I've just returned home from two wonderful weeks in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. This was a family vacation, not just a hunting trip, so we divided our time equally between hunting for just five days, plus two days of game viewing at the Thornybush Game Reserve while staying at Monwana Lodge. This was after spending the first three days of our trip on our own, touring Kruger Park and seeing an abundance of all the game that Kruger offers.

Marita Dyason of Spear Safaris took care of all the arrangements for our trip, and she simply did a superb job of attending to every detail, which made our trip such a success. Marita handled our Bed and Breakfast accomodations in Phalaborwa on the night of arrival, plus the rental vehicle, transfers between the airports, Monwana Lodge and finally all the hunting details. Thanks to her diligent efforts, everthing came off without a hitch. Too often, the efforts of people such as Marita go unnoticed, but I can say with confidence that our trip wouldn't have been so outstanding without her efforts. Ernest Dyason is fortunate to have her not only as his wife, but partner in running their safari business.

During our short 5 day hunt, we hunted with PH Koos Moulder, who teams with Ernest in guiding all of Spear's clients. Koos was outstanding, a very good hunter and wonderful companion with whom to spend days afield. His dedication to getting us quality animals was obvious, best exemplified when I took a wonderful nyala bull yesterday, only a few hours before we departed their camp to fly home. Literally, I shot this nyala around 10:45 on Friday morning, had lunch with the Dyasons and Koos around 12:30 and was headed home by 2:30. A lot of PHs would have mailed it in that last morning, but Koos was determined that we'd go home with the animals we hoped to take and in addition to the nyala, my son shot his warthog that last morning. Koos was also a great companion around camp, witty and fun to be with, but also a gentleman. Since my wife and teenaged daughter were on the trip, that last factor was important, and appreciated by all of us. Another thing that I really liked about hunting with Koos was that while he was focused on taking quality animals, he wanted to make the hunt fun and he succeeded very well in that regard. He's adament about taking mature, quality animals and we certainly saw the quality of game that their hunting areas offer. While I wasn't hunting them, we saw several waterbuck that ranged from 30-32", as well as large wildebeest and other plains game. Of note, one of the properties we hunted on has eland, and they only took two bulls off that property last year and only expect to take a few again this year. The eland taken last year measured 38" and 41", outstanding quality.

Since we were only hunting for a short number of days, I really just wanted to give my son a taste of what African hunting can be like. He succeeded in taking a fantastic old Kudu bull with heavy, outward flaring horns; as well as an impala and warthog. He could make many trips and not take as nice a kudu again. I was very satisfied with taking a nice nyala bull. My son, who is 21, is now completely hooked on Africa and is already talking about saving his money for a return trip, hopefully in a couple years. Buffalo will be the main focus on our next trip.

This was my fourth trip hunting in Africa, with the first three being in Zimbabwe and Botswana. I had pretty high expectations after having excellent previous safaris, and wondered how the Dyasons and Spear Safaris would compare to my previous hunts. I came away very impressed with Spear Safaris, in every aspect. They not only lived up to my hopes, they exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend them to anyone contemplating a South African hunt, and can't wait to go back with them again myself.

I don't know how to post pictures on this website, but if someone can message me with directions, I'd like to share some of my photos. I took more than 600 pictures over the entire time, and think some of you would really enjoy seeing the big tuskers and buffalo I photographed in Kruger. We saw a number of very big elephant bulls, including Hlanganini, one of Kruger's up and coming giant tuskers.

To Ernest, Marita, KOOS and all the staff at Spear Safaris, THANK YOU for making our trip so memorable. We look forward to hunting with you again.


Dan Sozzi

www.spearsafaris.com
www.monwana.com

Welcome back!

Get a membership on photobucket.com

Download the pictures to your acount on photobucket

Once the photos are download go to the gallery and hold your arrow over the picture. A colum will decend from it. There will be three or four columns. Copy the text in the last/bottom column.

Paste the text into your AR post.

It's not that hard. You'll figure it out. If you are still having problems read the directions at the top of this forum.

Brett

Thanks, that was kind of obvious about reading the 'How to post pictures' thread on here, wasn't it. Of course, you might think that I'd read that before saying I didn't know how to post pics. Thanks for the obvious advice. DUH!!!(Yes, I do feel like a dumbshit at the moment)

OK, that seemd too easy for me to not have figured it out on my own, thanks for the help.

Damn, it worked! That was easier to do than I made it.

Anyway, here is my 21 year old son Danny with his outstanding Kudu with PH Koos Moulder on the right; and James the tracker in the middle.

with the caped out skull

Danny and his warthog

And I got in on the act with this nice Nyala bull, shown with tracker James Zita in the middle and PH Koos Moulder on the right.

This was Danny's very first African animal, an impala.

Great picks and a great hunt. I had no clue either the first time I posted pictures, so don't swet it.

Brett

PS You can post as many pictures as you want in the same post rather than one picture per post.

Great Kudu.
Your son looked thrilled

Very nice, tell Danny that he has the look of a PH!

I would like to hear and see more of your trip, in particular the non-hunting (family vaca) activities. Thanks!

Bill, the non-hunting part of our trip was outstanding. We split that time between 3 days in Kruger Park, touring on our own; and two days at Monwana Lodge, which is one of the game viewing lodges in the Thornybush Game Reserve. I'll give a more detailed post with plenty of pictures later tonight, but suffice it to say that the next time my family goes along, we'll be doing more of the same, it was an excellent part of our trip, and much better for the girls than the hunting portion even though they had a good time on that part too. Of course, the guys preferred the hunting over anything else!

Congrats - great hunt and great photos...

As I said on MM, Dan, very nice hunt.. Thornybush is beginging to feel like a "second" home to me!

It's looking like after my Zim hunt next May, I plan on heading back to RSA and meet up with with 2 good buddies after they fly in who will be hunting Africa for their 1st time.. Couldn't think of a better place to recomend them going to for their first trip.. And while they are busy chasing their trophies, I'll be chasin' Klipies in the kopies and keeping Ernest's Castle supply on edge for that week!

Bill, as promised, here are some details of the non-hunting portion of our trip. First, I must say that the next time I take my wife and/or daughter over there, we'll do some of the same non-hunting things as we did this time. It really enhanced the girls experience and my son and I also really enjoyed seeing so much wildlife, especially the Big 5, and photographing them in settings that were conducive to taking good photos. If just my son and I go over, we'll likely spend all of our time hunting.

Marita Dyason of Spear Safaris handled all of the arrangements for us. First, she met us at the Phalaborwa airport, where she had arranged a Toyota Landcruiser SUV for us to tour Kruger in. She also booked us into Sunbird Lodge in Phalaborwa for our first evening, as we'd arrived too late in the day to get into Kruger Park. Sunbird Lodge is a very nice bed and breakfast sited on 2.5 acres of gardens, and it gave us a chance to rest up before heading into Kruger the next morning. Here are a couple photos of Sunbird to give you an idea of the atmosphere there.






After heading into Kruger through the Phalaborwa gate, we proceeded toward Letaba Camp, where Marita had reserved a cottage for the night. It was a 2 bedroom/2 bath house of about 1,200 square feet, near the bank of the Letaba River. We could see quite a bit of wildlife right from the back patio of our cottage. It was simple, but very clean and comfortable. Here is a photo of our accomodations the first night.


The highlight in the Letaba area is the opportunity to see truly large elephant bulls. We saw several bulls that were 90+ pounders, including Hlanganini, who is about a 120 lb. bull with very long but somewhat slender ivory. He has probably 6 feet or more of ivory showing and is a wonderful bull. The only thing that was so-so at Letaba was the food. There is one restaurant there and the food was OK, but not great. After staying at Letaba, we headed out the next morning for Oliphants Camp, which is situated on a high bluff with great views overlooking the Oliphants River, and again is in a nice setting. At Oliphants, we stayed in two rondavels which were basicu but clean. Each rondavel had two beds, a refrigerator and bathroom, but nothing else and little extra space. The food in the Oliphants restaurant was better than Letaba, and while the food was pretty basic, it was good and we had no complaints. The highlight of our stays in Kruger was at Satara Camp. At Satara, we rented the Stanley Guest House. This is a 3 bedroom/3bath house of approximately 2,500 square feet that features slate floors, handcarved teak doors and is designed in a style that you might have seen 50-60 years ago. It was a wonderful place t stay and I'd definitely stay that again when we go the Satara in the future. Rates were reasonable on all these accomodations, especially when you consider that 6 people could sleep at hte Letaba Cottage and 9 at the Stanley Guest House in Satara. The restaurant at Satara was the best of the four places we ate in Kruger and they also had a decent market and fast food catering setup if you wanted something simple and quick. Satara was our favorite camp of the three, and also had the greatest diversity of wildlife. If you were staying in Kruger on your own, I'd recommend definitely spending one or two nights at Satara Camp, and if you don't stay at Letaba, I'd certainly visit it during the day to check out the elephant hall, which has the tusks and stories of most of Kruger's really big elephant bulls. It only takes 30 minutes or so to see everything there, but is very interesting, especially if elephants interest you. Here are a few photos of the Stanley Guest House at Satara Camp.


This is the view of the back porch, which looks out onto a waterhole about 40 yards beyond the fence that protects the camp at night. We saw four large buffalo bulls, a hyena and various antelope at the waterhole after dark.


This is the dining/family room at Stanley Guest House.

We found the best game viewing to be in the area to the south and east of Satara, and I'd spend more time there when I go back to the park in the future. I'll leave this for now, as I'm just about falling over, I'm so sleepy. More to come tomorrow.......

Really nice Kudu, congrats!
LDK

Hi Guy,

Glad your hunt was good. Beautiful Kudu!

Happy to have met you in the Jo'burg airport.

Read the note about the problem getting back through England ... amazing that the hunt can go so well and then there is a huge screwed up in a "civilized" area.

Great pictures and hunting report. Congratulations on some great animals. I really like you sons Kudu and your Nyala.

Greg

Thanks for the reports, hunting and non-hunting, and photos. Those are some nice trophies. I particularly like Danny's Impala. The Impala was my first African trophy and so will probably always be one of my favorites.

Thank you for the extra info, Satara Camp looks very nice and as you said, per their website not that expensive when looking at accommodations for a family of 5.

Your son got a nice hog, too. One of my favorite animals. I love to watch them scurry around with their tails sticking straight up.

Jetdrvr, I thought I'd post this picture for you, and all other warthog lovers. Enjoy a little porker porn.

What a monster Kudu. Congratulations.

For those interested in the non-hunting aspects of our trip, here's the next, and perhaps best, segment.

After we'd toured Kruger on our own for 3 days, we were delivered to Monwana Lodge, which is in the Thornybush Game Reserve. Monwana is a small and intimate game viewing lodge that only caters to a maximum of about 10 guests at any one time. When my family arrived, they only had one other couple visiting, and they were near the end of their stay. They were delightful people to share time with but once they left, we were the only guests at Monwana and the staff to guest ratio was about 2 staff per guest. THAT provides for a very high level of service!

Upon arrival at Monwana, our luggage was delivered to our rooms, and we were taken for a refreshing drink to 'shake off the dust' from the drive. Upon heading to our room, which was actually a 2-bedroom/2 bath suite, this was what we found...



The suite had a private deck that looked out over a waterhole that was frequented by impala, warthogs, nyala, kudu and a lot of other wildlife during the day. The showers had full lenght windows that also looked out over the waterhole, so you might be watched while you bathe, but it would only be by a 4-legged voyeur.

Here is the view of one of the bedrooms




And the deck





My daughters favorite place at Monwana might have been here, where she spent mid-day hours reading near the pool.


Dinner was a 3-course affair, one night inside
and one night out on the deck which overlooked the sand river by lanternlight






If you're taking your wife, family or significant other, spending a few days prior to your hunt at Monwana would be an excellent idea. I would not hesitate to spend time there on our next visit. The facilities were first rate, the servcie impeccable and the desire to provide us with outstanding game viewing opportunies genuine. I highly recommend it.

www.spearsafaris.com
www.monwana.com

Dan Sozzi