Hunt Dates: 30 Aug 2011- 5 Sept 2011
Outfitter: Muchinga Adventures
PH: Nicholas Wightman
Country: Zambia
Area: Nyaminga Block, Luangwa Valley
Game Hunted: Buffalo, Bushbuck, Zebra, Puku, Warthog
Game Taken:Buffalo, Bushbuck, Puku, Warthog
Other Game seen: Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Hippo, Croc, Kudu, Impala, Waterbuck, Duiker, Grysbok, Cooksons Wildebeest
Rifle: winchester Model 70, .416 Rem Mag, Leupold 1.5-5x20
Booking Agent: Adventure Unlimited- John Barth & Merrona Warner
Travel Agent: Steve Turner, Travel with Guns

My new bride and I were scheduled to depart JFK on Aug. 28th for our honeymoon, a 7 day Safari in Zambia and 3 day jaunt in Victoria Falls. However, a snooty little hurricane who called herself Irene had other plans. Steve Turner, who is unequiviocally THE MAN, gets us out a day early. Johnny & Laura duPlooy are gracious enough to accomodate us at their guest house. Delays averted, safari commences on schedule, Charter Flight delivers us to Waka Waka Airstrip. I dont fly well...



PH Nicholas Wightman meets us there, and introduces us to Nyaminga Camp, a most comfortable and welcoming corner of the Zambian bush, Thatch Chalets with en suite showers and toilet, mosquito netting, etc.

I cant quite explain how happy I was to be on safari again, and able to share it with my wife.Check the rifle, all well, quick little game drive, spot ridiculous amounts of plains game, and, oh yes, a herd of Buffalo that number into the hundreds. This is going to be good.
First hunting day we cut Buffalo spoor at 7am. Track the herd for 4km, and make contact at 915. Suzie is as excited as I am. My goal is a hard bossed bull. We spot a bull pushing 40', but soft bossed. Pass. Nicky and I notice two other bulls laying down, one in front of the other. Bosses look good from the back, but they need to stand up so we can see the front. However, these boys must have been dreaming of loosely moralled Cows, because they rudely left me waiting, over sticks, for 15 minutes. Our tracker, Lamec, broke sticks to get them to stand up. Nothing. We scuffed the leaves. Nada. Finally, some cows further to our right must have caught our scent, and they started to move past the bulls. This got them to stand. Hard Bossed! Nicky whispers "Take him when you can, right on the shoulder..."

Thank God the A-Frame went where I held it. He rocked at the shot, piled up within 40 yards and began the death bellow. My wife Suzie is wide eyed, and happier for me than ever. One more to pay the insurance and he's MINE! Buff in the salt on day one! Im a happy man.

Back to camp, and time to deliver the Buffalo to the skinning shed to begin hid trip to immortality. The A-Frames are both resting against the offside skin. Great performance.
While we watched the Buff being skinned, I had an idea: Lets use the entrails for Hyena bait...

TO BE CONTINUED.

As we hang the front quarter of the Buffalo that afternoon, complete with buckets of smelly goods removed from the entrails, my dear Suzanne gets a taste of what Leopard hunting would be like, but this is for Hyena. I'm going with "Welfare Leopard". Yes, thats it.

Up at 330 on day two, three of us are situated in the machan in the top of a monkey bread tree, 35 yards from the bait. Behind us, to the right, a leopard coughs. He is immediately answered by another to our left. Leopard #1 sounds off again, but 100 yards closer. Me to Nicky: "He's coming in,". Nicky: "No way.".
Bachelor #1 coughs again, this time UNDER THE BAIT. My wife has eyes the size of saucers as the leopard grinds teeth against bone. I look through the binoculars, and see one the coolest sights I've ever seen in Africa: a huge tom leopard. Needless to say, he will be in the "mental salt" for the rest of my life.
Day three was spent chasing Bushbuck all over hell's creation. I had a really hard time picking them out of the brush. Finally, when on a nice ram, the exchange went like this:
PH: Do you see the bushbuck
ME: F*** no.
PH: See the branch that makes an arch?
ME: Yes.
PH: See the bushbuck?
ME: No.
PH then points my head in the right direction.
ME: Oh, the branch with the bushbuck behind it...
One shot, straight down.

In all fairness, there were two branches...


Day four was spent chasing zebra. We drove two and a half hours out of camp, and the trackers did an outstanding job. I buggered it up. I tried to hold about two inches in front of a mopane tree, to hit the zebras offside shoulder, and grazed the damned tree, deflecting the bullet into the dirt. Clean miss. Suzie, who had ACL and meniscus surgery at the end of March, indicated that 6km was far enough that day, her knee was holding a minor revolution. I took it as a sign that the zebra wasn't meant to be.

Day five was supposed to be a relaxation day, as my main goals of Buffalo and Bushbuck were met, and the pressure was off. We took a drive to see a large Baobab tree, which had its own built in bat colony. Neat stuff.

Of course, on the way home, the exceptional puku I wanted presented himself. Here we go...

I pulled the shot, hitting him too far back. A couple misses while he was running, a nice bit of tracking by Elias and Lamec, and the puku was down. Beautiful animal.

That afternoon, we took a ride to the adjoining Chanjuzi Block to see the grave site of Peter Hankin. Those who've read 'Death in the Long Grass', by PHC, will remember Hankin's death by lioness was the opening chapter of the book. The grave is sadly unkempt.


Day 6 was spent in camp. We visited the kitchen and garden, and got to enjoy lunch with PH Pete Barters and (retired) PH Craig Wright and his family. Great war stories.

We were lucky enough to have Samson Mundy as out camp Chef. This man, at 73 years young, is a culinary wizard.
He was nice enough to make us this special cake (which I should have photographed PRIOR to consumption)

Our last day was spent in search of warthog, one of my favorites. The morning showed us only immature boars and several females. While cruising down the road, Kelvin, our handy lookout, hollered "Njoka!" This translates to snake. Out of the truck with 458 in hand, Nicky Wightman proceeds to relieve the SEVEN FOOT BLACK FOREST COBRA of his head. Good man. My wife will not even get out of the cruiser. Can't say I blame her.

Here's a nice set of Lion tracks spotted in the road:

The last afternoon brought good fortune. Kelvin spotted the warthog boar, and when the boar took off at a dead run, this Bwana rolled him into a somersault with a 400 grain A-frame. Shots like that are a good way to end your safari. When we got to the boar, we saw he'd broken a tusk, and was heavily scarred from what we assume is a lion attack. The broken tusk adds charachter, and I'm quite ok with it.

Scars from Lion Attack:

Wonderful Safari complete, we were off to Victoria Falls...

A big thumbs up for Zambia. Well done Phil on your fine trophies and what looked to be an excellent hunt.

Great report! Congratulations.

congrats on the hunt

Thanks Guys!

Victoria Falls was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen (second to my wife, of course.). We stayed at the Bushbuck River House, a B&B on the Zambezi about 13km upstream of the falls. Lawn was littered with Buffalo and Elephant dung, and lions roared in Mosi-oa-tunya Natl Park. Cool place to stay.
Suzie and I at the Falls-
Mosi-oa-Tunya (The smoke that Thunders)

My Favorite restroom

A Zimbabwean Bull Elephant emigrating to Zambia (Mist of Falls in background)

All in all, a wonderful Honeymoon. My First Buffalo, great service and new friends, and most importantly, I got to share the Total African Experience with my wife, who now loves Africa as much as I do. She got to see the Big Four, in the wild, in her first 48 hours in the bush, including watching a pride of lions make a kill across the Luangwa in North Luangwa Park.

The crew at Adventure Unlimited: John Barth and especially Merrona Warner were extremely helpful and instrumental in making things go off without a hitch.

Steve Turner at travelwithguns.com did everyting humanly possible to help us beat Hurricane Irene and not miss any hunting days. Use him, you'll not regret it.

Lastly, John and Laura duPlooy, and all at Muchinga Adventures, are top notch people. They extended courtesies to us that I've never experienced.

I'll toss in some Odds & Ends here...

Cane Rats and Windhoek Lager (green soupi!) are delicious...

Bushbuck are beautiful...

I wish I could move in here...

Sunsets on the Luangwa ROCK.

Close up of Bwana Hankins grave-

Mrs. Muzungu working my PR campaign for Mayor of Zokwe...
Bwana Muzungu

My Puku was going gray...

My beloved .416, Cocoa.

A weeks work...

Until next time-

One Happy Man

quote:

Lastly, John and Laura duPlooy, and all at Muchinga Adventures, are top notch people. They extended courtesies to us that I've never experienced.

Phil,

The Du Plooys really do go the extra mile with amazing consistency. Nice write up and excellent pix. Your wife's smiles bear witness to your wise choice of a bride. You'll be going back.

Mark

Great report, and some great animals as well. I wish I could get my wife to join me on a safari, you are truely a lucky man.

Great Pictures! Glad to see Nicholas is a PH now. I hunted with Aibe and Nick in 09 in the same camp. Wonderful memories!
Dave Dunlap

Congratulations on a great Honeymoon Safari... you definitely found the right lady to share your life with! Also kudos on some nice trophies. Your report brought back some great memories of my hunt with Muchinga back in 2006. I hunted with Terry Van Rooyen as my PH and Lamec as our tracker in some of the same country you experienced. Great to relive it again through your post. Well done!

Thanks Guys, and Mark- You're right. We will go back, and I am a lucky guy to have Sue.

Beautiful report and great experience... congratulation!!!

Phil,
Congratulations on your trophies,Safari,and Honeymoon...Well done

Very nice way to spend a honeymoon.

Nice report Phil!! Thanks for bringing back memories. We got to meet Nicky at Johnny and Laura's on the last evening in Lusaka. Seemed like a really nice young man.

Great hunt report. I am headed to that general area at the end of the month.
Thanks.

Best of luck, the place is awesome!

Great pictures! Thanks for posting.

Congratulations on a great safari. It reminds me of our honeymoon, one week in the zambezi valley at Big 5 in those days followed by a few days at Vic falls.

Great hunt, great report, great pictures.

That's got to be the best way to have an incredible honeymoon!

Dale

Great trophies and very good report !

Remember the bat cave and Sampson and Lemm,
very well. Good to see there are still there.
Great report
Congrads on hunt and new wife

Well done Bwana. Congratulations and welcome home. Glad to see that your wife enjoys Africa. Mine does as well making it more special for both of us. It's hard to imagine going without her.

Cheers,

I have the best thing in the world: A gorgeous safari partner! This makes every future safari even more special.

Phil - Outstanding report and photos! I'm glad you had the presence of mind to take so many great and interesting photos. And you are a lucky man indeed to have your wife as your safari partner. A DG hunt as a honeymoon - that's something most of us can only dream about! Again, simply outstanding! Thanks!

Glen

Phil and Sue,
Congratulations on a fantastic Safarimoon. 
Nyaminga, Samson, Nicholas, Lammec and Vic Falls sure bring back wonderful memories
for Linda and me. Thank you for the great report. 

Thanks again guys!

Here's one interesting little tidbit I'd like to add:

After shooting the bushbuck, Lamec, Nicky and I couldn't find him, despite Lamec insisting he went straight down. Sue saw a bushbuck run off, and was worried because they've been known to charge when wounded. Turns out it was the female that ran off, and our boy was standing on the edge of a drainage when I shot him.
When I tried to pull him up out of the drainage...



...he wouldnt budge. This is why:



He stuck that horn 3/4" into a LEADWOOD TREE! I can just imagine what damage he could do if he wanted to. These little buggers may just be my favorite antelope.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Nderobo:



Sue saw a bushbuck run off, and was worried because they've been known to charge when wounded.

Yup!!

You can testify to that, eh Jim?

Congratulations, Phil...lovely all the way 'round.

(and the safari looked fun too )

I had wondered about you since you posted that your flight was leaving during Hurricane Irene. Glad you were able to get out early.

Your bushbuck is beautiful indeed. Thanks for sharing ALL the great pictures and a well-written report.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Nderobo:
You can testify to that, eh Jim?

Tell Sue I said I was never worried since they only charge the observer.

Congratulations on your marriage and a first class hunt.

Thanks for posting,it was very enjoyable sharing your experience,a honeymoon safari! it could'nt get any better,my best wishes to the both of you.

Congratulations!

This is Marko...

The guy you flew all the way to Lusaka with...

Glad you had such a great trip and finally got your buffalo.

Hey! How was your hunt?

Looks like You have the best of both worlds. Congrats and thanks for sharing

It was pretty good man... passed up 3 46ish inch sable and some good Mature Roan.

Just didn't see what we were looking for... but we saw a lot of animals... I definitely have to go back. They were moving at weird times.

took a nice Waterbuck, Reedbok, Striped Jackal, Grysbok and Oribi...

Congratulations on your wedding, a great safari, and some great trophies. Thanks for the report and pics - I particularly like the bat photo!

Well done Phill!

I notice in the 1st buff pic you removed the scope. Was that for the follow-up?