Ladies and Gentleman,

It is that time of year when we have another attempt at a serious safari hunt.

Hasn’t worked so far, but, we are not giving up yet!

Roy, Rene, Alan, Gary and Pete are already in Dar.

Maktoum, Walter and me are flying out to join them later on this morning.

Walter forgot that he had to start taking his Malarone 2 days ago. He called yesterday to ask if he could take two tablets in one day to make sure the mosquitoes know he is fully covered!

I am picking him on the way to the airport, so we can avoid him going to the wrong terminal, as he ably did a few years ago!

I have known him for 40 years, and his talents never ceased to amaze me!

I will do my usual daily reports to keep you all up to date.

Last year we had a bit of bother with our sat modem not working as it should.

Hopefully things will work out better this year, as Thuraya have assured me they will have a satellite stationary over our camp, when I promised to send Walter over to help their technicians improve their tech support!

Apparently just mentioning the name WALTER is enough to get people’s attention.

Pete apparently said to Walter on WhatsApp that he will “walk his ass off! Over every mountain, down every korongo, into every little corner of the concession you have never been to”

Walter, as you might imagine, is not very impressed.

He has been going around the chemists trying to find some tablets he will put in Pete’s food that “will help speed up Pete’s digestion, so he will be spending his time looking for a bush instead of trying to kill me”

Poor Maktoum, he is the one who will be stuck with them!



1. Hyenas feeding on our croc bait


2. A female leopard which had a hard time staying up on the tree. She provided us with lots of entertainment


3. I am trying to teach our young game scout a card trick

All the above videos where taken by a small Panasonic pocket camera ZS80.

All the files above are rather large, in Full 1080P HD.

May I suggest you right click on them and download them to your computer.


4. Drone footage of the countryside

5. Sunset by drone

6. Hippos running into the forest. See how badly one is injured

A few more drone footage for your enjoyment.

7. I saw these vultures catching an updraft and joined them

8. A flight by our camp

9. THis is a view of an area at the end of our concession. We stopped there for lunch

10. Boabab trees

11. Crocs eating meat we had thrown at them

More drone footage with hippos, crocs, birds and Walter!

12. Flying with vultures in an updraft

13. Our skinners supplying bones for the hyenas

14. I saw these two waterbucks fighting close to our camp, and took off to video them. I was not expecting to get such a surprise as one of them falling flat on his face in the river!

15. A forrested area of our concession

16. Waterbuck and geese


17. Hippos and crocs in a drying swamp

18. Hippos and crocs

19. Birds and hippos

20. Hippos and ducks

21. Walter in his safari truck

22. Slow motion of leopard

23. Slow motion buffalo

24. Slwo motion wildebeest

25. Slow motion waterbuck

26. Slwo motion kongoni

27. Slwo motion crocodile

28. Arriving at Lukula International Airport and greeted by the VIP reception crew!

29. We saw this herd early one morning, and went after them. At some stage we got very close to them in the bush, then they fed outside where we managed to just catch them before they went back into the forest.

30. We found the tracks of this herd, and followed them. They took us into a long circle route, going into forest, grass etc. Then we caught up with them at a junction in the river. The one we shot is not the one you can see clearly at the shot. Some might notice that the one visible was rather young, and the one we got was not.

31. We found the tracks of this herd early afternoon. And to get to them we had to make quite a detour to avoid the wind, coming into a herd of elephants in the process. Managed to shoot one just before sundown

32. Croc

33. We followed these eland for quite a while, then found them in the forest. I had to take a quick shot at the bull, as there was very little gap to shoot through. We ran after them after the shot, then saw him broadside to us. I thought he was standing, because I could see his body but not his legs. I fired a shot at him. He never moved. I fired another shot. He never moved. Then Alan said "he is already dead".!

34. We followed this wounded buffalo, and of course he went to find the thickest bush he could hide in. There was non of that Mark Sullivan bullshit of lying in the open, Hollywood style! He just took off as he saw us less than 10 yards away.

35. This was our first hippo. We were amazed at how fast the crocs came over to feed!!

336. Hippo shot in the forest for lion bait.

37.Impala

38. Leopard

39. Kongoni

40. Buffalo

41. Leopard feeding on bait

42. Roy shooting a buffalo after a long tracking.

43. Sable which we came across as we were chasing a herd of buffalo just before midday.

44. Two buffalo at sunset. We saw these in a herd of wildebeest, and as you can imagine, it was quite hard getting close to get a shot with so many eyes watching you. Eventually we got a chance just before sundown

45. Wildebeest

Excellent! Safe travels to all, and look forward to the daily reports!

Have a great trip Saeed! My wife just got back from 10 days in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and she said the architecture is amazing as was the heat and humidity!

All the best Saeed and team ,thank you for the daily reports in advance
have fun shoot straight

Off to a great start it sounds like.

Have fun! and good shooting too.

George

And what is Walter's side of this...

Have a blast. Looking forward to following it in this thread.

Mike

Have a great trip Saeed and good luck with WALTER

Wish you the best of times and good hunting.

Have a good one!

Safe winds.

And the adventure starts..

Sheikh Saeed,
Have a great trip, in spite of Walter
Good shooting and looking forward to the wonderful videos so one can participate.
Warm regards
Saeed

Saeed:

Greetings from King Salmon, AK. Have a wonderful hunt!

.

Enjoy, hunt hard, laugh hard and best wishes for a great safari !

Charlie

.

Good luck! I have enjoyed the pictures after the hunt.

We are at camp.

Had a great flight with Emirates, and just managed to make it to Lukula airport before sun down.

Had dinner, and we are getting ready for an early start tomorrow.

About time. Walter will be in the WC all flight.

Have fun. Shoot a lot and shoot straight!

Emirates is the only way to fly!!!!

We see you boys are flying in the cheap seats!!!
Awesome

Outstanding! Does Walter now wear two watches, or does he have some other magic device on his wrist? He looks as fit as a fiddle and ready to stir things up!

Best of luck!

Watch out buffalo....trained assassins are headed your way!

Saeed don't forget your annual "Tics Crawling on Buff Bull's Balls" photo!

Wish you all a safe and fun safari.

I cannot wait for the daily updates and the final videos.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
Outstanding! Does Walter now wear two watches, or does he have some other magic device on his wrist? He looks as fit as a fiddle and ready to stir things up!

Walter had breakfast in the lounge, lunch, cheese, desert and wine in the plane.

Then slept the rest of the trip.

At camp he has announced that he had forgotten his Malaria tablets.

It is Roy's birthday today.

The hyenas making a racket at night - they must be celebrating our arrival!

The hippos were proving vocal support too!

I'm happy to be reading along! Best of luck and safe and happy hunting!

Having problem with modem.

Shot two buffalo yesterday, and one early this morning.

Have lots of photos, will upload as connections improve.

Most of us slept very little last night, as we were all excited to have an early start.

Wake up was supposed to be at 5, but I was up judt after 3, and I could hear walter and Maktoum around 4.

After breakfast we went to check our rifles. And as usual, they were both spot on.

We headed in different directions.

Saw some kudu, with cows and young bulls, but no mature animals.

Saw some kongoni, and started to follow them.

A while later we saw a hyaena lying by a waterhole.

He did not look very healthy, and shot him.

No one wanted to touch him, so we just dragged him away from the water hole.

Found two seperate buffalo herds, and our chase of both ended at nothing, as the wind shifted, and that was the end of it.

On the way back to camp for lunch, we saw two duggaboys walking into teh forest after having a drink a wallow in the mud.

We went after them, but somehow lost their tracks in the tracks of a herd.

We mistakingly followed the herd, catch up with the eventually, but saw no bulls we could shoot.

Lunch at the camp.

Maktoum and walter returned too, and Maktoum shot a warthog.

Early afternoon we went to try to see if we could sort something out with the buffalo.

We walked up the hills where one herd had gone. They took us on all sofrts of round and round tracks, finally crossing teh river to the other concession.

Went back to try the other herd.

Sure enough, we caught them in a very thick bush. We spent ages eyeing each other from quite close distances, but they could not see us clearly.

Somehow they decided they did not like us, and took off.

Back to the truck, and drove in a sort of round route back to camp.

Saw the two duggaboys of the morning just before sundown.

As we got close to them, they got mixed up with a large herd of wildebeest!

Anybody see the pics?

The games have begun!



(Walter reminds me of my mother-in-law.)

quote:

Originally posted by JBoutfishn:
Anybody see the pics?

Nope, not here. Big blank space.
Modem issues, we assume.
Even with a geosynchronous satellite stationed over Saeed's safari camp?

Looks like Saeed tried to put about 3 dozen of his huge, HD photos into one post.
He is definitely making an effort to entertain us!
I wonder if he got the ticks-on-bull-scrotum photo yet?


Rip.

Saeed, I knew I could count on you for your annual "Tics on Buff Bulls Balls" picture. This year you've outdone yourself- the tics have tics on them!

Boy, those aerial photos make me want to grab my rifle and kit and head to the airport.

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
Boy, those aerial photos make me want to grab my rifle and kit and head to the airport.

Sigh................ More than anyone can know.

Ah ha! I see the massive and numerous HD images in exquisite detail. Like, as said, ticks on ticks.
Saeed must have put some new hamsters on the treadmill powering his generator,
and the power surge allowed the photos to finally upload.
Interesting to see a bowhunter in the crew, Maktoum I assume.
Go Maktoum!
If Alan can get Walter in range of game,
getting a bowhunter there will be a piece of cake.
All-in-all, a promising start to the proceedings this year.

Most of us slept very little last night, as we were all excited to have an early start.

Wake up was supposed to be at 5, but I was up judt after 3, and I could hear walter and Maktoum around 4.

After breakfast we went to check our rifles. And as usual, they were both spot on.

We headed in different directions.

Saw some kudu, with cows and young bulls, but no mature animals.

Saw some kongoni, and started to follow them.

A while later we saw a hyaena lying by a waterhole.

He did not look very healthy, and shot him.

No one wanted to touch him, so we just dragged him away from the water hole.

Found two seperate buffalo herds, and our chase of both ended at nothing, as the wind shifted, and that was the end of it.

On the way back to camp for lunch, we saw two duggaboys walking into teh forest after having a drink a wallow in the mud.

We went after them, but somehow lost their tracks in the tracks of a herd.

We mistakingly followed the herd, catch up with the eventually, but saw no bulls we could shoot.

Lunch at the camp.

Maktoum and walter returned too, and Maktoum shot a warthog.

Early afternoon we went to try to see if we could sort something out with the buffalo.

We walked up the hills where one herd had gone. They took us on all sofrts of round and round tracks, finally crossing teh river to the other concession.

Went back to try the other herd.

Sure enough, we caught them in a very thick bush. We spent ages eyeing each other from quite close distances, but they could not see us clearly.

Somehow they decided they did not like us, and took off.

Back to the truck, and drove in a sort of round route back to camp.

Saw the two duggaboys of the morning just before sundown.



Sorry, I made a mistake in the link, and now hopefully you can see the photos.

I wrote the above days before yesterday, and was not able to post it.

Maktoum got a warthog - but he has Walter as his lucky mascot!

We got a hyeana and 3 buffalo so far.

In fact, we got so lucky we had a buffalo on the ground by 7 in the morning yesterday, and spent the rest of the day putting lion baits.

Great trip!! Keep shootin, good luck and have fun.

Lookin good so far.
Man that tick has had more than it's full share.

George

We had some fun with hippos today.

We were trying to shoot one for croc bait.

We found a number of hippos in the forest by the river, and one particular bull was asleep behind an ant hill.

We wanted him to get into the water, and despite several attempts of throwing branches at him, he refused to budge!

We were no more than 5 yards from him behind teh ant hill!

Eventually he got up, we ran off, and he went deep into the forest!

We ended up shooting another one, and an amazing thing happen.

The hippo has not even stopped twitching, and a small croc came over and started feeding on him!!

In the afternoon we shot a kongoni.

Back in camp, and we are waiting for our friends to return.

I am trying to transfer more photos.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
We had some fun with hippos today.

We were trying to shoot one for croc bait.

We found a number of hippos in the forest by the river, and one particular bull was asleep behind an ant hill.

We wanted him to get into the water, and despite several attempts of throwing branches at him, he refused to budge!

We were no more than 5 yards from him behind teh ant hill!

Eventually he got up, we ran off, and he went deep into the forest!

I bet you ran fast!

But, remember, it is not all about how fast you run, it is how well you run fast,
and how wisely you choose your running partners: