I'm down to the last week before I leave to hunt with Michel Mantheakis in Lukwati South. I know there are contenders, but in my opinion, Michel is the best cat man in Tanzania. Lion is the total focus this year, but I do love hunting buffalo and nothing makes a low stress buffalo hunt better than having a cat on ticket. Any mature bull will do until the cat is in the salt. Then we start looking for quality bulls. With four bulls on license, I hope to try for something outsized.

My wife has decided to make this her second trip to Africa and I'm sure she'll love this area. It's amazing (I've hunted for over 30 days there before). But this is a real stretch for her -- she's never been to fly country and she's never flown in a small plane. Always good to expand your comfort zone.

Rifle zeroed. Just need to pack and get caught up at work, which is the major impediment at the moment.

Sounds like a dream hunt.

Good hunting and safe travels. Michel is a great PH. I hunted Lukwati South (Wuku), Chunya and Piti with Gerard Miller and Mike Fell when Danny McCallum had those blocks.

You are going to a hunter’s paradise.

Best of luck!

Thanks all. Gerard Miller -- The Gerard Miller spring!. I hung a lion bait bait there in 2015. No luck, but there was a lot of elephant sign and I think we saw a good buffalo in the vicinity as well if I recall.

I know what a great place this is. This will be my fourth hunt on this particular piece of dirt and my second one with Michel as my PH. Last with Michel as the PH we took elephant, two buffalo, leopard, sable and a lot of lesser stuff. We weren't hunting lion.

Haven't been since 2021 and can't wait to get back. I've hunted with Michel's company since, but haven't hunted with Michel as my PH since 2013, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

time, , eice of and what a gHav

Lavaca best of luck, sound awesome!

Good luck!

Great outfitter & area... Hope you have an absolute dream of a safari! Hope to see a report and pics.

Must add that I'm a little envious...

Was involved in a plane crash on the Lukwati strip about 25 years ago. All ok, plane wrecked. Wondering if they ever got the plane out of there, or if it’s still there. Thanks.

Unless they moved the strip, it's no longer there.
But I hardly recognized the strip in 2021 there were so many improvements between 2015 and then. Still in the same place though. End line painted and I think it was identified as well. Very nice wind socks. We used to use one portable sock on one end and a fire on the other end. Threw green branches on the fire when the plane showed up to make smoke.

The old landing strip was tricky to land on, but it was very close to the camp.

Good luck Lavaca!

Can’t wait to hear your report.

I have heard of 2 good lions and a good elephant taken in Rungwa already since July 1

quote:

Originally posted by bwanajay:
The old landing strip was tricky to land on, but it was very close to the camp.

Yes the idiot pilot found that out. He was killed a year or so later, taking off from Arusha. Overloaded.

Dream safari - Good Luck!

Coming up for air and catching up at work after getting back from a great hunt with Michel Mantheakis. He's the best cat man I've ever hunted with. I hunted leopard with Michel in Lukwati in 2013 and we took a very large one for Lukwati. Ten years later, was hunting lion with Michel in the same place. During that ten year period, I reached the conclusion that it is not a good idea to hunt both lion and leopard at the same time, so we didn't. We hunted lion, and bait, and that was all, to start with. I passed a lot of very nice animals that I already had multiple of simply to save time and focus on the cat. We ended up getting a very nice lion on bait and took him on day 9. At that point, we had leopard on just about every lion bait we had hung, so we started hunting leopard. We had to shift gears and modify the set-ups from lion to leopard, but we ended up taking a nice leopard as well, proving Michel is a great cat man. Didn't shoot a lot of animals this trip, but that was by design. We took a lion, leopard, three buffalo, a couple of kongoni for bait and a Sharpe's grysbok, the first one I've ever seen standing still. This was an awesome trip and it was even better because I was hunting with an old friend.

Fulvio,

You were right. Lukwati is COLD in July. I have to admit that I didn't think it could be that cold, but it was. I did pack my field jacket and a sweater (thank God), but I should have taken the liner to the field jacket. Who listens to an African when they talk about it being cold? You guys wear jackets when it's 70F. I will in the future.

Fantastic and well done. The Roan will be your nemisis

Congrats and thanks for the update!

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Fantastic and well done. The Roan will be your nemisis

And a plausible reason for planning another safari in the same area with a Gr. Kudu and Sable on the list.

Very nice: 3 buff, lion, leopard... That's really awesome.

Congrats & hope you do a report!

Congrats on a fantastic hunt lavaca.

Major congrats!

Absolutely the best.

Congratulations on a fantastic hunt, looking forward to more from your report and photos. How did your wife enjoy it?

Lavaca,

It would be interesting to know if the dry riverbed is still productive for buffalo as it used to be many moons ago.

This was my wife's second trip to Africa, the first being a trip to Masailand. Wasn't sure how she would react to this one, but she absolutely loved it despite the flies.

Fulvio, Not sure what dry riverbed you are referring to, but this year was weird when it comes to buffalo. My fourth trip there. We saw lots of herds, but not that many groups of dugga boys. Usually there are plenty along the Yeye or the Wuku, but not so much this year. One day, we drove the whole length of the Yeye and didn't see one buffalo. Another day, we saw over 600 buffalo in herds.

Good Luck Lavaca. I hunted Lukwati out of the Wuku camp twice in the 1990's. It was and still is a wild place. It was my first safari and it really bit me with the safari bug. Please post a picture of the camp when you do a hunting report.

Lavaca,

Well done! Saw a pic of your lion. Very nice! The big cats are my favorite animal to hunt. I just don't have enough cash to keep hunting them!

Mark

Thanks all. Mark, I agree. I love hunting cats. Lots of work, but they are such fascinating animals. Only thing I'm more addicted to is buffalo.