I am freshly returned from a fantastic hunt in Burkina Faso with Namoungou Safaris, owned by Toufic Hanna. The hunt took place starting December 8th and the following nine hunting days.

My interest in hunting in Burkina Faso with Namoungou Safaris was initially piqued by two hunting reports by Aziz.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...=303108258#303108258

http://forums.accuratereloadin...=305108166#305108166

Basically, everything Aziz reported in those links is still current.

As I started kicking tires on going on another hunt in 2013, Dennis posted an offer for Toufic in the discounted hunts section on this forum. Dennis (dennis@tallyho.co.za) proceeded to very patiently answer about a hundred emails until eventually I settled on going on this hunt and sent the deposit.

December finally rolled around and I made the rather painful journey from Alaska to Burkina Faso. The flight details were Anchorage to Chicago via Alaska Airlines, then United from Chicago to Brussells and then Brussells Airlines to Ougadougou. Basically two days of flying. For those who might care, the Chicago/Brussells/Ougadougou flights had very good availability via any star alliance frequent flyer mile program and using miles did save quite a few dollars on the trip.

A word as to timing of anyone interested in repeating this trip. The hunting season is December to April in Burkina Faso. I am an accountant by trade, so January to April is never going to happen for me due to work commitments. March and April is generally thought to be the best hunting time because it is hot and the animals concentrate around the waterholes, most of which are on the hunting concession. The obvious problem with that is the absolute misery involved in actually being there while it is 100 degrees outside. Toufic’s rooms do have air conditioners and there is a pool, but that is about it as far as relief goes. While I was there, the temperatures probably peaked in the mid 80’s in the heat of the day and overall it was quite pleasant to be outside. I found the hunting to be quite good the way it was – so even if work allowed I would never go in the hellish hot season just so that the hunting might be “better”. I had the 3 main animals I was after in 4 days – just how much better does it need to be? Another argument in favor of December is that I was the first and only client there. The game was not overly skittish as a result. In fact, Toufic didn’t have another client lined up until January, so December was really wide open. The only time I would even remotely consider going in the hot season would be for lion, when I can understand stacking all the odds in your favor. Otherwise, don’t be an idiot, go in December.
Moving on the hunt – my flight was late arriving into Ouagadougou and I was met by Toufic, Eugenia (Toufic’s wife), their son Nasser and Michel, who I understood to be the ph, and Michel’s girlfriend. We got into camp around 3 in the morning and agreed there would be no morning hunt as I was thoroughly trashed at that point.

This is also where it fully dawned on me that there wasn’t going to be a lot of conversation going on while on this hunt. Dennis had told me that French was the language spoken in the country and that there would be very minimal English speaking going on. That was correct – Eugenia was the only one at camp that could really be considered at all fluent. Thankfully, Eugenia was a very good hostess and a patient translator. Otherwise, there was Michel, who is a Frenchman but spoke a little English. There was also one of the girls in the kitchen/meal/serving staff that spoke even less English. She was, however, pretty entertaining to attempt to talk to since I otherwise very rarely come across 17 year old young black women from Togo and the dramatically different lifestyle that they have there. She also attempted to translate my attempts to communicate with the other 4 ladies on the kitchen staff who I found to be similarly interesting. But about half of our attempts at a line of questions or conversation topics ended with one or the other of us not understanding what the other was trying to say. Basically, I found the language barrier to part of the whole adventure of the situation, but I am also not overly talkative. I found myself quite often sitting quietly while a flurry of French was going on around me. On the hunting truck – not a bit of English. Lots of gestures and I have a lot of videos and pictures of Alaska on my iPhone which everybody got a kick out of. If this had been my first safari – I probably would have found this to be more problematic. In retrospect, taking along an English-French dictionary would have been really smart. So to summarize, the language issue was not a big deal to me, but I could see how it could be to someone else. And bring a dictionary.

So day 1, afternoon hunt. It is about a 40 minute drive to the hunting area. After that, it took about 20 minutes or so to spot a herd of buffalo which promptly took off, but we now had our target. It was the usual bump and chase buff hunt until the wind swirled on us and gave us away. We drove around a bit more to set a few fires (much of the concession had been burned prior to my arrival, but there was still some left that hadn’t been burned and the grass was so high it was effectively unhuntable) and then headed back to camp.

Day 2 – the first full day of hunting. Once again it was within an hour of crossing into the concession that we came across fresh tracks and bailed out of the truck to follow. This time it was a rather large herd with lots of eyes. Again, the usual bump and follow routine for most of the morning waiting for the right set up until they took off on a long run and we ended up heading back to the truck after following for a while. We drove to a waterhole for lunch and then had a siesta. As compared to the usual afternoon siesta’s in Namibia/Mozambique/Zimbabwe, the Burkina siestas seemed awful long to me and I was always chomping at the bit to get going. On the slow drive back toward camp we bumped what looked like a very nice roan and we took off after it. The roan made all the right moves and got away unfortunately. But it didn’t take long and we spotted another one. This one acted like most of the animals seen from the truck. Basically, they’d run away for about 100 yards until just out of sight and then stop. So we’d circle around down wind and try to guess where about they would be. Often they’d see us or at least our movement and run off again as we approached, and this process would repeat until eventually we’d get it right and have a good shot. This second roan didn’t play the game so well and fell to one shot from the .375. As to the roan, I would call the one I shot a pretty average roan for the area. We saw several larger. Roan were probably the most common animal we saw – this concession has a lot of roan. So I could have held out, but at this point I really wanted to get the first shot off and I was thrilled with him. A word on the gun – following my standard practice, I never bring my own gun. I cannot fathom why anyone screws around with that. Every single time I get off the last plane in Africa I am always so thankful that I don’t have to screw around with getting a gun into the country. Toufic, like most outfitters, had several appropriate guns to choose from and the one I picked was identical to the .300 win mag I shoot in Alaska but for being a .375. Perfectly adequate. The basic rule followed in Burkina was that once you shoot a big game animal, you are done for the day. So back to camp we went.

Day 3 – after the buffalo again. Once again, we picked up a fresh track of a herd very shortly after crossing into the concession. The original herd was of around 20 but it soon merged with a couple other herds making a big herd of about 80. We quickly caught up to the herd where about half of it got a pretty good look at us and split off but not before several of them went walking maybe 20 yards away and giving a good dose of excitement. The rest hung around in a very large burned area which made getting close really hard. We watched them mill around for a while and then eventually backed out and swung around to a more direct down wind location and toward the back of the herd. A nice bull hung out at the back of the herd too long and he saw us and stopped to stare. Which was actually kind of nice because the rest of the herd kept going leaving a clear broadside shot. He ran 150 or so yards before collapsing. I’ve been guilty of wounding a cape buffalo and not recovering it, so it was a huge relief to see him tip over. Upon closer examination, the initial shot took out the top of the heart and broke the off side shoulder. I managed to gut shoot him too as he ran off. Given the wounded cape buff, I did not intend to stop shooting if I had a choice about it. The loading of the buff into the truck was entertaining in itself and we headed back to camp and got back pretty early.

I’m not the kind that finds just sitting around and relaxing to be overly entertaining, so I walked around camp quite a bit looking for birds (I like birding) and taking pictures of what all was going on at camp when I was generally in the concession hunting. We did go to the local school and delivered a soccer ball to the kids. This is a suggestion I picked up a long time ago here on AR. Deflate a soccer ball and put it in your luggage and it doesn’t take up that much room. I brought 2. Then you get over there and that ball is solid gold to whatever kid you decide to give it to. In this case, Eugenia suggested the local school. So we headed over and the headmaster introduced me to the sixth grade class which was roughly 80 kids in one room. There were some 480 in the entire school, housed in a building that would maybe fit 2 classes in the US. I really stood out judging by all the stairs the strange American got. But the kids got the ball and I stood there stupidly while I was introduced in French and thanked in French and proceeded to not say anything but smile and wave. That was good for a delighted gasp when the ball was presented and an excited standing ovation though. Probably 15 of the best dollars spent on the entire trip.

An aside as to the school. It didn’t appear to have electricity and it was extremely crowded and it must be brutal in there when it is the hot season. But those kids were the lucky ones. Unlike the publicly funded education here in the US that is essentially universally available, the parents have to pay for even the most basic education. Burkina looked like one of the poorest countries I have yet seen, so I saw dozens and dozens of kids who ought to have been in school but very obviously were not. Eugenia mentioned an association they had formed that paid for orphans to attend school. For 150 euros per year, a kid gets to go to school, books, and uniforms. I intend to follow up with Eugenia as in the bustle of leaving this fell through the cracks. I am sufficiently cynical when I see the commercials in the US and their brazen play on your emotions that I have not sponsored a child since I am, probably unreasonably, skeptical of how much actually goes to sponsoring a child and how much goes televising emotional commercials. In this case, I do not suffer from such skepticism.

Day 4 – my main point of emphasis had been a buff/roan hunt and I had also asked about a bushbuck. So it was off to look for a bushbuck this day. The main method for looking for a bushbuck was to drive to various water holes and still hunt in the immediate area. This didn’t really turn up much in the morning so we ended up parked at one almost on the far boundary from camp for lunch. We took the usual nap and at one point I lifted my head and saw a pair of bushbuck standing on the far bank. In all the flury of – can I shoot him? get the gun, where is the game scout, blah blah they eventually took off. We tried to follow but the local vegetation was pretty thick. So we sat around for little bit longer and then eventually started to still hunt along a series of waterholes that were close to the lunch spot. In doing so we spotted the same pair again – the sticks were up, but I was not quick enough and they slipped off. So we tried to pursue but we lost them and eventually we circled back toward the truck when we bumped them again. They ran off again, but the male stopped to look back at us about 100 yards out in some more open brush which was his final mistake. One shot and down he went.

So that night, Toufic told me (via Eugenia) that he had to leave camp and go to Paris for a medical issue. This wasn’t really a big deal to me, because me and Toufic were never really able to communicate. Given that he was a gracious host to the extent we could communicate, I suspect that he is a very fine host to those he can actually talk to. What was more of a surprise was that Michel was also leaving. Lampo, who at that point I had mostly considered the lead tracker, was going to be the ph the rest of the hunt.

Ah, Michel. An interesting character for sure. I’m still not quite sure what to make of him. When I think back to meeting him at the airport, he was never actually introduced as my ph, but I got that impression since he was going to be hunting with me and he was white. He also had lot of stories about his 20 years of hunting in a neighboring concession and this is his first season with Namoungou. The biggest first impression that Michel actually made, was his girlfriend. She could have been a model in the US or Europe. Probably the most attractive local I have ever seen. She looked to be mid – 20’s which contrasted rather sharply with Michel’s 66 years and his stark inability to be a model in the US. They were like little minks around each other.

The thing about Michel that was odd, was that he really couldn’t walk that far. As we chased the roan sighted from the truck – he didn’t actually get out of the truck. It was Lampo and the game scouts. The other thing that should have been somewhat obvious was that he didn’t handle the shooting sticks. In my previous experience in Africa, the ph lets someone else carry them, but takes over on the final approach and places the sticks, advises on which animal to shoot and where and so on. Lampo always did all of that. The bushbuck – when the bushbuck came to the waterhole initially I was asking him if he was big enough to shoot and he wouldn’t tell me but was waving Lampo over. Then when we chased after it initially – he didn’t go with. So all of that to say – Michel didn’t actually act like a ph, it was always Lampo that acted like the ph. And then he left after day 4. So I’m not sure if Michel failed a test along the way and was asked to go or what exactly the deal was with Michel. In the end it didn’t really matter and the hunt was more colorful for having had him (and his girl) around. Plus, he was one of the 3 people that spoke any English so it was nice having him around for at least the first day or two to get into the groove of exactly how the hunting was done in Burkina.

So the “real” hunters in camp. There are 3, all of them local black fellows. I found Lampo to be very good – especially in terms of spotting game in the bush. If I go back, I will ask for Lampo to be my hunter. Very good. There were 2 others that I met briefly that Eugenia told me were also very good. One of them could have been a body double for Dave Chappelle, of Comedy Central fame. I would have gotten over it, but I have to admit the first couple days would have been a little odd and I’d be waiting for him to drop the “n-word” and a monologue of entirely inappropriate racial humor at any time. If you are at all familiar with Dave Chappelle’s body of work, you will know what I mean.

I also found the two game scouts assigned to us to be incredibly helpful and had I not been told that they worked for the forestry service, I likely would have thought them employed by Toufic. The driver was also a nice guy.

Now that I had 3 of the main trophies I was after, the hunt took on a much more relaxed note. I asked Toufic if I could go after a hartebeest and he graciously agreed though they do have limited quota and I didn’t ask prior to heading over there. So we spent day 5 looking for a hartebeest and being unable to find a trophy male.

The next day was a market day in Namoungou and I wanted to check that out. So we did some Francolin hunting in the morning which is a lot of fun. That afternoon we went to the market. It was quite an experience, but it was definitely a local market and I was unable to find a souvenir, but I’m still glad I went. I find myself uncomfortable with “poverty tourism” in Africa, so I couldn’t bring myself to take pictures of the locals being poor in the market. On the same sort of thing, I wanted to take a picture of the mud huts the locals live in . . . but that is what Lampo and the game scouts also live in. So I have minimal pictures of the local villages.

That evening we headed to a waterhole to dove and sand grouse hunt and I surprised myself by actually shooting ok. I am an awful wing shot, despite the time that I spend chasing ducks here in Alaska. Its kind of embarrassing actually. But for the first day of wing shooting – I hit about half of the birds I shot at. Which is really good for me. They count the birds and the shells you shoot, so there isn’t getting around a hard tally. By the end of the hunt, which encompassed two additional days of bird hunting, I was down to connecting on 1 of 3 shots. That is more like it. I had a nice solid bruise on my shoulder and my shooting dropped off considerably.

So anyway – the next day was back to the concession for a hartebeest, or a bubal in French. This time we found one mid-morning and he did the usual run off 100 yards and stop routine. We picked our way through the brush until he eventually stayed too long before running off and I dropped him with the final rifle shot of the trip.

After that – it was basically the previously mentioned bird shooting for the remainder of the trip. One bright spot in the bird hunting was that one morning Lampo took us Francolin hunting near his home and when we were done we stopped by and I was able to meet his two wives and mother that lived there. Eugenia told me that Lampo often doesn’t do bird hunting and he was only doing it because by this point I knew him, but I was quite greatful to get a glimpse into Lampo’s life outside of the hunting concession.

The other high point was shooting one of the biggest, nastiest bats I have ever seen. When dove and sand grouse hunting, the sand grouse don’t come to the water until late and it is practically dark. At that point, you stand by the water and try to pick out bulky silhouettes and shoot at them. The guys all sit behind you and squawk in French when they see one to help you out. So I was looking for sand grouse, heard the usual French squawk and shot the bulky silhouette. The local boy ran over and returned with this big nasty bat which elicited all kinds of excitement in French. To the point that I thought maybe I had shot an illegal bat or something. As it turns out, these bats are considered some sort of delicacy and everyone was excited about eating it. I’m told it was delicious but I was clear that I didn’t want to see that nasty thing on any plate that was put in front of me.

As to other animals seen during the course of the hunt – we saw a lot of lion tracks, but only one actual lion, which was a female. We also saw a lot of elephant tracks, but only two actual elephants. The buff seemed quite numerous and when we wanted to find them, it never did seem to be a problem. The roan were plentiful as well – probably the animal we saw the most. Otherwise, we did see a lot of plains game, though on any given day if you said, “I am looking for a _______” you couldn’t be assured of seeing one. Sort of like the hartebeest for me. But I saw a lot of animals generally. This is to be contrasted with the Omay in Zimbabwe, which I found to be virtually devoid of plains game a couple years ago. I did see trophy males of oribi, reedbuck, bushbuck, and warthog. I saw a lot of waterbuck – but at best only a middling male. There were also baboons sighted almost every day. The duiker were numerous, though their horns are so small I’m not sure if I saw a trophy one or not. We saw 2 kob, though neither were really trophies. But I should note, outside of the day looking for a bushbuck which I eventually shot, I didn’t spend any time looking for any of the above animals either. If you went out and said, “I want to shoot any of the following 3 or 4 animals”, you would probably get one of them that day. I am told that the quantity of plains game picks up dramatically as the weather gets hotter, but as I stated previously, I would consider that an awful trade. Go in December. There are plenty of animals.

So as all hunts do, this one eventually came to an end and Eugenia drove me back to Ouagadougou. There we met her beautiful daughter for lunch, who had just returned from Canada where she is going to college. Her English was of course, fantastic, and it was interesting to get her take on college in Canada after growing up in Burkina. My flight didn’t leave until 11 that night, so her son Nasser drove me around town so I could see what was going on there. He is a good tour guide, but he was somewhat handicapped in his tour in that there just isn’t a lot to see in Ouagadougou. Even by Africa standards, it looked pretty poor.

From there – the brutal 2 day plane ride to Alaska.

In summary, this really was a fantastic hunt and I had a great time. Burkina really ought to be more prominent on the North American hunter’s radar, though the fact that it is not was one of the real draws to me. One of the big pluses is the variety and abundance of plains game that can be combined with a lion or a buffalo hunt. As I mentioned previously – that was very much not the case in the Omay in Zimbabwe. I can also very much recommend Namoungou Safaris as well, with the one caveat being that you need to be ok with minimal English speaking going on.

I will post pictures once I get some technical difficulties sorted out.

Nice report and I am awaiting your pictures.
Jim

Great report Jason! I am very glad you had a good hunt, looking forward to hear see some pictures

regards

Dennis

Photo Attempt 1

Thanks for the detailed report. I can't wait to enjoy the 125 degree heat this March. Maybe I can get Machel's girlfriend to be my PH.

Fine report a wonderful way to melt in extreme temps.

Mike

Great report, lots of info here.
Too bad you're not more agressive at trying to converse with other language speakers. I spent 18 months in Germany and found lots of folks that couldn't speak any English at all. Yet we got along just fine nearly always. Much by hand signals and a few words I'd picked up. I'd never been around Germans nor any of the other languages until I got there. Handy especially town names and such. I hitchiked and rode the trains around the many countries quite a bit several times. One college girl I met on a train ride and I hit it off and she invited me to Heidleburg the next weekend. I took her a "Gift", turned out the word "Gift" in German means: "poison" That took awhile to sort out but, we figured it out ok and ended up well. I found it a whole lot of fun trying to communicate with folks.

Even in Paris I got along fine the same way with the friendly people everywhere. Shucks I even got a date there! Oh well---!

Funny thing, I had as much trouble in England as anywhere else. "French fries" "NO! Chips" "no not chips I want french fries!!" Finally: "just try these, ok". "I'll be damned, french fries as I asked for" NO they're CHIPS!!
'Oh well!

I never did figure things out in Holland though. A forty letter word was pronounced with what sounded to me like a grunt. Try riding a bus in that situation. You need to stay alert I learned that much.

Glad you had a good time and got the game you were after. Sounds like a wonderful trip if not for the plane rides.

Thanks for sharing,
George

Congratulations, you got some nice trophies and had a good time.I enjoyed your report and photos very much.

How is Toufic doing, he had some medical issues last year.

Regards
Aziz

I'll be there in late February-early March...can't wait.

West Africa is a cool adventure with some unique trophies. You did very well... my only disappointment was no pic of the 66 year old Michel's model GF!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Aziz:
Congratulations, you got some nice trophies and had a good time.I enjoyed your report and photos very much.

How is Toufic doing, he had some medical issues last year.

Regards
Aziz

Aziz,
yes there were some issues but he is better now.

Dennis

Congratulations! Looks like a great hunting destination!

Great hunt, I find it interesting that mild mannered accountants are such adventurous hunters, eh.

quote:

Great hunt, I find it interesting that mild mannered accountants are such adventurous hunters, eh.

Ed, as they say...takes one to know one :-)

very nice safari congratulations.

Congratulations on some fine trophies.
I am pushing hard to hunt there this year.
Cheers
Steve

I recognize those guys! It's a great place to hunt.

Great report!

What is that first photo showing? An albino Giant Vampire Fruit Bat? Interesting trophy, for sure.

Great stuff. Those western Roan have quite slender horns compared to the Southern?

Congratulations and thanks for the interesting report.

Just one question: What is it in the first picture?

Some nasty bat of some variety. Taking that picture was about as close as I got to it.

Could be a Straw-couloured fruit bat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw-coloured_Fruit_Bat

Great Report. Instead of the dictionary, I wonder how one of the phone translation apps would work?

This is wonderful report indeed...sounds like a very fascinating place and different and I hope when you have the time you will post more photos of different areas/villages/market place you saw...really would like to do this trip someday!!! I can only dream!!!

Well done...Thank you!!!

Nice report and some very nice trophies.
Congrats.

11 days and I'll be there!

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Great report, lots of info here.
Too bad you're not more agressive at trying to converse with other language speakers. I spent 18 months in Germany and found lots of folks that couldn't speak any English at all. Yet we got along just fine nearly always. Much by hand signals and a few words I'd picked up. I'd never been around Germans nor any of the other languages until I got there. Handy especially town names and such. I hitchiked and rode the trains around the many countries quite a bit several times. One college girl I met on a train ride and I hit it off and she invited me to Heidleburg the next weekend. I took her a "Gift", turned out the word "Gift" in German means: "poison" That took awhile to sort out but, we figured it out ok and ended up well. I found it a whole lot of fun trying to communicate with folks.

Even in Paris I got along fine the same way with the friendly people everywhere. Shucks I even got a date there! Oh well---!

Funny thing, I had as much trouble in England as anywhere else. "French fries" "NO! Chips" "no not chips I want french fries!!" Finally: "just try these, ok". "I'll be damned, french fries as I asked for" NO they're CHIPS!!
'Oh well!

I never did figure things out in Holland though. A forty letter word was pronounced with what sounded to me like a grunt. Try riding a bus in that situation. You need to stay alert I learned that much.

Glad you had a good time and got the game you were after. Sounds like a wonderful trip if not for the plane rides.

Thanks for sharing,
George

Reminds me of the time I filled up my gas tank in Brussels. I went it to pay and said "Pump 11." Just got a shrug back. I didn't speak Flemish or French, but thought I would try the German word for eleven..viola! We were now on the same page.

You are so right George. Just have to try a little; people really appreciate it.