My son and I returned from a 12 day hippo/buff/croc hunt with these folks Aug 8. The safari area is in the Tete province of Moz and is borderd on the north by lake Chorra bassa and on the west and south by Zimbabwe. For any of you who have hunted Dande north with Swainsons you are just across the Zim/Moz border. The procedure is to fly into the airstrip at Pedsa Pasi (sp?) if flying in the Navajo (4or more people) or into the airstrip at Kenyamba, Zim 3 people or less. The Kenyamba deal is much closer to the camp of S de Moc. If you fly into Pedsa you have one of those wonderful 3 hour land cruiser trips over s##t roads with frustrated nascar wannabes. Kenyamba is where you do the customs immigration border crossing. On the Moz side it is in the town of Zumbo. All aspects of this part of the trip went without a hitch.
We were staying at the Kafukudzi camp which is located on the banks of the Zambesi. The camp is the one used by Piet Hougaard for years and shows its age. It is being replaced by a new camp just up the river (5 minutes). Altho old I found it appealing with pleasent staff, clean facilities etc. There is a second camp called the fly camp which was completed last year and is about 1 1/2 hours away and is apparently much nicer but in all fairness I would stay at Kafukudzi just to be on the river and as long as the beds are comfortable, toilets clean and food palatable with cold beer I'm OK. The present camp certainly fulfills those requirements.
Now to the hunt. My PH was a 21 year veteran Zim PH named Rob Oostindien. He has worked for Rifa Safaris (Simon Rodger) for years and moved to the Moz side when Simon purchased the hunting rights from Piet or the Moz government. I must say that in my 6 trips to Africa I have never met a tougher or more knowledgable SOB. This young (38) man is extremely intense and focused on the hunt and will push his hunter to the limits of that hunters abilities. ie. if you can go you are going to go. His skill at judging trophies and getting the hunter into position to take the shot is excellent. I would gladly hunt with him again....he is by far and away the most accomplished PH I have hunted with.
The pimary game species (hippo/buff/croc) were plentiful. I was not prepared for the difficulty of getting a hippo and croc. I had visions of pulling up, walking up and whacking the animals easily. Not the case. We ended up in a banana boat in the river on a submerged island in order to get a shot at a bull hippo. This is after crawling on our hands and knees along a tributary of the Zam. looking for a suitabel trophy. As for crocs, between the birds and their own superb senses we ended up baiting to get the right animal. We worked numerous herds of buff anywhere from 50 to 200 animals. We never went after dagga boys which had been my experience before. Herd hunting is a helluva lot harder in my opinion. Bulls in the 40-42" range are available for those who want to work hard. Me? I am content with hard bosses and 36" plus. No problem.
We also took a beautiful Zebra, decent warthog and impala. The plains game hunting is good and will get better with Simon' management. Great bushbuck, waterbuck and kudu hunting are available. Roan and Sable are present. Lots of elephants.Lotof leopard and lion sign as well. Saw lioness and 3 cubs going out of camp one morning.
The concession is huge. 1,000,000 acres. The road system is horrible. Both from the standpoint of condition as well as amount. They were awaiting a front end loader coming from SA in order to clean up what there is as well as cut some new roads. Vast tracts of this property are simply not utilized because of the lack of roads. This will only get better. They have also cleared a 1 mile long swath of bush to put in an airstrip. This will greatly enhance the accessability of the place.
There were other hunters at the Kafukudzi camp as well as at the fly camp so there was some overlap which I don't really mind but will become a non issue as new roads open up more territory.
In summary this is a professional outfit able to deliver what they propose. It is, however, necessary to be specific as to what plainsgame animals you might want to take as quotas vary and may be filled by the time you arrive. For us it was bushbuck. We listed bushbuck as a species of interest only to find out the quota had been filled two days before our arrival. Getting there is a bit of an adventure but where in Zim/Zam/Moz isn't? This is an area on the ascendency. If Simon's plans come to fruition it will be a fabulous destination and the Moz government seems to be all for the development of this safari area.
PS If you go in late Jul/early Aug take some deep woods Off towelets because you will be bitten by Mosquitos and tsetse flys.

Thanks for the report msc... I agree that Moz is a future destination for many who want a wild safari experience for a reasonable amount of dollars! Should be a good value when they work out logistics like getting there (air travel) and road systems.

Looking forward to your pictures.

Thanks for the report, MSC. It was very interesting and timely.

-Steve

Nice to hear Rob is doing well. He and I hunted together in 1996 for 21 days. I think he had a recurrence of malaria in the last week of our hunt but would not hear of taking a day off. A great PH and a wonderful person. Simon will always have a "plan". I hope to hunt with both of them in the not too distant future.

joec

That camp was my favorite camp ever. Was Stephen Edwards (writer, racconteur,builder of roads, crocodile culler) present in camp? He may still be personna-nongrata to some of the Moz game folks.

Steve, Stephen Edwards was not in camp while we were there. There was an electrician friend of Simons helping with some materials and electrical grid layout that was one very funny white man. He was there for only a few days but provided many laughs.

Okay, I am now ready for some pictures.

John

Picture us, PLEASE!

Still no pics! We're still waiting!