I told Walter I was going to pick him up at 7 in the morning, to head to the airport.
I left home about 6.45 and phoned his lordship. And would you believe he was still ASLEEP!
"Don't tell me you are still sleeping?"
"Of course I am, what do you want?"
"We have a flight to catch, so get your clothes on. I am going to be there in about 10 minutes!"
"Ok ok, I am having a quick shower and we can go"
"Walter, I am going to be at your house in ten minutes. I will wait precisely FIVE minutes. If you are not in the car I am going straight to the airport"

He was waiting outside his door, in the process of putting his trousers on. He was in a foul mood, and did not talk all the way to the airport.
We got to Emirates terminal.

I said to him "You wait here with our stuff, and I am going to the police station to get someone to come along for the guns"
He gave me a funny look. Still no words.

I came back with a police officer, who took the rifles and ammo as we checked them in.
Once we made it into the terminal, Walter became alive.

"I need to have breakfast. If you want to go shopping, you can I will wait with your bag"
I said "Great! You finally found your tung ha?"
"You are lucky I did not speak before. You would not have liked what I would have said"

"OK, enjoy your breakfast. I am going to buy some magazines and be back in a few minutes"

I came back and found him feeding, as usual, and in a much better mood.
He finished his food, and decided to go buy raffle tickets, and other bits and pieces he normaly buys at the air port.

We boarded our plane, and as usual the Emirates first class staff were very friendly. Especially as there were only 5 passengers in first class.
Walter had two air hostesses at his side almost none stop, until we got to Dar. I am not sure what he was telling them, but they were laughing all the time. Every now and then the pursor woulds appear, smile and go back
During one of the short breaks he had from the girls, he said that I should take photos and video of his "suite" on the plane. He wanted Alan to provide him with a similar place at the hunting camp. Complete with pretty girls to serve him.

I took pictures and a video to show Alan.

We got to Dar and Donald was waiting for us. He took our passports, and waived us through to go pick our baggage.
We went through customs, which was a breeze, and quickly headed over to the other side of the terminal for our flight to camp.

There we found Roy and Rene, Alan and Wayne, and our new guest Ron Berry.
We loaded ourselves and all our belongings, and headed to camp.
The flight took over two hours, and we managed to just make it before nightfall.
Paul Olivier was waiting for us, and we headed to camp. The drive took about an hour. We were met with cold drinks and cold towels.

We had dinner of beef fillet, pasta and vegetables. Chocolate cake was for dessert. Then we all headed to our tents for a good night's sleep.
The plan is to wake at 5.30, have a bite to eat, sight our rifles, and head out to hunt.

The hyaenas came to visit after midnight. making quite a racket. I went back to sleep, and was up at 4.

We had breakfast, and went to check the zero of our rifles. After we have finished, we headed out in seperate directions.

Roy, Alan, Walter and me in one truck.

Ron, Paul and Wayne in the other.

We went looking for buffalo, where a herd was seen yesterday. We looked all over the place, saw where they were, but no sign of them. We saw some reedbuck, one of which was quite good. But, we decided to continue our search for buffalo.

About 11 we saw a herd of zebra, right in the open about 1/2 a mile away. We got off the truck and went towards them to try and get one.

Luckily, the stallion was standing on one side, in a classic broadside.

I shot him, and we loaded him in the truck, and headed for camp. Which was aboyut 20 Ks away.

Our plan is to have lunch, then head out later in the afternoon

Tell Walter, he has a super hat I suppose he wore it on the plane as well to attract the birds

Happy hunting!

great pictures as usual and nice report too. Walter looks lovely in his hat. your daughter is a wonderful designer. if you sell them on the forum store I want one in blue

Dear Saeed
I read your post, close my eyes and dream of being back in Africa.
Good hunting
CF

And so it begins!!! Good luck and have fun!!!

I can't wait to hear the adventures and antics of the next three weeks.

Good luck and good hunting!

Looking forward to the reports.

Good shooting gentlemen, we await progress reports with interest!

Regards,

Amir

Glad to hear you had safe travel . Best wishes with the hunt.

Great start and a very thorough report of the first day!! Awesome!

Bro' RIP! I am very happy to see that you are the surprise guest. If I could have given you any advice it would be to have memorized a lot of jokes, and have exercised your abs and smiling muscles extensively before the trip. You are going to have a GREAT time.

I will be watching for further updates. Best of luck Saeed, RIP and gang! Say hi to everyone there for me.

Excellent start to the live reports. Good to see RIP made it over there as well.

We left early in the afternnon and went to the swamp looking for buffalo. This is an area that stretches as far as the eye could see. Covered in grass, with pat hes of wet mud.
We managed to get stuck at 2.30 in the afternoon. There was no wind, and the ammo in my ammo belt felt too hot to touch!

It took us over an hour to extricate ourselves out of it.
We continued driving towards some trees a few kilometers away. We got stuck again, but luckily not as bad as teh first time. We found quite a lot of signs of buffalo, but no sign of them today. We saw a number of warthogs, reedbuck, waterbuck and lots of birds.
It was getting late, so we headed back to camp.
Ron and Paul chased a herd of buffalo, and saw a very nice bull in it. But sadly he never gave them a chance for a shot. They got rained on, and got soaked to the skin!
We have just finished dinner, and could hear the lions calling.

It is 4.30 right now, and I hear the lions calling. The rest of the crew is probably still asleep.

It is breakfast time, then out.
We told Walter We enjoy having him stay in cam in the afternn, and may be he shouls consider doing that for the rest of hunt!

"I KNOW Roy missed me. And I am not going to make him miss me again in the morning. I am coming"

Good luck today -- I wish I was listening to the lions!

Good looking Zebra!

Congratulations to the RIPper!! I think Walter may have met his match!

Make sure you get a Walterable shot for the BBQ.

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:
Bro' RIP! I am very happy to see that you are the surprise guest.

+1

We have just returned to camp for lunch. After having shot a duiker and a warthog.

We found where a number of dugga boy are hanging out, and we are planning to go look for them in the afternoon.

We saw the lions that were calling all last night.

There were 3 lionesses and one young male.

Walter and Ron look like long lost friends who have just seen each other after so many years.

I will add some photos later when we come back in the evening.

Thanks for the reports and good luck chasing buffalo.

I want to know what Roy said when he saw Walter's hat.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Walter and Ron look like long lost friends who have just seen each other after so many years.

I am not surprised!

quote:

We have just finished dinner, and could hear the lions calling.

That one line brings back a flood of memories, thank you for sharing. Have a great hunt.

And the saga begins! Is the staff suitably impressed with Walters new hat?
Maybe next trip you can make him an entire outfit like that and use him as a walking diversion to the wildlife (with something like that walking around they would never think of looking at anything else!)

Good hunting!

Looking forward to the live updates.

Bwana Saeed

You have a lot to answer for posting those reports and pictures, you are causing a lot of flash backs and Africa disease in a lot of the guests ..

Have a great time to all ..

PS: With all your wonderful technology and the likes are you per chance on SKYPE over there, if YES can you post your skype name maybe !!

Cheers, Peter in NZ

Happy hunting

Ah the smell of wood fires and the sound of roaring lions.

Well, it turned out to be a buffalo day toda.
Ron shot one, plus a zebra.
And I shot one as well.
We left camp at 2.30, and proceeded to an area nicknamed as Hades!
We looked all over the place, but there was no sign of buffalo. We found the carcass of a poached elephant, which must have been shot about 2-3 weeks ago.
Then we continued our drive. We saw literally thousands of kongoni, dozens of warthogs and reedbucks.

At 5 o'clock we saw what we were looking for. A herd of buffalo in the far distance, on an island. There was no way the truck can get there, so we waded in the reeds and went after them. It was a large herd, and the bulls seem to hang towards the end of it as they fed. After almost an hour, we managed to get to about 200 yards from them. There were some nice bulls amongst them. Trouble was we had little time left before sun down.
Also we needed to have one seperate from the herd, or facing us. To avoid the bullet getting through and wounding another one.
One bulls obliged us, and walked a couple of steps towards us. I put a bullet in his chest. The whole herd took off, and we could not see anything because of the dust. We ran after them
Our bulls must have run a few yards and seperated from the herd, and was standing with his head down. I put another bullet into him, and he dropped. We walked up to him and added another shot.
There was no way we could have gotten the truck to him, and it was getting late. We headed back to camp, with plans to send the tracktor in the morning to recover our bull.
Had a great dinner, with everyone laughing at teh stories being told.
I am writing this in my tent, and I can hear the lions calling.
This afternoon while I was in my tent, I heard some rustling in the bush behind teh tent. I did not pay any attention to it. As we were driving out in the truck, we saw a very big bush buck walk into the open field in front of our camp from behind my tent.

It is 5 in the morning right now. And I am by the fire listening to the lions calling again.

The camp will get back to life again any minute. Have breakfast and head out again for another adventurous day.

Congrats to Ron....looks like that zebra is the first African animal to fall victim to a .395! (in a century or so anyway!) Way to christen the 395 Tatanka!

And If I am not mistaken, the buffalo may be the first for the 500 Mbogo as well!!

It is 9:30 PM here, so I will have a drink to celebrate on Ron's behalf! A momentus occassion in terms of "cartridge firsts".

Have another great day in the hunting fields Saeed, et al!

Love seeing all the familiar faces in the pics.

Great buff.

im loving this live report business, keep it coming

this live report is great, and as usual the pictures are great too

Saeed,
Thanks for the commentary. Its great!

Ron,
My congrats too for taking a buffalo with the .395 Tatanka. I plan on going back to Africa this coming year. (Damaged body stopped me from goin this year.)
Max

Jeez, I go to Disneyland with the family over the weekend and come back to pics and stories already! Keep it up!

And we're all off on the biggest safari known to man, courtesy of Saeed. Talk about a bunch of arm-chair adventurers!

Great animals and report thus far. looking forward to more.
Thanks!

Great pics and stories like always. God how I miss the soumds of africa and the smell of the fire. Ron although I dont have any use for wildcat cartridges I dont have a problem with anyone who likes to play with them. Looks like yours knocked them in the dirt just fine. Saeed keep the pics coming. I am sure Walter will provide pleny of antics for additional entertainment. Good hunting all.

I love this stuff. RIP good shooting and watch your back, Walter wont...


Mike

Great update -- congrats to RIP and Saeed.

As we usually do, we left camp just after 6.
About an hour later, we saw some buffalo bulls, and We managed to drop one of them. The rest ran off, with us in hot pursuit. We followed them for sbout 5 kilometers, without getting to see them at all.
We gave up the chase, and headed back to our bull so we can recover it.
As you can see from the photos, each one had a different idea of what to do.
Roy and walter had a conference. Then Walter decided he wants to be action man. Because he has an action camera strapped to his hat. He needed some "fuel" as he called it, hence the poeanut butter sandwish in his mouth.
After he had finished teh sandwish, he decided to do some studies on termites. Roy went to sleep, while Alan and the boys were skinning and cutting up the buffalo. Walter, as you can see, was so engrossed in his studies he was in that position for at least an hour.
We took the buffalo back to camp, had lunch, then went back to where we had left teh tracks in the morning.
We followed them for a while, and as it was getting late, we headed back to camp.
Our buffalo of the day before was recovered, or rather most of it. As the hyaena's had parts of it.
Ron and Paul came back empty handed animal wise, but with plenty of photos.
Had curry for dinner, and we are all looking forward to another adventure tomorrow.
Again, I can hear the lions calling right now. Earlier, as we were having dinner, one was calling from the end of the camp.

mmmmmm....that TGTS curry chicken was my favorite. Paul should have been very happy!

Congrats on another great day and buffalo. I hope some of Walter's point-of-view cam video makes it to the DVDs!

Best regards,
Chris