What do you consider to be the most remote hunting area in Zimbabwe and who hunts there.??

gunny,

Chewore is pretty remote with no hunan habitaion other than safari camps in 2 plus millin acres. I have hunted there and represent Barrie Duckworth's Mokore Safaris that has had a camp there for 20 years.

E-mail me if you uwould like more info.

Regards,

Mark

The Chewore area is remote as Mark says and you really get a feeling of Africa with lions calling and hyaena roaming around. It is a beautiful area with plenty of game, primarily dangerous game. I hunted there last June with Mokore and really enjoyed it. From flying over it Chewore North and Dande also are very remote.

CFA

Chewore / Chewore North.

I have hunted Chewore North two times. Our main camp (Big 5 Safaris) was on the Zambezi river and you would sometimes see fishermen in boats. Once you turned around and faced the other way, you would see nobody who wasn't associated with Big 5 Safaris. You drive for miles each day and only see wild country and wild animals. You can also go to some of their remote fly camps, and they are REMOTE. I can't imagine a more remote place. Other than the fact that there are no more rhinos left, it is probably the same as it was over 100 years ago.

Tim

How remote is Dande? Going there in three months for buffalo as the primary specie. jorge

Jorge, I'm 3 weeks behind you. You and John better leave me a good size buffalo!

YEah, I'll force myself. Did you get the load data I sent you? jorge

Jorge, I'll thank you in advance for passing up on the biggest Buffalo you see. And thanks for the reloading data. You know I will practice with the reloads but I guess I'll take factory loads over there as weatherby factory loads seem to perform the best. I'm hoping that the barnes X 450 grain will do the trick. Thanks again for all your help as the trip is coming fast!

Jorge,
I hunted the dande North last summer (July.) It is an awesome and very wild area. Good numbers of buff, elephant and freakin lions everywhere. I watched or rather heard a pride of lions take down a buff in the brush about 60 yards from me. I later was able to watch them feed from a small rise.

My buddy watched a leopard stalk a baboon in broad daylight. And was also treated to an MGM maned lion the same day in broad daylight.

Hyenas in camp every night. Lions chuffing and roaring every night. The countryside is astonishingly beatifull. I recomend it.

There are villages nearby and we did see people from time to time. But it could not be called anything but wild by any stretch of the imagination.

I hunted with Swainsons. Who are you hunting with?

As a side note the country can be very thick and very nasty Jesse in some areas which can make for some very exciting moments with the species Lacadondta Africana and the infamous wild Bovinids as well. I had a spot of humor myself in the thick stuff.

Y'all be carefull now hear.

Good luck

Greg Allyn

Greg: Thanks for the update. I'll hunt with John Sharp out of Bulawayo. We're flying in on his Cherokee. He has a dirt strip about 300 yards from his camp, called "muhuru." Check out his website: www.john-sharp-safaris.com. jorge

Jorge,

I hunted out of Mururu last year. Everything that John says about it on his sight is 100% accurate. It is a fantastic and camp! I'd love to be going with you. It's almost painfull to see the pictures of that camp and know that I can't go this year.

Have a great time.

Greg

Surestrike: That's one of the many things I like about John, in that he tells you exactly what to expect and does not embellish anything. What time of the year did you go? I'm expecting it to be a bit on the chilly side, but more importantly, how's the vegetation and what kind of scenario as far as visibility and range can I expect for the buffalo? John says he'll get me as close as my ego will let me! jorge

most remote from the number of people you are likely to see and the lenght of drive over a lousy road
1) Chete Safari Area
2) Chewore South
3) Chewore north and Chizarira
4) Rifa and the matetsi units.

Some of the communal (tribal) concessions are pretty remote as far as civilisation goes. Stone age people who smoke dope like tobacco -
1) Dande
2) nyaminyami

Sounds like chewore is considered the most remote how much does it cost to fly there from Harare??

A single engine Cesna costs $1100 or $1200 for a roundtrip ticket from Harare to Chewore North and back. However, the availability and cost of fuel at the time you fly may cause the price to swing by a $100 or so.

Tim

quote:

Originally posted by gunny:
Sounds like chewore is considered the most remote how much does it cost to fly there from Harare??

It's only a 7 hour drive, which should cost about $300 each way. If something is a 7 hour drive in the USA, I don't take a plane. Personally I see no need to unnecessarily increase the cost of a safari with an air charter to a drivable location. IMO But I suppose you could make a case that an air charter is safer than road travel in ZIM due to donkeys walking into the road, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by 500grains:

It's only a 7 hour drive, which should cost about $300 each way. If something is a 7 hour drive in the USA, I don't take a plane. Personally I see no need to unnecessarily increase the cost of a safari with an air charter to a drivable location. IMO

But there is no taxi driver.
The PH is engaged in the hunting area and not able to pick up you at the airport.
And to rent a 4wheeler for 14 days is more expensive than the air charter.
What now?

Norbert,

In many cases, the PH is travelling to/from the safari area for your safari. So you ride with him.

It is also possible for the PH to arrange a driver for you. Many of the safari companies will do that.

Norbert,

FWIW, I'm driving up to Chewore North with Myles for my ele hunt. $400 round trip from/to Harare.

quote:

Originally posted by ErikD:
Norbert,

FWIW, I'm driving up to Chewore North with Myles for my ele hunt. $400 round trip from/to Harare.

Erik, 500grains

of course, if you are lucky it is possible to join the PH driving in.
But normally in the season he is fully booked and no time left for transportation of clients.

It is new to me that a safari company will arrange road transfer to the remote areas in the valley.

At $600 - $800 a day, the cost of the charter is less than it appears to be. Isn't the travel time to camp part of your 7, 10, 14, 21 day hunt?

Buzz told me to expect to pay $1,400 RT from HRE to Chewore North, maybe $1,300. He said they use a Cessna 206.

I guess Id be more concerened about the quality of the pilot and maintenece of equipment than the drive.

Andy

Andy,

I may be lucky as Norbert pointed out, but travel days (for me at least) are not charged with daily rates. The drive up and down is 400 dollars period.

However, I will be in Zim for an extra week beside the hunting, so there is no hurry for me. If flying into Zim for a hunt and only a hunt with little time to spare, I can fully understand using a charter in and out.

The travel days are not supposed to count against you hunting days. However on some advertised "package hunts", it works like this:

DAY 1: Fly Atlanta to JoBerg
DAY 2: Travel JoBerg to X location. Go to bed.
DAY 3: Sight in gun and hunt.
Day 7: Fly back to USA.

Last year we were supposed to be driven to our hunting area. The safari company changed plans at the last minute upon our arrival and put us on a charter. I told them it was their money and even though my wife doesnt like charters we flew. They never mentioned the cost of the flight but I felt if they wanted to make last minute changes it was their responsibility. We were never billed for the flight.

I flew a charter flight from Harare to the OMAY last June. When I say I flew, I mean I FLEW . The pilot let me fly the plane for most all of the flight in. I did suggest he land the plane. I like to fly in small planes so I enjoyed the charter in and out.
The plane was in tip top shape as near as I could tell. ie there were no leaking fluids and it did not catch on fire.

NE. Obviously wasn't a government plane! Parks have scribbled 21 planes and one helicopter since 1980 One plane survived 137 partial or complete engine failures and several nasty dings before it was written off. I scibbled a Police Reserve Airwing cub on parks duty that doesn't appear in the statistics and nore do many others! Mike Simpson wrote off 7 water development planes in 4 years. All crashes bar 2 due to mechanical failure (one shot down and one pilot pulled the mixture instead of the throttle and then panicked).

Outside of government though- our light aircraft are very strictly maintained and serviced with a very low accident rate even by european standards.