SafariTrackers/ Tanzania Bundu Safaris and Adam Clements as PH gave my wife Eileen and I 21 days that have so many memories that is does almost seem like it must have been a dream.

The Lolkisale GMA next to the east boundary of Tarangire Park is one of the most scenic game laden areas I have been in, even better than Kenya in '73 in the Rift Valley and Tsavo East Park. The Lolkisale Bundu permanent camp is very comfortable and the view of the Savannah in front of camp is exceptional. Game was seen everyday and a herd of 200 wildebeest and 50 zebra came through single file on our first day in camp and gave us a great omen on what was to come. The GMA area is roughly 10 miles by 50 miles and has great diversity in habitat and game.This view


Looks south showing Sunset Hill in the foreground where Marc Watts shot his 500 yd. Zebra and in the distance is Ol Doinyo Sambu the southern boundary of the Lolkisale @30 miles away.(we are high on a hill for picture)
We had success on 24 trophies and I finally got a great Lion on the 4th of July. What a Kabubi, Kabubi celebration that was! I will leave you with two more pictures and will update with more tomorrow. It took me 3 days to realize that I had not okayed cookies for photobucket and therefore could not use the photo imaging options.


These Cpae Buffalo did not meet our criteria and are still eating grass in Lolkisale.


I will give more stories and how we did it as soon as I get some honey do chores done. I also spent a week in South Africa with Garry Kelly's Bonwa Phala Safaris and Mike Currie as PH. I will put up a different thread on that too.
Robert

Very nice.

Kyler

Very nice! What would that Bull in the center measure? Admittedly I know nothing of buffalo but it looks like his boss is closed up well in front and the guy behind his left shoulder is more open in front but it has a lot of curl.

Sounds amazing, waiting in quiet anticipation!!

Robert,
I did not read where you broke your typing fingers - back to work and finish this great story!!!!

Amazing hunt, and congratulations on the lion! That is a great pict from Sunset Hill, looking forward to seeing more. Lolkisale is indeed very pretty, and must have been quite nice at that time of the year.

Nice lion! Awaiting more pics and report.

Amazing lion ,please post more photos.Juan

Good Morning! The 4th of July Lion in Lolkisale GCA was a wonderful day. We had been hanging baits around the water holes and dry creek beds for 3 days with only lionesses showing up in numbers. We had just hung a
lion bait near a sandy dry gully in the northwest part of the GCA and were driving back to camp when Riziki said Simba from the back of the truck. In front of us at 70 yards a lion and lioness crossed the track and went up the hill to our left. We drove to where they crossed the track and suddenly while we were looking up the hill Dotto said Simba and in front of us was another male lion. He gave us a mock charge and went up the hill toward the other two who had now stopped at the top of the hill and laid down. The second male went toward the other two and marked a bush and rubbed his facial glands on bushes and took a subservient pose as he went toward the lion pair.
We did some hurried trophy evaluation (I was not prepared for two mature male lions)and moved up toward the pair. At around 90 yards we set up the sticks and Adam said to take the male on the left when he presented a clean shot. It seemed forever, but he finally sat up and faced toward us.
I squeezed at the middle of his chest and fired with my .458 Win. Mag with A-square Lion Load 465 gr. bullets. He spun in the air and raced back over the hill. I managed to get one other shot in him before he dropped over the top of the ridge.
We then hurried back to the truck and now had the lioness and other male very pushy and riled up. The male made another mock charge so we backed out and came in from the other side of the hill and found our beautiful lion dead at the bottom of the hill. He had scars on his face and neck and had a beautiful blonde and black mane @ 24 1/2†SCI)What a Kabubi, Kabubi 4th of July celebration ensued. He was all I had dreamed of and his confident posturing toward the other male will be something I will always remember. We saw 5 other male lions and one that was as mature as this one during the subsequent days, but I doubt that the scars and character of this one would have been beat. This is the Bundu Lolkisale camp and post Kabubi celebration and my proud wife with the staff. Iam in the background still overwhelmed with the days events.


Leopard has been one of the strength suits of Adam in our previous safaris, so this was no different. We set up 9 Leopard baits in different locations and had good hits on 5 of them. I think this even shocked Adam, but who knows. We liked the prints of one hit and set up the Cuddeback camera on the bait. See the photo that got us building a blind:


He had fed three times starting at dusk of the previous day and the other photos showed nuts additionally. He is very particular about blind placement, bait placement, perfect branch,perfect late light, and no brush between blind and bait(47 yds.) so shots go true. Our Leopard came in right at dusk and due to blind and bait tree placement he was very visible to shoot at the bait. One shot from the .458 Win.Mag. Loaded with A-Square Lion load in 465 grains and he collapsed to the ground and did not move. Of the 3 I have shot this one fell stone dead and did not move. When we got to him he had bitten his right paw on the fall. His last act. Day 7 was another Kabubi, Kabubi celebration. Our trophy Leopard, even Adam is smiling!!



I will continue tomorrow with the 3 Great Cape Buffalo that came our way due to stalking hundreds of Buff in herds up to 300 or more. To wet your appetite bait buff- 41 3/4", poacher wounded buff. 40 1/2 " massive boss, and finally my pick and the one we worked hardest for 45".
The picture I included in the first update probably was around 44". I did see a legitimate 48" Buff at LOBO Camp taken during our stay when we visited our sister Bundu camp.
Robert

Great report and super cats! I look forward to your buffalo! Lolkisale and Lobo are two very special hunting concessions, I hunted there in 2003. Good show!

What a fantastic hunt, Robert. Just amazing!

WOW!
Sounds like a great hunt and adventure. Cant wait to see the buff pics.

Congradulations!!!!!!!

Robert excellent..Great shooting and what trophies...How about the memories????

Mike

Robert,

Congratulations on both the cats.


Hamdeni

AR colleagues thanks for the kind comments. Before I forget we recovered the A-Square Lion Load from the Lion against the back skin and what an impact channel it created. I will upload some pictures in the future of recovered bullets, but lets say this one does what it claims to do, rapid expansion with a deadly result on Lion and Leopard.
Now to Buffalo as I promised. On Day 1 we stalked 4 different herds of Buffalo, but did not see the mature bull we were hoping for. As we made our way to the southern boundary we spooked a Bushbuck (@12") and followed him into some thick stuff next to a dried out stream bed. We decided that he needed to grow and had just turned back toward the truck when Dotto said Nyati and we all dropped down in the brush. About 85 yds further down the stream bed were three bulls feeding away from us. After Adam did the assessment he put up the sticks and said take the one quartering away on the right. I squeezed a good shot off and all three ran around the brush and joined a breeding herd of 40 buffalo with cows and calves. They ran out of the stream bed up the opposite bank and out of site. Concensus was a hit, and I felt good about the shot. We tracked to where they ran up the bank, but could not find blood. When we got up out of the stream bed we saw what appeared to be a cow feeding away with a calf. We scanned with binoculars and could see the dust cloud from the herd moving away. The calf appeared to be nuzzling up to the cow. We thought for sure the Buff would not go far. All of a sudden the "cow" stumbled to the right and gave us a side profile. I knew it was my Buff.
I quickly put a closure shot on him and down he went. The calf must have gotten separated from its mother in the running out of the streambed and was attracted to the only tall black object around. We shooed it in the direction of the herd and solved that problem. Here is the 42" Buffalo that we hung for Lion Bait my Lake Austin and by Lolkisale Camp. Both of which got lion hits.





-We stalked herds of Buffalo everyday and on day 8 we came across a lone Nyati walking slowly through some brush and stalked downwind on his track and set up to ambush him. As he was coming closer we noticed a large wound on his back and could see a bad intestinal exit wound on his stomach. The game scout said we needed to shoot him to prevent him becoming a problem animal. Now please look at this poacher wounded Buffalo and tell me I didn't jump at this shot.




He was 40 1/2" and had massive bosses and curls, he will probably go 0ver 112" SCI. He had been shot from a poacher in a tree just missing the spin and exiting through the stomach and intestines. He was definately in sepsis and the smell was awful.


I then invoked the 45†rule to the dismay of Adam because we both love to shoot Buffalo and I had now raised the bar. We looked at many 43†and 44†Buffalo and passed over the next 8 days. I got one shot at a wide Buffalo in thick brush but on reviewing the video that Andy Ross from Cyclops Productions had taken, I hit a good branch and deflected. Finally on Day 16 we found a group of 7 Dagga boys bedded down. We got to around 75 yards and I set up on the sticks while we evaluated the Nyati. One looked very promising and he and another finally got up and began feeding. After 15 minutes of evaluating we decided to take him. (I had been on the sticks for @ 20 minutes) He was feeding quartering away at 90 yards when I shot. My shot must have been too far forward because we (Trackers and Adam) followed him for some time by blood on grass and tracks dragging his front hoof until we got in some very thick bush dropping into a dry gully. The trackers were following the tracks down and Adam went up above the dry gully and I heard him click off his safety and fire two quick shots. There was no doubt in my mind he had come upon our wounded Nyati watching his back trail. I saw the Buffalo go forward to the next thick brush that dropped down further. When Adam joined me, he said he thought he got two good shots into our Buffalo. As we came over the rise there in the thick brush was our Buffalo looking back at us. Four shots from us and he went down. He was a very tough animal. He measured right at 45",and everyone was relieved that no one was hurt in the follow up. Adam renewed his PH stripes and the trackers Dotto, Riziki, and Samueli confirmed their tracking badges. This gave me the Trifecta that I had so wanted ( Lion, Leopard, 45" Buffalo). And believe it or not there is more. Here is my 45" Nyati!!
ALL Buffaloes were taken with A-Square dead tough soft points in my .458 WinMag shooting 465 gr. bullets.



He was an old boy and past his prime, but what a hunt.
I will continue with more later.

Robert

There is more to hunting than DG and the PG at Lolkisale were numerous and the trophy quality was excellent.

I think a word for the effort that Bundu is making for antipoaching efforts is appropriate after shooting a Buff that had been shot by a poacher. There were 2 antipoaching camps and 2 vehicles roaming Lolkisale GCA throughout our 21 day safari. We saw them often in our travels. They have plans for adding a third team. This GCA had a lot of attention in preventing illegal hunting and poaching. Bundu through Dale, Adam, Steve, Chantelle,Christian, and Masaa have put a lot of effort into community support and have done a great job in improving the permanent water bore holes available for the local villages. New dams and ponds have been created to hold water year round for the game. This area can only get better if that is possible. My wife and I saw many breeding herds of Elephants and large bulls following them around. I got to see Elephants mate from camp one day and that is a site to see. WE have video of 60-70 lb. bulls and the 4 that competed for the cow that day. Elephants were everywhere.

I had told Adam that I really wanted to hunt a Klipspringer, he had responded that he knew where we could have some success. Was this PH fact or fiction? We went to a hilly area near Sunset Hill and he began to use a predator call mimicking a distressed animal. I thought SNIPE HUNT and I was going to be taken. He assurred me that any good Male Klipspringer would jump on top of the rocks that covered the hills to see what predator was stalking around. We glassed the area and saw nothing. We drove around the hill stopping and glassing every so often. After the 4th stop we came to a saddle between two hills and an animal started running up to the right. We jumped out of the truck and every one was trying to keep an eye as he moved between the large rocks.
I set up on the sticks and Adam said if you get a good shot take him. Well miracles and perfect set up occurr,the klipspringer bounced all the way up to the top ( ranged at 167 Yds. after the shot) and stopped on the last rock before he went over the ridge and looked back at us. I squeezed and the Klippie fell dead. Adam was so amazed that he said "Perfect shot" how about that for a PH that has seen me miss before.
The tracker team climbed up and brought this very nice bull Klipspringer down for this picture.
He was over 4 inches and a real beauty. My .300 RUM with Swift A-Frame 200 gr. bullets performed great on this safari.




I will post more as time becomes available. I want to thank Saeed for coming up with this idea for updates versus having to spend hours for one report.
Robert

Plains Game are sometimes specifically hunted for and sometimes Lady Luck deals you an inside flush. WE had large numbers of Zebra, Wildebeest, Ostrich,and East African Impala in the Lolkisale GCA and we would choose to take one when bait was needed or when the staff needed more meat for the table. Our Chef Pazi did a remarkable job in preparation of culinary delights with "Bundu Beef" which was the code name for what I had shot and had been aged appropriately. We thought the Ostrich was heavenly, Impala is always good, and we think Grants Gazelle and Coke Hartebeest are some of the best eating around. DiK Dik kabobs are great,and Warthog is hard to beat.
I picked out this Ostrich at 120 yds from a group of 3 males. One shot broadside above the large thighs and he went down in less that 20 yds. The camp staff liked this as well.


We looked at a lot of Wildebeest, but we had seen a very large bull in a group of 200 on the day before we started hunting. The concensus in the truck was he went over 30" R&W. WE looked long and hard for him but never saw him again. We did find this beautiful bull(28 1/2" over 80"SCI) in with a herd of 100 wildebeest and 30 Zebra. It is not easy getting a clean shot at one animal in a herd this large that is mingling. Thanks to the Zebra which for some reason acts as a calming tranquilizer for the White bearded Wildebeest, I finally got a clean shot at 50 yds.




We had some numbers of Coke Hartebeest and we had shot a fair one for camp meat. On Day 15 we were going to look for Buffalo and I saw a lone bull duck into a stand of trees in a peninsula that jutted out into the savannah. We scurried out of the truck and rounded the trees ( we gave some sking to some wait a minute thorns) to find out that our good bull was now looking back at 250 yds in the savannah. On the sticks and squeeze and on brute of a bull in the salt ( 19 1/2" R&W and @60"SCI). Adam shared with me that most of the really big bulls have been loners and not running in breeding groups.



On Day 14 still looking for that 45" Nyati we were out at first light trying a track that we had only been out on once before that paralled the boundary road and put us in some very thick grassy terrain. WE had gone about 30 minutes just long enough to get everybody nice and cold when something ran across the track we were following. Adam said it was a Caracal Cat and very rare for this area. He was moving through thick clumps of grass and I got out and picked a spot where the grass was not as high and waited for him to pass through. I could see his tufted ears and upper body line and estimated where his front shoulder would be at 50 yds. and squeezed. I heard Samueli say Pufa ( I think Swahili for dead) and we ran over to see a very nice male Caracal Cat (8 7/8"). A real exotic surprise which just supports the saying "around every bend in the road in Africa you do not know what may appear". Adam has said that you need to be prepared in thick cover to pull out your gun,dismount,acquire the trophy, and make a good shot in less than 15 seconds or the opportunity is gone. He can be very sage at times.



We brought back a helmeted head Guinea Fowl to mount with the Caracal Cat.

I will post more tomorrow.
Robert

More on our remarkable safari with Adam Clements PH and on day 11 we had a real double whammy with Chantelle his wife and business partner joining Eileen and me. This really added a nice balanced approach to our safari. Men and women were equal in numbers, only!

My wife had put in a request for Baboons so Adam delivered as usual. We had taken two from this one colony over 13 days and went back on day 14 after taking the Caracal Cat to Baboon alley. We did not see the colony in the sandy stream bed where we had usually seen them. As we were heading back to camp we saw them crossing the track going back to their old haunts. We got out and made a stalk to @ 80yds, but I couldn't get a clean shot at the one good male we saw sitting on a rock. The colony then ran off and scrambled up a large tree overlooking the dry stream bed. Adam said he had see a very old gray olive baboon and I was to try for that one. Now, there are baboons climbing all over that tree and we have now moved into @ 70 yds. and set up the sticks. Adam with binoculars plugged into his eyes says go up 4 main branches on the left and he should be coming out to the end of the branch. I never disagree with my PH so I did the 4 up and out to the end with the scope and wonder of wonder there appears the oldest baboon we have seen in this colony. I get the "shoot when you are on him" command and I squeeze. After my shot all Hell breaks loose in the tree and baboons are running everywhere! I do not see anything falling down and begin to doubt my shot when with a reassuring voice Adam says "give it a second". Out of the tree dead to the world drops Eileen's 3rd. baboon. He had worn down teeth to the point he had trouble chewing and he was truly Gray as can be seen in the picture. He also had a mouth of Marulla fruit when we turned him over gummed but not chewed.



Southern Grants Gazelle are on the GCA, but this time of the year they are hard to find good trophy quality versus later in the season when the numbers increase. However, this did not stop Adam and the A-Team from finding me a nice one up North in a flat grass savanah that you could see forever in. I of course missed my first shot off the sticks at 120 yds as Adam calmly said you were high. The Granti then ran quartering away out to 150 yds. and I dropped him. I tried some humor with " He was just too close for the first shot to be challenging" and as usual Adam said "of course we believe that!" When a PH has spent more than one safari with you you cannot get away with anything!! He had a beautiful coat and very respectable horns (SCI @60" R&W 23 3/4")and wonderful eating.



Warthog were everywhere,but I was holding out for a big bodied bruiser and of course with good tusks.
WE finally got our chance on Day 5 when one raced across our track on the way back to camp. He made the mistake of running through a rise in the grass at 60 yds. and I got lucky with a running shot that entered behind the shoulder came out and broke his lower jaw which must have put the whammy on him because he did not move after that. As you can see in the picture he was a horse in size, great warts, and respectable 12 1/2" ivory. I couldn't be prouder.



Just to let you know my shooting prowess from our last safari in LU-5 in '03 ended with me having trouble shooting a Nyasa Wildebeest. Dotto , Adam, and Eileen were not used to me making consistent one shot kills to be fair, but what no one realized was that my increased shooting regiment before this safari and shooting off the same sticks that Adam uses was going to pay off. On Day 2 we happened on a group of "3" Hyena around 8:30
am in the grass off to the side of the track. Adam said Eileen do you want a Hyena and she said to me get out and "Just Shoot It" (she has this monogramed on her hunting shirts from the last safari). Needless to say I always do what my real boss and PH tells me. So I jump out grab the sticks pick out the largest Hyena that I see looking at us and squeeze off. A cloud of dust erupts and 4 Hyenas are running off in the grass. Dotto said you missed and there they go.(There were two groups of Hyenas after we reconstructed the shot). I said I was sure I did not miss this shot. WE moved up to see if we could get another shot to find a large dead Hyena
(16 7/8")next to the hole in the ground that must have been their den. I felt much better after this shot. You can see the dirt from the hole around me in the picture



I will post some more tomorrow. As I said the memories are plentiful from this 21 day safari and Andy Ross of Cyclops productions has over 15 hrs. of raw video footage that he is creating a finished video out of,
Eileen and I cannot wait.

Sorry for the duplicate warthog, I know everyone knew it was not a Southern Grants Gazelle!
Robert

OKAY for those of you who are into detail, I messed up and posted 2 baboons not 2 warthogs and here is the Southern Grants Gazelle. I will look more carefully next time. The background gives you how open this savannah was.



Robert

Congrats on the great trip.

Your "designer" told you to shoot some nice animals.

After our talk back in the winter. I ended up taking the plundge and we are now booked for 21 days for 2009 with Adam and crew. And following your advice we also have a film crew following us.

Well done Robert



talk to you later


Sid

What a fabulous report on a fantastic safari. You really cleaned up!!! That lion will stay in my minds eye!!!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Robert,
You pictures of Lokisale made me so home sick, I had to take a cold shower to get over it. I was there the beginning of last year's season on July 1, to start the ball. It was great to see so many familiar faces in your group shot. You were able to take a tremendous variety of animals. I have enjoyed your pictures and narrative very much. Congratulations on a wonderful hunt, and thank you for sharing. Kudude

This will probably be the last installment with trophy pictures. I will start another thread with the South African portion of our safari.
We had tried numerous times to get up on Fringed Ear Oryx herds about every other day when we went South toward Ol Doinyo Sambu. We found one group staying with 10 zebras and got close enough for a shot, but I missed high. On Day 8 Dotto saw 2 oryx moving way off on a mixed grass and bush savannah. The wind was finally right and off the A-Team went for a stalk. We were blessed with some bush to stalk behind and got even luckier when the Oryx reversed their direction and quartered back toward us. Adam said the second one was a good one and at 185 yds. I made a quartering away shot and both animals took off with out a second shot opportunity. The two ran into some brush and we walked over to where they entered the bush and Dotto picked up the track and blood sign. After about 50 yds. Dotto stopped and we saw the Oryz laying up in some brush. I put a finishing shot and we saw that the first shot had done its work angling through and exiting out the opposite shoulder. My Oryx had started brooming and showed its age (29 1/2" R&W 71"SCI). I was very pleased. As always happens we did see one larger Oryx later in the Safari and it allowed us to get up real close. The African drums had told it, he was safe.



We had silver backed jackals all over Lolkisale and Eileen wanted one and they are very beautiful and fearless. We saw one or a pair hastling lions over a Zebra kill near Lake Austin and they live on the edge.



We needed fresh bait for the cats so we first found a lone wildebeest that received a pardon, because just as I set up for a shot this Zebra stallion came up instead and we put him in the salt at @150 yds. Notice the beautiful sunset backdrop in the photo. This day 3 zebra was what we had hung that let us intercept the 4th of July Lion.



Sometimes you save the smallest for last. I have always wanted a DikDik and thanks to Adam having a .22 with Scope available in camp (thanks Dale) we finally found a lone male (they mate for life) and he stopped at 50 yds. and after missing on my first shot he hesitated one second too long and I dropped him. We skinned and caped him with the skullfor a full body mount and put him in the trucks refrigerator. Believe it or not he fit in 3 large zip loc bags. The meat was fantastic.



It is important to stress that Lolkisale Camp has a fantastic permanent skinning, salting, and secured well ventilated trophy storage building. Rashid the head skinner was the best I have seen in my 4 safaris and his assistant Cheni was right up there. Rashid kept a very clean and organized operation and cleaned skins and skulls to a wonderful end point. His log book of trophies made filling out the Tanzania game report paperwork a dream. I cannot stress after putting in this time and money this is a very critical part of a well run safari operation. Hair slippage and ruined skins makes a taxidermists job at times impossible.

I have enjoyed sharing my wife and my dream safari with you. If you get the chance book a safari it is an experience where dreams can come true. Thanks to Homer and Lutcher Stark for taking me on a Safari with Finn Aagaard in 1973, my parents for subsidizing a broke college graduate to go to Kenya, and Eileen for learning how to decorate a house in "Africa meets French Country" and joinging me on the last three safaris.
Remember this in no way does justice to what we really experienced!
Good Hunting and safe travels.
Robert

Once again, excellent hunting report and super trophies! Well done.

Amazing bag; congratulations!

I think this proves, unequivically, that the old adage 'money cannot buy happiness' is a damnable lie coined by some broke guy...

Robert,

I'm so glad for you it all worked out so nicely. I really had no douby it would be very good but you and all our Masailand clients this year have had truly safaris of a lifetime. Now if I can just have a little of your luck next year for myself in Lobo.

Congratulations!

Mark

Great hunt and good reading even if it is a few years old.

Thanks,

Jim