.30, and we then head out" really brought back memories I will never forget.

Thanks again for sharing, even Walter's adventures

Thanks for the updates Saeed. Good hunting.

At this blistering pace, Saeed should shoot about 30 buffalo on this trip.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
At this blistering pace, Saeed should shoot about 30 buffalo on this trip.

If there is enough buffalo permits hopefully ! Well done

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

Eventually we got very close to them, about 50 yards, and I managed to shoot two. We had both lying with a few feet of each other.

It was lunch time, so we set our table close by in the shade of a tree, and had lunch while the two buffalo were being skinned and cut up.
.

Ho, hum. You only managed to shoot two? I think you need to have a better lunch, as you seem to be slipping a bit, mate...

WTG, Saeed and Nelson! Four buff in two days - I almost feel sorry for the local nyati!

I think I would avoid hunting any block that Saeed has just hunted. There won't be enough buffalo left for any one else.

465H&H

This daily update is pretty good but with all his gadgets, why doesn't Walter earn his keep and Twitter instantaneous results from the truck!!!

In another week One Shot Walter will start his "famous" stroll and slaughter.
Any Walterable animal in his sights, drop dead at the shot!

The photo of the hartebeest is really fantastic.

We could have shot a number of the buffalo from the bunch of bulls I shot the third one from, but, we wanted to spread the hunt a bit.
4.30 in the morning, and looking forward to another day of fun. Our camp is quite high, relatively, at 4500 feet. And evenings are rather cold, until last night. Now the temprature is just right, may be a tad warm in the day. Not many mosquitoes, and the tse tse flies aren't as bad as in some areas we have been in in the Selous. They tend to go a bit bersek just as the sun goes down though

May be they are trying to have a last meal before night fall.

Camp life couldn't be any better. Very comfortable, service is exceptional, food is great. Best of all is sharing a camp with friends one has been hunting with for 27 years. Walter is having every one in stitches, and the poor camp staff cannot make head or tails of what is going on.

About half an hour from camp we saw sone buffalo, and ran after them. They took us up a hillside, and we chased them for over an hour, then gave up as they headed downwind.

Back to truck. Not long after this we saw a herd of zebra, and the same thing happened. About an hour of chasing them and getting nothing.

Then we saw a herd of kongoni resting, and Roy crawled up an ant hill and shot one. Walter was very happy that he got something to BBQ.

We cut up the kongoni and hung him up in a tree, to be picked up on the way back to camp.

Just before one, Walter was complaing that he was hungry. We kept telling him no lunch will be served before one. Almost immediately we saw a herd of roan, and we left Walter to suffer his hunger pangs along, and we went after the roan.

There was a wide dry river bed between us and them, and the wind was quartering. We walked on one side of the river, and they on the other. They then got mixed up with some zebra and reedbuck, and the whole bunch seemed to just relax in a thicket. They were too far, and one is hard put picking a good trophy to shoot at because of the thick bush.

We thought we will try to get to their side of the river. There were the usual ant hills scattered around, and our hope was to manuever from one ant hill to another.

We did not know how many animals were making that particular area home. As soon as we manage to avoid a warthog, we see a reedbcuk. As soon as we manage to hide from the reedbuck, we find a warthog or two watching us. Eventually we got to an area where we could keep en eye on the roan. Then a kudu cow comes out feeding about 100 yards frok us. We were all in plain view of her, so remained motionless. Then two warthogs came along with 6 tiny piglets. They came to about 20 yards from us. The adults were feeding, and the little piglets were chasing each other all over the place.

We sat where we were, in the midday heat, for over an hour. We then decided to retrace our steps, and try another way of getting closer to the roan. Very slowly and carefully, we managed to evade all the eyes, and got to about 200 yards from the roan. They were still in the thicket, and one can only see glimpses of patches of skin. No way to tell which is which. The problem was solved when the roan must have sensed someting was wrong, and took off. We ran after them, then decided to give up and go have lunch with Walter.

We got to him at 3, and had a late lunch. There was no end of complaints from him. What is more, he missed his chance at his midday siesta too!

After lunch we heade out again, to a couple of springs we thought might have some sable around.

We got to the springs, and left Walter in the truck about a kilometer from the springs. He had a Garmin Rhino radio, and we were supposed to call him if shot anything, or for them to come pick us up.

At teh springs we found three kudu bulls, but they had already had their drink, and were in the bush. They saw us before we could get a chance at a shot at one of them.

We called Walter. No answer. We kept calling him. Still no answer. We walked back to the truck, and discovered that his lordship had set each radio to a different chanel!!?

We heade back to camp, and on the way we were going to pick the meat we had hung earlier.

We collected our meat, and found that a genet had eaten a but from it.

The sun was already down.

Six kilometers from camp, we saw a young leopard walkijg along the road. We stopped, and it did not seem to be unduly bothered by our presence. It just walked right becides us, and I managed to take a few photos despite the late hour.

Back to camp.

Another outstanding day in Africa.

The daily reports are working great and the pictures you are posting are good quality your connection must be great this time Saaed.

The reports and photos are great.

Thanks

You think perhaps you got that first one in the lungs?

Great picture of the leopard!

Thank you for taking the time to make the posts. i could feel the eyes watching as you were making the stalk on the roan.

tim