We left camp early as usual, and went and put up a leopard bait. We drove around looking for whatever we might find. Saw some zebra, and after they have given us the run around for about an hour, we gave up and went back to driving around. We saw a cirval, and we tried to get a shot at him, again, without any success.

More zebra adventures, without any results, as they seem to see us long before we could see them and get a shot. The bush is very thick.

Then we found some zebra feeding in the valley, and Roy shot one. It was getting close to lunch time, so while the boys were skinning the zebra, we had lunch.

My wife found a small tin of organic salt. It is black, and looks exactly like black powder granules. She gave it to me saying "I found this and thought you might find some use for it"

I brought that tin with me. And this morning we removed a bullet from one of my cartridges, and threw the powder away. The idea was to put this salt into the case, and put the bullet back. We told our game scout - who showed quite an interest in my rifle - that I made the rifle and ammo myself. In fact, I used a special kind of poweder, also home made, that can be eaten as well, as it tastes like salt. I took a hard boiled egg with me from the camp.

So as they had their lunch, I took my doctored cartridge, hard boiled egg and went to show them. I cut the egg into 5 pieces, took the bullet out of the case, and poured some powder onto one piece of the hard boiled egg, and popped it into my mouth. I did the same to the other 4 pieces of egg, and handed each to our game scout, two trackers and driver. They all ate them. Then Awazi, one of our trackers, asked what happened if someone smoked after eating this powder. I told him he would explode. He burts out laughing, looking at the driver, and saying BOOOOM! The driver's face did not look very happy at all, as he likes to smoke. We had to explain to him later that he had to wait at least an hour, or better still pass wind, before he could smoke!

He wanted to make sure, and did not smoke until after we had shot our eland, which was several hours later!

We started off again at 3, driving back to camp, as Walter had one of his famous BBQs ready for us. And we did not wish to be late for that.

We saw some eland feeding about a mile away in a valley. We stopped the truck, and went after them. The wind was good, but there were so many other animals on the way, we thought we might never see those eland again. A giraffe kept is eyes on us, and the rest of the managerie were keeping an eye on the giraffe. We got to about 200 yards from the eland. Which had crossed the valley now and were feeding on our side of it. We could see some young, and cows, and few other tails swishing about. But no bull. A warthog came close by, then decided it might be better to give us a wide berth. He went straight to the eland, passed by and continued on.

Then we noticed a dark patche about 100 yards from us. And after Alan examined it with his binoculars, he looked at me and mouthed "big bull!", and signalled that he was facing to our right. I had a very clear shot at his rear end, which wasn't what we wanted. We moved slowly to our left, until his shoulder was visible. I rested the rifle on the shooting sticks and fired. The eland took off, then started to stumble. He then disappeared from our view. We ran as fast as wecould to the edge of the tree line, thinking that if the eland wasn't hit hard enough he might be try to cross the valley. This is an open area with cropped grass. We found him lying down, then he jumped up and tried to run but was not able too. I fired a shot at him to finish him off.

This was probably the quickest eland hunt I have had. We were all very happy of this opportunity to get a good eland bull.

We cut him up and loaded him into the truck, and headed back to camp.

Just before sun down, we saw a very big black mamba lying on the road ahead of us. It ran off into the undergrowth before we could jump out of the truck and take pictures.

Walter was at the fire tending the BBQ. After a few drinks dinner was ready, and vereyone had a great dinner.

Nice work!

Great job on continued success and fun. Would love to see pictures of one of Walter's BBQs.

The stunt with the salty gunpowder has had me in stitches!!!

Thanks for the updates,
K

Good times.

Well, it has been quite an exciting day.

We left camp jus before sunrise, and a few kilometers from camp we saw some buffalo. It was Roy's turn, so we all jumped out of the truck and tried to sneek up to them. Of course, things are not as simple as they seem. As we approached the buffalo, we found some kongoni feeding between us and them. Somehow we scared the kongoni, who in turn scared the buffalo away.

We followed them for over an hour, then they turned downwind. We gave upo and went back to Walter who was waiting at the truck.

Of course, we were met with the usual tung lashing from him. He thought all three of us are as uselss as hunters as anyone can find. How can we leave him in the truck, and the buffalo in his plain view. Then disappear for over and hour, and come back empty handed?

We drove around, and had a few more episodes with various zebra herds, all without any success. Of course, this was very amusing to Walter too.

We then found a reedbuck, which I shot. We discovered he had some fresh wounds, no more than 2 days old, that seem to have been inflicted by a leopard. Both his rear legs had signs of claw marks, and his tail was almost bitten off.

We continued our hunt. We saw an old bull standing under a tree, he took off as we stopped. He was about 300 yards from us. Roy and Alan jumped out and went after him. I stayed in the truck with Walter. We kept looking through our binoculars in the direction of the buffalo, and our fellow hunters. We saw a number of ground hornbill running around with some pigs.

Half an hour passed, and we heard no shot. We assumed the buffalo kept going, and our friends behind it. We left the truck and sat under a tree. Walter, of course, being himself, had to do something. He found a falled tree, and got leatherman tool out, and started to play what he called the "xilophone" on the tree trunk very loudly.

What we did not know was that the buffalo bull that Roy and Alan went after, did not go far at all. They got close to him - still within about 300 yards of us. They could not get a shot because of the bush. And the bull kept looking towards where we were. I bet he listenign to Walter playing his xilophone!

Eventually Roy got his chance, and we heard two quick shots. We went over, and found them by the dead buffalo. He was an old dugga boy, who had lion wounds on both his rear legs. One wound was quite bad, as it was on the joint and badly swolen.

We had lunch as the boys skinned him.

After lunch we headed out again. Shortly after, we found another old dugga boy, with one horn broken. A few minutes later he was in the bag. We did not have much space left in the truck, so we decided to cut him in half, and hang him as lion bait.

After that was finished - we dragged him to a fig tree by the truck, with Walter riding it like a cowboy! - we headed back to camp.

Just as the sun was getting down, we saw a herd of roan, amongst which was a very good old bull. We went after them. They ran off, and we followed them. We then saw a cow walk back across the road they had crossed earlier. Alan put the shooting sticks up, and said "let us wait". Two young one came across, following the cow, then the old bull we were after. I fired a shot at him, and he dropped in his tracks. We ran up to him, and as he was still alife, I put a finisher into him.

We had a bit of a struggle to load him onto the truck, then headed for camp.

We found that Nelson also shot a buffalo today.

Wow! I cannot even keep up with how many buffalo have been killed to this point. Sounds to me like the hunters are having a wonderful safari.

Keep it up and thank you for the daily reports!

Wonderfull, love the buff with the broken horn.

Today has been a relatively relaxing day. We spent most of the morning in camp after we had shot the zebra, and in the afternoon we went and sat in the leoprad blind.

He did not come, so the plan is try early tomorrow.


Canuck logging in from Kigozi West, with a quick report to fill everyone in on my last 5 days. I have not seen any of Saeed's reports so there may be some duplication.

I am sure I don't have to tell anyone that hunting in Saeed's camp is a load of fun. I am not sure I have laughed this much since I was fortunate enough to visit Saeed's camp in LA1 in 2006!

My licence starts on Oct 10, so I haven't been the "hunter" yet. I have, however, been accompanying Nelson as an observer. But first a few comments about the concession(s) and camp.

There are four blocks in Kigozi held by TGT and the place is HUGE! Just to illustrate, two days ago we drove 120 kms one-way to hunt for impala near the river, and had a 267 km day in total, seeing tonnes of game -- elephants, giraffe, kudu, zebra, sable, roan, hartebeeste, impala, warthogs, oribi, dik-dik, and even a 3.5 to 4.5 year old lion on a bait that we had hung the evening before.

The area is very scenic too. Lots of cool terrain -- ridges, kopjes, miombo forest, large mbugas. Lots of evidence of timber poaching unfortunately.

The camp is hard to beat....better than 5-star IMHO! Its in a very scenic location, with luxurious tents for the clients and a very comfortable dining tent. The food has been fantastic!

Now I'll quit beating around the bush and get to the hunting.

Our PH is Paul Olivier, a South African that has been hunting in Tanzania for a number of years now. He's extremely competent and a great guy to spend time with. The cameraman is Wayne James, a Zimbabwean PH that has been shooting video for a while. Another terrific guy, and very good at what he does.

On Day 1 we had barely gotten comfortable in the truck when we bumped into 5 dugga boys crossing the road in front of us. Unfortunately after a bit of a stalk and tracking we lost them. Still a great start though! We then covered a fair bit of area and saw a lot of game but mostly stuff that is not available on a 10 day licence. Shortly after our lunch break though, we bumped into another herd of buffalo and started following them. We kept close to them and after 2 km and about 2 hours Nelson got a 40 yd shot at a nice mature bull and hammered him. It was a great hunt.

Day 2 was just as much fun....Nelson got a great stallion zebra just before noon. After lunch we hung a couple baits for Saeed. First time I have been exposed to that and I found it very interesting and educational.

Day 3 was spent checking baits and chasing kongoni....unfortunately no luck on either. At the end of the day we hung another bait.

Day 4 was the long drive I described above. While we were hunting a long way from camp we heard that there was a lion on the bait we'd hung the evening before. We decided to head back towards camp in time to be able to check the bait, see if the lion was still there and worth setting up a blind for. Fortunately the lion was still near the bait and we found him after being there just a few minutes. Unfortunately although he was a nice looking lion, he was too young.

Day 5 was another great day. We headed out at the usual 6:30 AM and within a half our were looking at the tracks of some bull buffalo on the road. We hopped off the truck and started following the tracks. Within about 20 minutes we caught up to them and got a quick look at 7 bulls. The wind was poor though. They took off and we continued to follow. Over the next three hours we covered 5 km and bumped them two more times. Finally we spotted the buff bedded down under a few shade trees in some tall grass about 130 yards away. Nelson, Paul and Wayne "butt-scooted" about 70 of those yards and then reached the tall grass and very slowly crept there way in a little further. Luckily the bull they wanted was on the close side of the herd and after about 15 minutes he stood up...Nelson seized the opportunity and made a great head-on shot. The bull ran off but was on the ground in under 100m. Another very nice mature bull.

I got to spend this morning with Saeed and the Vincents and had a great time. Right off the bat we spotted a nice male leopard on a bait from about 350m away. We watched him for a few minutes before he decided to get down off the tree and walk off. Alan and Saeed made plans to set up a blind there this afternoon and sit on it this evening. We went hunting for the rest of the morning and Saeed took a nice stallion zebra.

That gets me up-to-date. So far the hunt has been fantastic, save for the tse-tse flies which have made a target of me!

Will give Saeed more reports every few days.

Cheers
Canuck

How did I miss that one-horn buff when you posted it?

Very cool.

Thanks for the updates. Hope to see a leopard soon.

Best of luck Canuck.

Sounds like you guys are having too much fun. Best of luck with the rest of your trip.
Take good care
Dave

Thanks for the great reports! They are giving me my African "fix" for the year.

Thanks for daily reports...amazing pics. Have a safe and fun safari.

I've been offline for several days and return to this fantastic report. Keep it coming!

We sat in the leopard blind again this morning. A leopard came about 5.50, which was a bit too dark to see properly. By 6 we could see him with only his rear legs visible, as he fed. A few minutes later he stood up in the clear, and we saw that he was a young male. Too young to shoot. We took some pictures and video of him. He was having quite a bit of fun. He came down the tree, walked around it, and disappeared in the bush. A few minutes later came back, climbed up and again, and started feeding. A few minutes later he came down and again. The truck came over to get us, and we went back to camp to have breakfast.

Nelson, Chris, Paul and Wayne have already left.

After breakfast we headed out again, to check some of our lion baits. We have been hearing lions calling all night. We found that one of our baits has been eaten by a young male.

We saw three kudu bulls, and we went after them. There was long grass and quite heavy bush. We kept seeing them, but there was never any chance of a shot. After about an hour of this we lost them, and went back to the truck.

Walter asked us for a small animal to BBQ, so when we saw an oribi we decided to shoot it for him.

We loaded our BBK oribi and went back to camp to have lunch with Walter and the ladies.

We left camp ahgain at 3. Saw roan, reedbuck, elephant, buffalo, dik dik, duiker, oribi, giraffe and the biggest warthog we have seen on this trip. Unfortunately he took off into very long grass. Headed back to camp, and found that Nelson had shot a few guinea fowl.

Saeed, what's the story with that huge bull Cape buffalo in the first photo? I can't see his boss through the thicket, but his horns have a great dip and curl to them. Was he not old enough?

That's a beautiful young tom leopard, too. He will be a great trophy when he matures. They are fun to watch on a bait. Great photo!

I see that Canuck is hitting the Tusker lager. Better keep a close eye on the cool box with a Canadian in camp.

The only thing worse would be a Russian! Still and all, fine whisky is safe around Canadians. Nothing with any alcohol in it (including antifreeze) is safe around Russians!

Thanks for these reports!

quote:

I see that Canuck is hitting the Tusker lager. Big Grin Better keep a close eye on the cool box with a Canadian in camp.

It is a great photo, you have to admit.

quote:

Better keep a close eye on the cool box with a Canadian in camp.

I see you've been to Canada or worse yet have Canadian friends? I'm chronicly plagued by both!!!

Brett

You guys are obviously having a fantastic time, congratulations! Please be sure to give Rene a hug for me, and tell Roy that I said he's getting awfully white haired.

The reports and photos so far have been great, thanks for sharing with all of us.

Looks like you are having a fantastic time. I appreciate being able to live vicariously through the reports. The BBQ looks good, just remember to remind Walter of the first rule of BBQing "Under no circumstances is the cook allowed to change his brand of chewing tobacco"!

I LOVE the EA Kudu and the Sable. Keep it coming. ALMOST as good as being there in person.

Hi Saeed, some lovely pics and trophies there, hope that you guys ate the reedbuck! I hope that the rest of the safari is a fantasic one and please send my love and regards to the Vincents for me.

Thanks again for the updates. Looks like things are going well.

Congrats on not only getting some great trophies but also some fantastic pics. What camera(s) are being used and who is the photographer for these?

Saeed,
I see that you have been visited by a Kenyan witchdoctor.
Thank you for sending his picture to me.

Please tell him to give a speech to DRG about canceling my signature function privilege.
That was bad muti.

This witchdoctor does nothing but give speeches at problems here in the USA.
Maybe a speech will work on DRG's evil ways.

That big buffalo was far too young. He will make a great trophy in a few years time.


Sorry I did not get the chance to post a report yesterday.

I logged on, and posted the photos, then I was called to the dinner table to enjoy one of Walter's BBQs, and very delicious it was too.

After dinner, I am good for nothing but to hit the sack, as usually I am up at about 4.

We left camp just after six. It was just me, Roy and Alan. Chris has been asked by Walter to remain in camp to help him with the BBQ.

A few miles out of camp we saw a herd of buffalo, and immediately went after them. Mr. Murphy was present, and after about an hour they headed down wind, so we gave up the chase.

We went back to the truck and continued on our way looking for a sable. About 9 we saw another herd of buffalo across the valley from us. The wind was great, so we jumped out and went after them. We caught up with them feeding in very long grass. All we could see was movement of the grass, and sometimes black patches of their backs. We stayed behind them. Sometimes as close as 20 yards. Sometimes they would pass a relatively clear area, Alan would put the shooting sticks up, and we would look at the herd. There was a particular good bull amongst them, and he was the one we were after. Whenever he comes in the clear, there is always another one either behind him, so a shot was out of the question, as we really did not wish to wound another one. This game continued for over 3 hours. then Mr. Murphy came along, and the wind shifted, and off they went.

We decided to go back to the truck, and go find a shady place to have lunch.

Driving along, Roy spotted a kudu bull a few hundred yards away. We got off the truck, and went to have a closer look. We found a nicely placed termite mound to hide behind, about 200 yards away. We looked at the bull, and saw others fighting in the bush close to him. We waited to see how the others looked. We had quite a bit of a wait for the others to show themselves, and they were all young bulls. The only mature one was the first one we saw. I fired a shot at him, he ran a few yards and dropped.

Walking to our kudy, we came across a buffalo skull. He was a very old bull, with both horns broken. There was a sort of a hole in one of his horns. Awazi, one of our trackers, said he remembered seeing this bull before he died. It looks like he had a big bole in his boss, which might have become infectd and then killed him.

We decided to have lunch while the kudu is being gutted and skinned.

At 3 we drove off, continuing our search for a sable.

About an hour later, we found a herd of them, and a nice bull was amongst them.

I shot him, and we loaded him whole onto the truck, and headed back to camp to Walter and Chris's BBQ.

Jolly good show Saeed !
Congrats on the success so far... keep up the fine reports.
Andy

quote:

Originally posted by Brett Adam Barringer:

quote:

Better keep a close eye on the cool box with a Canadian in camp.

I see you've been to Canada or worse yet have Canadian friends? I'm chronicly plagued by both!!!

Brett

Brett, my Canadian friends realize that I'm just kidding - or at least they do when they're sober.

Beautiful sable, Saeed!

Keep the reports and pictures coming! Hopefully we'll see a big lion...

We left Walter at the camp, and Chris came along with us. We are after buffalo, and Roy had first go. And as he has been giving everyone of us a hard time for so many years, we thought of paying him back. We found the tracks of some buffalo that had passed the night before - it is the same lot that has given us the slip a few times already - we thought we will leave them, and go bother another lot. We drove quite a way, finding several tracks, and tried to cut across with the truck to see where they had gone. Then we stopped and Alan and the trackers went to haver a look. Roy, Chris and myself stayed by the truck. Then one of the gtrackers came back, with instructions to set up the lunch. They did not find anything.

We had lunch, then at 3 we got onto the truck and droive towards a mountain that was about a mile from where we had our lunch. Alan said he was going to climb to the top of the mountain, and look from there to see if he could see where the buffalo were. We all decided to join him. We all went up the mountain. We saw some buffalo about a mile away. Down the mountain we came, and loaded our rifles and started our walk.

Roy had his own rifle, with open sights. He wanted to try and see if he could shoot the buffalo with it. I carried my rifle, suggesting to him to use mine if conditions were not good for using open sights.

We found the buffalo, and tried to get close. They were feeding in some grass, all bulls. we continued following them. And the idea of hunting buffalo under these sort of conditions with an open sighted rifle, with all its disadvantages, was brought home to us.

We had 6 bulls ahead of us, feeding, and all our attention was on them. We turned around to go behind a bush, and were faced with a bull that had come from behind us about 20 yards away. Roy raised his rifle to shoot, but the bull did not wait for that to happen. We continued after the others. Eventually Roy decided to use my rifle, One large bull was in the clear, and Roy fired at him. We could hear the bullet hit. All the bulls took off, with us behind them. The saw the wounded one falling behind, and Roy fired two shots at home on the run, both hit him. We ran after him. Suddenly, he disappeared from our view, as if a hole in the ground had swallowed him.

He jumped int a korongo, ran a few yards, and stopped in the mud. Roy anchored him with a shot from behind in the hips. We got closer, and Roy finished him off.

Now the fun started, with everyone having a go at Roy, including his son Alan.

Roy's answer was that he did this on purpose, to pay us all back at all the aggravation we have given him during all the past years.

The buffalo died in a deep korongo, and we had to winch him out with the truck. We cut him in two, and took him back to camp. Arriving at 10 in the evening.

We told Walter the whole story - with a few facts altered slightly. Walter went to town, and had everyone falling off their chairs with laughter.

Nelson shot an impala.

This morning we went looking for buffalo. Instead we ended up shooting a duiker for Walter to BBQ, and a zebra to add to the lions food supply.

They have been eating almost anything we put up for them.

Good for Roy! Saeed: Tell us more about Walter's antics!

Wow!!! What a gorgeous buffalo!!!!!

Brett

as usual saeed , outstanding trophies and photos , not often one gets to see a leopard like that in broad daylight , love the pic of the broken horned old bush general !

Thank you, Saeed, this has really been a wonderful safari to follow along with each of your posts. It sounds like the trip of a lifetime, perhaps even for you.

Yes, Saeed, thank you for allowing us to follow this hunt play-by-play!

Its been a first for me to enjoy a hunt in this fashion...The pictures are FANTASTIC and that camera you have ROCKS , the SPECTACULAR trophies and hunt/camp report is also AWESOME!

Would love to see a few more pics of the [BBQ] spit/rig set-up that Walter is using in camp! It sure looks tasty...

We knew it was going to be an exciting day today, as Walter's hunt starts. He had first refusal of any animal he can shoot from now on.

A few miles from the camp, we saw 3 bulls standing in long grass. We drove on, and stopped a short distance from them.

I loaded my rifle, "Come on Walter! Get off the bloody truck and go shoot a buffalo!"
He did not budge, "These are not Walterable buffalo. You go shoot them. I will shoot another one"
So we learnt a new word today - Walterable!

We went after the buffalo, and only saw the grass move as they ran off. We followed them for 2 hours, never actually seeing them. Although at one point we were about 10 yards from them when they ran in the long grass. At one point all of us stood in the middle of siafo ants, which ran up our trouser legs. We all started jumping up and down and swatting them.

After we got back to the truck 2 hours later, Walter was laughing "Ha ha ha. I told you they were not Walterable buffalo. So did you gentlemen enjoy your early morning stroll?"

We got onto the truck and continued our drive. We intend to check some lion baits, and hopefully find something Walterable!

A few miles further, a miracle occured!

We saw a lone bull kongoni standing about 100 yards from us, totally oblivious to our presense, despite the fact that we were upwind of him.
Walter was persuaded to get off the truck and despatch him in a very short time. The kongoni was down after Walter's shot, but it was not dead. He handed the rifle to me with instructions to finish it off. After I did that, he said "I don't want to spoil my average"

We left one of our trackers to skin it, and we continued on to checking our baits.

One was partially eaten, and the leaves covering it have fallen off. So Awazi, our tracker, replaced them with new branches.

Walter, to Awazi, "You left the same meat, but replaced the salad" Awazi looked at him in amazement.

Further on, Walter asked for a pit stop, so he could have a leak, eat a sandwich and have a drink.
We stopped under the shade of a tree, and had our snack.

Alan lay on the ropes that our trackers sit on on the back of the truck, and said "I like hunting with you Walter. One cannot get too many rest stops"
Walter "But I don't like hunting with you. It is supposed to be MY hunting day, and so far you have spent most of the day checking baits for animals I cannot shoot"

We went back to pick our tracker and the kongoni, and go back to camp for lunch.
When we got to our tracker we found two more boys with him. Apparently they man the radio repeater up on the hill close to where Walter shot the kongoni, and came down hoping to get some meat. We gave them the front legs and the stomach, plus the heart and liver, which made them very happy indeed.

We had lunch, and Walter decided to remain in camp, while we went out and put a new leoprad bait at a place that was eaten. We also put the trail camera there, to see what comes for dinner.

Chris shot a warthog.

Walter is staying in camp to prepare his duiker BBQ, and Nelson is helping him.

quote:

He handed the rifle to me with instructions to finish it off. After I did that, he said "I don't want to spoil my average"

Since Walter is worried about how many bullets he shoots, just hand him a knife to finish off his game animals.

Keith

Nice to see Walter has figured out a way to keep his average up.