quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.



RIP.

I’d be her king, Paige, door mat…you name it

Right on, brother.

Just trying to stir up constructive comments.

On a more serious note, Tanya Roberts was amazing in that movie riding that zebra-painted horse.

She also handled a big-assed snake. I think it was some kind of python.

She died too soon. Gone but not forgotten, at least by some of us.

Maybe I will post a hunting story about the time, it was a long time, and a long time ago, when I was hunting elephant and buffalo and killed neither, but saw a crazy cow elephant maul and kill a buffalo bull deader than Nando's fried chicken.

As the great stories above attest, not all hunting turns out the way we expect!

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Right on, brother.

Just trying to stir up constructive comments.

On a more serious note, Tanya Roberts was amazing in that movie riding that zebra-painted horse.

She also handled a big-assed snake. I think it was some kind of python.

She died too soon. Gone but not forgotten, at least by some of us.

Maybe I will post a hunting story about the time, it was a long time, and a long time ago, when I was hunting elephant and buffalo and killed neither, but saw a crazy cow elephant maul and kill a buffalo bull deader than Nando's fried chicken.

As the great stories above attest, not all hunting turns out the way we expect!

On a recent hunt my client missed a huge Leopard and having shot an elephant I ring-baited him and he hit fresh meat some 5kms away and was feeding nicely. It was to be the last sitting and as the sunset the bushbuck started barking just as some poachers arrived and began shooting the place up.

Back in 2013, I was hunting with Michel Mantheakis. We had a good leopard on bait. Sat him one evening. Nothing. Decided to sit him the next morning and were there well before daylight. We had built a blind about 100 yards from the bait tree with a long empty space between the blind and the tree. However, both the bait tree and the blind were surrounded by pretty much impenetrable palm thickets.

Well before daylight, we started hearing a lot of crunching of the palms, then purring from more than one cat. They were close to the blind and moving slowly uphill which would put them behind us and downwind. Then they shifted directions and went back toward the bait tree.

As it got daylight, another male started sawing on the hillside behind the bait tree. The male was conflicted. He had a willing female, meat, and a challenger. He moved to the right of the tree from our perspective and bred the female, then walked back to the left of the tree to contemplate the challenger who kept saying away.
But he sat right behind a shrub that I didn't want to shoot through.

As he walked back toward the female, I shot and he ran to our right toward the densest palm thicket you have ever seen, but reversed and went to our left and died in some high grass.

He was dead. At the shot, we heard the gari fire up and come. Michel decided to play a joke.
He told the lead tracker that the leopard had run into the palm thicket to the right, and the spoor bore that out. The tracker looked and said something in Swahili that I can roughly translate, "may Allah be with us."

Woops, didn't finish the story. So Michel pulled the end of his joke. While the trackers were steeling themselves to go into that Palm thicket to the right after a wounded leopard (bear in mind the leopard was dead in the grass to the left), Michel took the game scout and said let me show you where he came from. He walked him right up to the dead leopard in the grass and shoved him over it.

It was a bit cruel, but absolutely hilarious.

quote:

On a recent hunt my client missed a huge Leopard

This I can never understand!

Many years ago, trying to shoot a buffalo cow.

It was the afternoon, and a whole herd was feeding towards after their rest.

They got into some thicket which kept them busy, while I was on the shooting sticks ready for a shot.

I had a 416 Weatherby Magnum.

We were there for so long I forget the safety on!

We were standing in a little dip in the ground, and this old cow came just over the edge less than 10 yards!

I yanked trigger so hard the gun fell of the shooting sticks!

The buffalo ran off a few yards then stopped to look at those idiots!

No flinching with the safety on this time, and we had our cow!

Everyone had a good laugh, especially the trackers!

And on the subject of trying to shoot with the safety on.

This time in Tanzania.

Saw a sable, and jumped off the truck.

We could see him quite far, but clear.

Alan puts the sticks up, I aim and yank the trigger!

Again, almost falling off the sticks.

The sable was watching us, so this got him moving.

A few yards on, he stopped.

A quick shot and he was down.

Nuni, one of our trackers, was having a field day!

Then he called me “a very dangerous man!”

I'd have said a very safe man.
Not everyone has the courage to admit their mistakes.

October 2013, southwestern Tanzania, right before they shut down elephant. We got on the track of three bulls on the last afternoon. They were up in the hills and it was hard going. We tracked them for a long time and finally heard a branch break as they were feeding. We came up on the bulls at a big korongo. One bull was down in the bottom and we were above him, but couldn't see the other two. It was pretty thick. One of the other bulls came in from behind us, but we were pinned against the edge of the korongo with the bull in the bottom, so we couldn't move. The bull in the bottom got nervous and went up the other side. He was on the side of a steep hillside going down to the bottom of the korongo. This was Miombo woodland and the hillside had a lot of sizeable hardwoods on it.

I tried a quartering away brain shot, but the bull went down front legs first, meaning I missed the brain. My second shot and the PH's were almost simultaneous and, both of us taking lung shots, he made one roll downhill and lodged on a tree. He was in an awkward position but trying to get up. We moved and I put one up his brisket into the heart. At that point the tree gave way and he rolled all the way down the hill into the bottom of the korongo taking trees with him as he went. It looked like slow motion with trees going down in front of him as he rolled down the hill.

Unusual elephant hunt.

We were in Chete, Zimbabwe.

One afternoon we were walking to our leopard blind, and ran into some elephants.

A tuskless cow chased us all over the place.

We decided a change of plans was in order, and as I had a 7mm rifle, Alan ran back to the truck to get my 375/404.

My friend Dwight was with us, and he mentioned how the hell are we going to find that cow now in this very thick bush.

Roy said "she will find us"

And true to form, after Alan brought my rifle, we went looking.

Not long after she came for us.

A 300 grain solid in her forehead and that was that.

No more leoprad hunting that day.

Ha! Tuskless cows are relentless not legal in Tanzania. We had to run like hell from a couple of them a few years ago, but fortunately we were close to the gari and where we could drive. They chased for a bit, screaming their heads off.

But the closest I've ever come to being killed on safari didn't involve an animal at all. Once, the driver nearly rolled a gari down an embankment when I was riding up top. It didn't quite go over, but it took us a few hours to get unstuck with two wheels totally off the ground --left rear and right front.


The other involved a boat on Lake Rukwa when a storm came up and it got rough in a hurry. Lots of crocs in Rukwa, if you don't just drown.

In 1989 I made a 24-day hunt in Botswana, with Cecil Riggs as my PH. We started with 8 days in the Kalahari, and finished with 16-days up north in the Linyanti Swamps. Along the way, we shared camps with some memorable characters in Botswana’s PH community. Willy Engelbrecht was in our desert camp and Terry Palmer shared one of our camps up north. They each provided some interesting ‘color’ to camp.

When I arrived in camp in the desert, Cecil went over my licenses and asked “where’s your leopard license?” I explained that I’d shot a big leopard with Roy Vincent a few years earlier and wasn’t going to try for a leopard on this hunt. That didn’t set well with Cecil and he informed me that we were indeed going to get a leopard license and we’re going to shoot a leopard before we headed north to Linyanti. So, early the next morning we called the main office in Maun and had them quickly procure a leopard license to go along with the lion license I already had. Once we had the license number, we took off to see what we might find in the desert. We were barely 15 minutes out of camp and we had 3 lions in front of the truck, but none were old enough to interest us. It was an exciting start though, with them all growling and trying to intimidate us.

On we ventured and a couple hours later we found a nice leopard track. Cecil asked me if I wanted to shoot my leopard on the first day and assured me we’d have the cat in the truck if I wanted to go after it. I thought that was a pretty wild boast, told him so and said I’d like to see him deliver on his assurance of a first day leopard. With 4 trackers on the truck, things progressed rapidly as they worked two at a time on the track while the other two rested atop the truck. They tracked at a jog and whenever one needed a break one of the other trackers would jump down and take over. Tracking was easy in the sandy soil and maybe 3 hours later we’d bayed up the Tom and I shot it. We had a nice leopard by lunch time on day one! With that done, we headed back to camp to get it skinned.

We were in a very remote part of the desert, not far from the Namibia border and a bit north of Kalahari Gemsbok Park. There were virtually no 2-tracks and we mostly just wandered across the desert, making our own tracks across undisturbed country. Over the 8 days we were out there, we only saw one other vehicle, on just about the only 2-track in the region. As luck would have it, that vehicle was a Botswana Game Department vehicle with an officer and a few others onboard. We ran into them about a mile from camp, on our way in with the leopard. We had a pleasant chat and went our separate ways, neither showing them our leopard or telling them we had shot anything. We rolled into camp, dropped the leopard with the skinners and headed off for showers before dinner.

Imagine our surprise when the Game Department guys showed up in camp, telling us they wanted to spend the night at our camp rather than out in the bush. Imagine their surprise when they saw the leopard we had kept quiet about earlier! We explained the situation about getting a leopard license only after I’d arrived in camp and that it was in the company’s office in Maun. A fairly lively discussion ensued and it was finally agreed that we’d provide verification of my license the next morning when the office opened and before we headed out to hunt.

The next morning, instead of getting an early start to go hunting we were on the short wave radio, calling Maun to have them explain purchasing my leopard license the day before, right before we started hunting. The game guys were satisfied and took off. But, before we got out of camp they were back, saying that maybe the home office was in on our charade and they wanted proof that we’d really bought a leopard license. We had to radio Maun again and they read the details of the permit to the game dept guys. They still weren’t satisfied and said that they wanted someone from the game department to be summoned to verify the legitimacy of my license. By the time we got someone from the game department to verify my license and had that sorted out it was mid-morning before we were on our merry way.

This was only the first of a number of memorable events on that hunt, most of which were detrimental to what was an otherwise highly successful safari. More to follow later…

DLS,

this is just the sort of thing I was trying to drum up. Keep them coming. Can't wait to hear more.

African officials can be challenging. Was taking a commercial flight from Dar to Mbeya (will never do that again) and was in the room in the Dar airport where they inspect firearms. The official asked me to load my rifle. My Swahili is limited, but that's what I thought he said. Fortunately, I was traveling with my PH and he confirmed that's what he ordered. So I chambered a round in my .416 in an International Airport and didn't go to jail for it.

I take my empties back, to be loaded for next hunt.

The MTM boxes I had are a bit tight, and with fired cases they are even more tight.

Leaving, customs officer asked me to open my ammo case.

I did.

He got a box out, and tried quite hard, eventually succeeding, in pulling an empty case.

Looked inside it.

Put it back, and pulled another one.

This despite the fact the fired primers are plain to see.

I have no idea what got into me, I said “are you looking for the bullets?”

He said yes.

I said “sometimes they get stuck inside, you have to shake it out!”

He proceeded to pull each case, shakes it vigorously, put it back, pull another one and repeat!

It wasn’t very easy to keep quiet!

We were on safari hunting elephant and buffalo in the Caprivi Strip.

We were there for almost a month. I felt like a resident.

But our quarry were mostly non-residents, and worse, transients.

The truly big elephants, and also most of the buffalo, would cross the international boundary with Botswana, which was the Chobe River, almost every night and come to Namibia to feed in greener pastures, as they say.

I passed on a 40-50 pound bull elephant fairly early in the hunt. I was holding out for one of those giant Botswana bulls that we occasionally saw on the opposite side of the river. We saw two that were at least sixty or seventy pounders.

The trouble was, the bulls always managed to travel back to the safety of Botswana before dawn.

There was very little food for them in Botswana, but there were no hunters either.

After I passed on the 40-50 pounder, we saw lots of elephants, but we never saw another bull that was bigger or even comparable to the one I let walk away. No regrets. That’s just how it goes sometimes.

The story on buff was no better. We only hunted them as targets of opportunity while we were hunting elephant.

We’d get near some buff, sometimes on our knees or bellies, and wait for a good bull to present himself for a shot, or just give us a better look. But always other game would bust us or the wind would change and cause the buff to run away.

Towards the end of the safari, we were driving along the Chobe River in the Hi-Lux when we saw a cow elephant in terrible distress, right in the middle of the river.

The river was completely dry at this point, but the river bed was pocked by mudholes that the animals had dug for water. The cow elephant was screaming and running around one of these mudholes, which was a wide and deep one.

We drove closer to the river bank opposite the elephant. We could see a baby elephant stuck right in the middle of the hole. It couldn't get out of the mud and was crying.

After a while, we noticed that a good-sized bull buffalo was moving toward the mudhole from the Botswana side, and for some reason, despite all the ruckus, he was bellowing and was moving steadily closer and closer.

At a certain point, the cow elephant had had enough. She attacked the bull and took out all of her rage and frustration on him. She knocked him down and for quite some time she tossed and stomped him to death.

But her baby was still stuck and crying in the mud hole.

Eventually, some tourists from Chobe National Park on the Botswana side of the river came by in one of those open safari cars and saw it all: the frantic cow elephant, the dead buff and the bawling baby elephant in the hole.

The tour guide must have summoned the authorities. Shortly, a truckload of BDF soldiers arrived on the scene. With the help of a stout rope, the BDF managed to pull the baby elephant free from the mud hole and reunite it with its mother.

People asked me later if I killed an elephant or a buffalo on my safari.

I told them that I didn’t kill anything.

But I did see an elephant kill a buffalo.

Mike - great story and event. Thanks for sharing. That is why I go to Africa.

All we see in the USA is some dumb tourist getting hooked by a bison at Yellowstone...

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
We were on safari hunting elephant and buffalo in the Caprivi Strip.

We were there for almost a month. I felt like a resident.

But our quarry were mostly non-residents, and worse, transients.

The truly big elephants, and also most of the buffalo, would cross the international boundary with Botswana, which was the Chobe River, almost every night and come to Namibia to feed in greener pastures, as they say.

I passed on a 40-50 pound bull elephant fairly early in the hunt. I was holding out for one of those giant Botswana bulls that we occasionally saw on the opposite side of the river. We saw two that were at least sixty or seventy pounders.

The trouble was, the bulls always managed to travel back to the safety of Botswana before dawn.

There was very little food for them in Botswana, but there were no hunters either.

After I passed on the 40-50 pounder, we saw lots of elephants, but we never saw another bull that was bigger or even comparable to the one I let walk away. No regrets. That’s just how it goes sometimes.

The story on buff was no better. We only hunted them as targets of opportunity while we were hunting elephant.

We’d get near some buff, sometimes on our knees or bellies, and wait for a good bull to present himself for a shot, or just give us a better look. But always other game would bust us or the wind would change and cause the buff to run away.

Towards the end of the safari, we were driving along the Chobe River in the Hi-Lux when we saw a cow elephant in terrible distress, right in the middle of the river.

The river was completely dry at this point, but the river bed was pocked by mudholes that the animals had dug for water. The cow elephant was screaming and running around one of these mudholes, which was a wide and deep one.

We drove closer to the river bank opposite the elephant. We could see a baby elephant stuck right in the middle of the hole. It couldn't get out of the mud and was crying.

After a while, we noticed that a good-sized bull buffalo was moving toward the mudhole from the Botswana side, and for some reason, despite all the ruckus, he was bellowing and was moving steadily closer and closer.

At a certain point, the cow elephant had had enough. She attacked the bull and took out all of her rage and frustration on him. She knocked him down and for quite some time she tossed and stomped him to death.

But her baby was still stuck and crying in the mud hole.

Eventually, some tourists from Chobe National Park on the Botswana side of the river came by in one of those open safari cars and saw it all: the frantic cow elephant, the dead buff and the bawling baby elephant in the hole.

The tour guide must have summoned the authorities. Shortly, a truckload of BDF soldiers arrived on the scene. With the help of a stout rope, the BDF managed to pull the baby elephant free from the mud hole and reunite it with its mother.

People asked me later if I killed an elephant or a buffalo on my safari.

I told them that I didn’t kill anything.

But I did see an elephant kill a buffalo.

Mike I was with an AR member hunting buffalo in the Luangwa and we had a bull elephant go completely berserk in front of us and tried to kill buffalo from a herd. I told my hunter that if the elephant were to see us we would receive the same punishment and we opted to quietly back out of that cluster.

I don't think I am alone in having safari friends who do provide me with lots of entertainment.

We were hunting at Chete, Zimbabwe.

And driving down the Senkwe River with Walter and Roy, as getting there by booat was quicker from our camp at Lake Kariba.

Our concession was on the left side as we were going along.

We see this big kudu bull on the right side.

Walter said " Saeed, Saeed, look. Shoot that kudu!"

Roy "We cannot shoot that. It is on the right. We can only shoot animals on our left side."

Walter "Good. We just turn around. It will be on our left and we can shoot it!"

We carried on, saw some impala, and decided to shoot one.

The boys went to get it, and we were by the boat.

There was an Egyptian goose making a racket about a 100 yards away.

Roy said shoot the bloody thing, we could eat it.

I did.

I removed the empty case, and closed the bolt.

Roy kept his fingers in his ears.

I said "why are you keeping your ears blocked?"

He said "your rifle is cocked! I don't trust you. You will fire as I unblock my ears!"

I had to open the action and show him it was not loaded!

These are perfect example of the non stop comedy I have to suffer on safari!

Doesn’t involve nice looking ladies or even African animals, simply Pronghorn Antelope. A company client had an uncle that owned a large ranch in Eastern New Mexico, his uncle had 3 pronghorn tags left over and gave them to his nephew/our client. Client invited me to hunt pronghorn, I went and was able to collect my pronghorn the first morning as it came to a waterhole. My host wasn’t so lucky and blew quite a few chances. Second and last day, we were both in his truck and found a very nice pronghorn standing on a hillside about 350 yards away. My friend had a 7MM magnum topped with a then new Burris Eliminator scope…sight on the target and push a button, wait a couple of seconds and pull the trigger, can’t miss! Well, he missed the hapless antelope 7 times with that electronic marvel, didn’t even get close based on me seeing bullet strikes thru binos, then he asked if he could try my rifle, a Hill Country Rifles in .300 WM, told him where to hold and one shot the antelope was down. He got rid of rifle and scope

Love gadgets to a point, but at some point they get too high tech.

Back to African officials, they've always counted all my rounds even when the flight arrives late at night. And I mean open every single box and count every single round in each box: 1,2 3 all the way through 20, then start with the next box. One time, I interrupted him and explained that every single box had 20 rounds in it, so he really didn't need to count every single round.

That broke his train of thought so he started over, 1, 2, 3 ... Never said anything again after that. Just went through the process.

Last year I was absolutely amazed. The customs guy opened the first box and checked headstamps and then did the math based on number of boxes and never even opened a second box. I was amazed.

quote:

Last year I was absolutely amazed. The customs guy opened the first box and checked headstamps and then did the math based on number of boxes and never even opened a second box. I was amazed.

Nothing to be amazed about: the first guy who counted every single round had an Elementary School Certificate whereas the last fellow had graduated from High School.

Counting rounds…trying to depart Harare this past June, i was taken to the little firearms checking room where my ammo was counted by 5 different people! And they all were present in the room during the count! I guess they wanted to really sure I wasn’t trying to smuggle ammo out of Zim.

At the old airport in Dar.

Customs is right opposite Emirates check in.

That year they decided to have a copy of your passport, and a copy of the boarding pass.

Problem is you cannot get a boarding pass until you check in, with your guns!

I persuaded the lady there to let me heck my rifles in, and I will bring the boarding pass to be copied.

All done, and back to her.

She put both my passport and boarding pass on the photo copier.

Lots of noise, but nothing is happening.

Several times, no result.

I asked if I can look at the machine.

Took the top off, and right there was the problem.

The stack of paper was laid at an angle and the machine wasn’t able to pick a paper.

Closed it, and suddenly several copies come out.

Big smile on her face.

I said “you can keep the extra copies for next year”

She said thank you bewana.

And then of course there’s the “ammunition tax” - payable in cash at some, but not all, African destinations on a per round basis at the airport upon arrival.

Not payable everywhere, or even anywhere every time. Those are the only things that amaze me about it.

Speaking of the airport at Dar, what an amazing transition! The first time I went through there if I'm not bad mistaken there were squat trench toilets in the restroom. I don't think I'm mixing this up with another airport. And it really wasn't air conditioned. Now, you could be anywhere in Europe.

quote:

And then of course there’s the “ammunition tax”

I am not sure on how much visitors are being charged as tax per round of ammunition but for TZ residents the price of a box of Federal .375 (20 Rds) today stands at TZS 700,000 (if available) which equates to $12.8 per round.

I shudder at the thought of the cost of a box of .500 NE

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Speaking of the airport at Dar, what an amazing transition! The first time I went through there if I'm not bad mistaken there were squat trench toilets in the restroom. I don't think I'm mixing this up with another airport. And it really wasn't air conditioned. Now, you could be anywhere in Europe.

I said to one employee at the new airport.

"This is great! much better than the old airport!"

He said "we will soon be as good as Dubai airport!"

I thought "keep on dreaming!"

Well, I haven't been to Dubai yet, but the new airport in Dar is amazing. I still go through Arusha if I can because charter costs are lower out of Arusha, and I just like the town.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Well, I haven't been to Dubai yet, but the new airport in Dar is amazing. I still go through Arusha if I can because charter costs are lower out of Arusha, and I just like the town.

Nothing wrong with the new Dar airport.

But, trying to compare anything run in in to anything run in Africa does not hold any water.Not sure how many years it took to build Dar airport.

Dubai built a new terminal and a new run away in six months!

In fact, this summer I travelled through Europe.

At Stockholm airport half the escalators did not work.

They have moved their lounges at the other end of the airport, far away from the immigration and international section!

Honestly, I have no idea who runs these airports.

And the airport closes at 8 in the evening too!

I'm looking forward to experiencing the new airport for the first time.

The old one was hot, dark and crowded, all the time.

Mike,

For sure the new one is a vast improvement. I know what you mean about hot. I used to hunt in October a lot and by the time you got to the gate you were soaking wet. Not a great way to start a long flight. Much better now. Still a bit of an issue getting from the general aviation area to the international terminal, but your outfitter should handle that.

These are great stories, very enjoyable reading.. and a few laughs (Saeed...lol). I avoid the Political forum. There is a percentage in America that remain blind...the others are Sheep.

L. David Keith:

I've thought about your comment and while I don't want to get political, it seems to me that it's the sheep that are blind. That's why they are sheep. And sheep = Democrats. Did I miss something?

Back to Botswana…

We wound up our 8 days in the Kalahari with a couple things I’ll remember forever. One night it rained a lot, which is unusual for Botswana in June. A day after the rains, we were following a solo lion track, which was quite easy in the still damp sand. At one point we passed an area with lots of bumps in the sand and a tracker threw a cap off the truck to mark the spot and we kept following the lion tracks.

The lion turned out to be of no interest as he didn’t have much mane. We turned around and followed the tracks back and when we got to where the cap was, Cecil Riggs stopped the truck and everyone jumped off. From behind the seat, some large bags came out and everyone started digging. I didn’t know what the hell we were digging up until Cecil said “Truffles!” With the rain, white Truffles were popping up in the sand everywhere.

We collected probably 20 pounds or more of the delicacies and ate very well for a few days!

One other memory from the desert was hearing the news one evening over the shortwave radio that Iran’s Ayotollah Khomeni had finally died. We did raise a glass that evening, toasting his death and hoping the bastard was burning in hell.

And then, we were off to the north. We had 16 days ahead of us in the Linyanti Swamps area, hunting along the Selinda & Kwando rivers and extensive swamps that were everywhere. More to come later…

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
L. David Keith:

I've thought about your comment and while I don't want to get political, it seems to me that it's the sheep that are blind. That's why they are sheep. And sheep = Democrats. Did I miss something?

Then there are "sheeple"

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Back to Botswana…

We wound up our 8 days in the Kalahari with a couple things I’ll remember forever. One night it rained a lot, which is unusual for Botswana in June. A day after the rains, we were following a solo lion track, which was quite easy in the still damp sand. At one point we passed an area with lots of bumps in the sand and a tracker threw a cap off the truck to mark the spot and we kept following the lion tracks.

The lion turned out to be of no interest as he didn’t have much mane. We turned around and followed the tracks back and when we got to where the cap was, Cecil Riggs stopped the truck and everyone jumped off. From behind the seat, some large bags came out and everyone started digging. I didn’t know what the hell we were digging up until Cecil said “Truffles!” With the rain, white Truffles were popping up in the sand everywhere.

We collected probably 20 pounds or more of the delicacies and ate very well for a few days!

One other memory from the desert was hearing the news one evening over the shortwave radio that Iran’s Ayotollah Khomeni had finally died. We did raise a glass that evening, toasting his death and hoping the bastard was burning in hell.

And then, we were off to the north. We had 16 days ahead of us in the Linyanti Swamps area, hunting along the Selinda & Kwando rivers and extensive swamps that were everywhere. More to come later…

From the Kalahari to the Okavango!

A choice stretch of Africa indeed.

I do wish we had hunted there when we had the chance.

Mike:

Agreed!

Well, this thread has appeared to die, but i suspect the members here have some great stories, so in an attempt to revive it, I'd ask, What are the most memorable animals you've run across that you weren't hunting? And the circumstances?

For me, blind snake, wild dogs, mambas, dwarf owls, mongoose's etc.

Aardwolf and aardvark