I mentioned this upcoming trip on another AR thread & quite a few members

contacted me for info & asked me to post a "hunt report", since we only shot

3 days of the 10 day trip, this will be somewhat of a "vacation report"

I will start by apologizing for the quality of photo's, I only took my iPhone 10.

It was also quite an adventure as we be beat the Coronavirus border

shutdown's & quarantines only by 48 hours.

Dates: March 1-14,2020
Outfitter: Trek Safaris (Milton Hanburry)
Shoot/Hunt host: Hajal Atlas
Species Hunted: Barbary Red-Legged Partridge

Once again, we were a bit concerned about the Corona situation but we

decided to press on & do the trip. There were 6 couples who I frequently

travel with (bird shooting,...) along. We stayed a couple nights in

London on the way over, to relax & help with the jet lag, then flew to Agadir.

Agadir is a coastal city, with lots of tourism & high end beach resorts, it

was nice to lay on the beach in early March, probably around 85 F.

We then drove four hours to Taroudant, our base for the next four days.

It was really a great stay as our hosts, John Vincent & Nathalie, were

unbelievably gracious. Every night we had a five course meal either

under a tent or poolside.





Moroccan food was very good, not overly spicy but just right. The only negative of

the entire trip was that we had to take a one hour drive (nice blacktop roads)

to the hunt location & one hour back.

If you look in the next photo, our tent is the tiny white dot 1/2 way up the mountain.



The hunt location was half way up the Atlas Mountains, our base was a

large Berber tent, complete with rugs/pillows,... just like I expected.

Our routine was to draw a card with our peg positions for the day.

We would then do two drives, take a break for food, beverages then do a third drive.

After the third drive, we would retire to the large tent & have a great lunch!

Here's our loaders/secretarios at their tent



We arranged to take 300 birds a day for our group, we easily could have shot

more, but after the first day started taking more challenging birds.



The drives were on steep dry mountain sides & the beaters would push from

the other side over the crest, giving us numerous high, hard flying targets.





The Atlas Mountains reminded me of the mountains in AZ or NM.

Like any driven shoot, on some drives you were in the "hot spot" & your

buddies got to watch you shoot & on other peg positions it was less

productive. My best peg was 40 birds & my lowest was 7 (however, I had

decided to slow down the shooting by that point & was only taking high,

challenging overhead shots!). Overall, a well run shoot, with hard flying

wild birds in an exotic local. Every shooter was assigned a loader & a

secretary who counted your shot birds, My guys were fun & engaging.



They were a bit limited in their English! We didn't take our own guns on this trip &

were pleasantly surprised as they purchased 8 new Benelli 12g O/U's.

They were a bit stiff at they beginning, but performed well.

Hajal Atlas is owned by Malek & his son Mohammed. Malek was educated

in Switzerland & speaks perfect English. We could sit for hours listening

to some of his stories.

He has been running this shoot since 1967 & really has it perfected.

He was truly a perfect host. Here he is sitting in the big tent after the shoot.




After 3 days of shooting & 4 nights we headed to Marrakech. It took about a 5 hour

drive to Kasbah Tamadot, a real jewel of a destination.




It is owned by Sir Robert Branson & was extremely high end. Our rooms were individual

tents with steam showers, jacuzzi's on the deck,... & another 5 star meal.



Here's my wife at our private Moroccan poolside cabana at Kasbah Tamadot.



We then drove 2 hours to Marrakech for 2 nights at La Mamounia, another

5 stay resort. I will give Trek Safaris & Milton Hanburry credit, we

didn't realize we were going to get this pampered & stay at such

incredible properties. Every night they had dinners arranged & you

didn't have to carry any money, everything was taken care of. I could

get used to this? The Souk's (outdoor shops & bazaar's) were wild &

just what I pictured. They had snake charmers, trained monkeys,... &

alleyways of leather, brass, spices, jewelry, shoes, rugs,...







We did purchase 6 Berber rugs & they have already arrived via DHL to us in Wyoming

2 weeks for shipping is pretty incredible!



We did camel rides & all the touristy stuff as well.

We then flew back to London, overnighted then back to the US as quarantines

were beginning to go into effect. Luckily everyone in our group has

had no symptoms & arrived home unscathed?


In summary, Morocco is a fun, safe & exotic place to visit. It appears as if

it is becoming a retirement destination for a large part of Europe (Spain, France,..)

The infrastructure is newer & overall appeared quite modern. Also, I would have no

hesitation in recommending Trek Safari/Milton Hanburry to anyone. I'm already

thinking of maybe doing this trip again. The bird shooting was top notch & better

than I expected as well. About 6 years ago I did a trip to Masailand, 4 days

hunting, 4 days in Zanzibar & 3 days of touring the Ngorogoro/other parks with

my wife & another couple. Like this trip to Morocco, it was a great vacation &

a great hunt/shoot. Nice to have the wife along, especially when everything

is so "high end"! If anyone has any ?'s, they can PM me anytime for details.

Jim

-also a big thanks to Hannay for his help with posting photos!!

Thanks for the report - it looks like it was a good time. I think you've mastered the photo posting now!

Outstanding!

It appears that you had a grand time. Thanks for the photos!

Great trip, congrats, it looks like you made great memories. A few years ago I took my GF at the time to Marrakesh and we loved it. I would very much go back.

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What a joy! My kind of a bird hunt! Thank you so much for posting. I'll will PM you for me details if I may.

Cheers and thanks again for the write up and great pictures!

Charlie

.

Thanks for the report! Looked like you and your group had a fun adventure. I hope the wife and I are able to make our trip to Morocco in October... so far away but so close with all the issues surrounding the pandemic. Glad you guys got to go!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Thanks for the report! Looked like you and your group had a fun adventure. I hope the wife and I are able to make out trip to Morocco in October... so far away but so close with all the issues surrounding the pandemic. Glad you guys got to go!

Are you hunting or just taking in the sites?

quote:

Are you hunting or just taking in the sites?

Vacationing with the better half... the much better half.