Yesterday I arrived in Johannesburg for my hunt outside Swartwater together with 4 other hunters. We will start our hunt tomorrow.




Owe is greeted Sabu from Optima at Johannesburg Airport.



Frederik and me at different sides of the Tropic of Capricorn



I'm carrying the coolerbox for Frederik Is this my job I wonder????



The Lizzard that stays under my bed.



The Professional Hunters, from left to right Pieter, Frederik,and André.



Two looking forward to leave bed early tomorrow.



I am getting served a drink in the Bar by our caterer Jamin.

I think I will enjoy a lot this topic !!!

Send my regards to FrederiK

L

hey christer going to show us some video when your through? Nice caterer-Jamin

I´m really looking forward to pix and reports Christer !!
Looks like the temperatures in Limpopo is rather comfortable...

Glad to see you are off to a great start Christer and the gang! Hope you have a wonderful trip and plentiful hunting! Good luck!

Looks like you're off to a great start. Good luck and enjoy the weather. It was darn nice a couple weeks ago.

Hey Christer,

Looks like a great start! Shannon and I are looking forward to your live reports.

Have a great time!!

About time someone put that big Viking to work...I hope that cooler was filled with Castle...

Christer and friends have a great time...

Mike

lycka til .....chris

Wednesday was a preparation day our first full day on the farm. We went out and put together two blinds at two dffrent waterholes. As Christer would like to have some more bowhunting opportunities. The wind is very bad with a cold front and as soon as the hard wind stops the wind suddenly changes direction. We had warthog and impala at the water but out of range and the wind just doesnt want to play along and as soon as they get closer to the water they run off.

Late afternoon we managed to get a steenbuck which Christer dismissed with a typical perfect viking shot. The rifle being a varberger 308 with 180 grain Rhino bullet. We cut off the head and hung the steenbuck as caracal bait and we hope for the best.

After dinner we went out for a night drive but with the bad weather and wind we didn't see very much but the rifle stayed at camp in anyway. Christer spotted a genet which was too fast for us to see is front of the vehicle. Very good spotting from his side. Too many animals would have made Christer climb off and try to run them dowm with his small 12" dagger.

Thanks all of you for checking in, weather is nce but wind is bad, bad. Enjoying it very much and I have some interesting birdphotos I will post tonight.

And Mike, actually it was no Castle beer in the cooler box, it was filled with Windhoek Lager and Draught Heavy to cary but nice to drink when they are cold.





Our blind works very well as you can (or rather not can)see.



The Steenbok I shot for bait.



Frederik is busy putting it up in a tree.



The final result, looks good and now we can only hope that it gets hit.

This morning we went to one of the water holes but with no luck, wind wind wind in all directions spoiled our hunt, however we got this nice bird to see at the water. We also saw Duiker, Steenbok and Impala and I was ready with the bow, but they never dared to come closer (wind)



African Spoonbill



During the day we went to look for a wounded Steenbok that was shot by another hunter at the farm, at our help we had a dog from the bread Blue Tick.



In the Afternoon Frederik shot a Steenbok, his first ever.



Owe and Peter, two of the hunters in the camp saw this Gemsbock (Oryx) calf.



Owe Shot a Steenbok, here to the right together with Pieter his PH to the left.



Peter shot a nice Warthog

Yes Christer I remember that wind. Last two days of my Safari the wind made bowhunting pretty futile. It was that shifty impossible wind you are describing.

Hope it calms down for you. The last hour and first hour of the day the wind was still pretty friendly. I hope that holds true for you as well.

Hope the wind changes for the better and favours you guys.

I will most probably leave tommorow to get ready for the Viking expedition to Victorius. I will try to keep the "Sunday Times" away from the Klipspringers and the Mountain Reedbuck.

See'ya soon.

More photos and more stories...
Have fun!

quote:

The Steenbok I shot for bait.

Such a big man against such a little animal! You should be ashamed of yourself!

Frans

Report for the 22nd September

Weather still not 100% but better, so everybody saw more animals today. Casualties of today among all hunters was a Zebra, Impala and an Eland (just before dark but lot of blood so they will continue tracking tomorrow), hope to get photos from the others tomorrow.

Christer and I started the morning with checking our bait, nothing was eaten but we saw tracks from Brown Hyena and Jackals.

We went to a different waterhole which looked really promising without a blind or proper cover but the leaf camouflage set did the trick for three young Impala rams to come in. They were very spooked and us not even 20 yards away in the open under some shadow. At first Christer pulled the bowstring but one of the leafs of the camo got stuck in the release and “TWANG†there goes the arrow not even 3 feet. The impalas ran off 60 yards, keeping an eye on them and with the funny unnatural sound they heard which wasn’t to loud the calmed down and started to move to the water again. This time Christer was ready the one ram stood perfectly broadside looking away from us and Christer let fly. The impala got hit hard turning as fast as possible breaking the arrow in the process. He gave a couple of strides almost falling standing up again in full flight and then vanished out of view.

I congratulated Christer as I knew the impala would be down soon. The man was very happy and with the smile on his face it looked like he just downed a 100 pounder.

Photos will follow with Christer's post

So far on the 23rd September.

Owe his still on his elands tracks and he is still bleeding hopefully they can put an end to it today.

The other guys at a lot of opportunities on fenale animals but it being so late in the year they could just admire the views. They ended up bagging a good steenbuck as well.

We were just to late at the blind spooking 3 Red hartebeest bulls. Left the blind at 8 to go and hear news about the eland. While we were there we went to the limpopo again to have a magnificent view of hippos sleeping photos will follow.

Will post the rest of todays report tonight hopefully.

My Impala shot with bow (Hoyt Ultratec 2000 and Thunderhead 125 grain broadhedas)



Do I have the wrong PH or how does it look, I have to do all the work all the time.



BTW this is what he did when we waited for the animals......



Limpopo the botswana border



A Black Cormorant



Frederik, this time awake



Baboons running from the big Viking



The small dog Tiger, 9 month old

We went down to Limpopo river again and saw a Hippo and was satisfied with that, but then we did not know what waited around the next corner.



This was an amazing sight to see with the hippos out of the water only 50 meters away.



A close up of the hippos.



Me and the hippos in the background.

Great stuff. I'll be leaving tommorrow morning very early. Got to make sure that the mooring site is ready for the Big Viking's expedition to Victorius.

Christer, I will sms the co ordinates of the entrance to Frederick on Monday morning, I must just get it on my GPS when I arrive tommorrow. Have a safe journey on Monday, the vetkoek and mince or syrup will be ready, just a quick brunch before we start hunting.

Jaco, posting this late and still be leaving early for the farm. Youd better bring your energy pills as well youll need it see you on Monday.

Fantastic report, please keep it up and good luck!

Christer, I get heat stroke just looking at those pictures of you in the camo suit!

Frans

The rest of the report of the 23rd.

After Christer's success with the bow and impala he decided to put away the rifle for the rest of the time here in Swartwater. Back at the hide the afternoon went very slow with a pair of steenbuck teasing us always in sight but never in range.

A opportunity presented itself later on a young warthog boar but with some luck for the boar the shot was to high and the arrow flew over his back.

Arrived back at camp in darkness to find a killing spree among the other guys since wind stopped for the first time. The eland of Owe was found, then a good Red Hartebeest bull for Möller. Peter also then bagged a nice duiker and steenbuck with both of the set horns being over 4". Everyone was in a great mood and spirits ran high.

24 September so far :

Dug got a very nice impala ram around 22" and we waited in the blind again. We were in the blind before light and half an hour later 3 Red hartebeests came in two bulls and one cow. The cow was heavily pregnant and only on eof the bulls came down to drink he was standing wrong and never gave us an opportunity. It was a great sight to have animals like that 25 meters away from you for over 5 min.

We had a quick breakfast on checeked on the trophies and sat in the blind again. A steebuck ram came in and presented itself with a good shot. It looked like a hit but the video revealed that the steebuck ducked. It was lighting fast and I was dumbstrucked. That was the day so far the wind is picking up again hopefully not too bad and we will sit in the blind again this afternoon. Photos will hopefully be posted tonight as well as the erst of the days report.

Christer and Safari-Hunt,
Were are you hunting? I saw you mentioned Swartwater.. Been there once some five years ago.. Some of the pics look exactly like mine.. I hunted with at Mkolo Gamefarm.. You wouldn`t by any coincidence be close..?

Christer and Safari- Hunt,
Sounds like you are having a great hunt (how could you not?).
Keep the reports coming.
Russ

Great stuff Christer!!

I had a good time southwest of Klerksdorph in july hunting for antelopes

I can give a hint of what´s going on up here while you run around in shorts and downing Windhoek Lager in the eavenings





Good hunting!

Stefan

We're waiting for another update. . . .

Frederik / Jaco

Waar is julle manne ???

We are all waiting for an update ? Did Christer get Frederik to carry the cooler box !!!!

" opie-knoppe "

Cheers Schmidie

Hi again aal of you, we have suffered from technical problems and after leaving Swartwater for Jacos place (Victorius) we never got working connection again. However we are all back home now and then it is easier to post the remaining pictures. So here goes.


Christian with his Red Hartebeest, PH André to the right.


Owe with his huge Eland, aprox 32 inches.


Peter with a Duiker


Peter with a Steenbok


A Bushbuck that showed him of at the waterhole for about 20 minutes, not shootable at
that farm, I was ready with an arrow if we should feel threatend though :-)


Hawk, seen from the blind


Peter with his Bushbuck, shot almost IN the Limpopo river.


Table set for dinner in the evening.

On the last morning in Swartwater we had a hit on our bait.
We found tracks from Caracal and Honey Badger.


Breakfast is served


The pool in the morning


Lower Economy Class


Monitor Lizzard


Three pigs on the road


Owe and Peters chalet at Victorius


The Lapa and pool at Victorius

Owe and Jaco


Owe tries to see the animals, with Jaco at his side


Jaco and his son is preapring lunch


I was set up with a dead Scorpion while taking a nap after lunch.


Peter enjoys the scenery


A turtle


Impala I shot in the mountains.


Will post some more photos when I get them from Owe later this week.

Saeed,

Thank you very much for keeping our post on top even if we couldn't keep updating it.

Christer, having dreams about climbing those mountains again ?? I enjoyed them and I'm sure you enjoyed the view from the top especially when you know you got there yourself.

BTW I only refilled the coolerbox never carried it. At least I tried to keep it as light as possible

Thanks for the pictorial update.

quote:

Originally posted by Safari-Hunt:
Saeed,

Thank you very much for keeping our post on top even if we couldn't keep updating it.

Christer, having dreams about climbing those mountains again ?? I enjoyed them and I'm sure you enjoyed the view from the top especially when you know you got there yourself.

BTW I only refilled the coolerbox never carried it. At least I tried to keep it as light as possible

You are very welcome my friend.

We all enjoyed following your hunt.

Here is a video clip from the Impala I shot with the bow;

http://cchunter.se/movie/impala.htm

Peter, Jaco and Owe visiting the white lions at Mama Tau´s outside Ellisras, only 5 minutes away from our hunting camp.


A white big male lion


A normal one but still very nice.


A Blesbock with od horns at Taxidermy International.

Interesting and enjoyable photos. Didn't know that a lion could be so WHITE.

Use enough gun,

I can be corected on this as I'm not 100% sure about this but I'm sure members will have more info on this.

The white lions come from a group of lions in the Kruger National park close to Timbavati, Klaserie and Hoedspruit area it was believed that they were all lost untill recently a newspaper had a photo of two white cubs being spotted in the area. They were not bred white but are of a natural origin.

Anybody with more info can rectify me on this one please if I wandered of in some BS.

Christer,

The more I look at the video clip the more I want to go back and see if we can bag something else at that waterhole. Well for me 450km is not such a big deal to get there I suppose, but I have two big items missing the Big Viking and a Bow.

And then who is going to carry my coolerbox ??? Ok, come to think of it this is not going to work doing it on my own when are you coming over again ?

White Lions are reproduced due to a specific gene. Some normal Lions have that specific gene and produces white Lions sometimes. If a normal female with the white genes is pared with a white male there are ussually half white and half normal cubs.

White Lions do not survive well in nature due to their colour. They find it very difficult to hunt without being spotted.

It was a very interesting tour, not everyday one has the opportunity to see a white Lion, they are truely beautiful. The young ones are very playful but they like bitting your arms and scratching you with their nails, it is a little oouch it you are not watching out.