Dates hunted: 31 July 2013 thru 09 August 2013

Outfitter and PH: Charl Van Rooyen, Infinito Safaris, and his free-lance assistant PH Dries
Area hunted: Thaba Nkwe (Mountain of the Leopard) hunting farm,, Groblersdal , Mpunalanga Province
Species hunted: Kudu, nyala, bushbuck, klipspringer, mountain reedbuck, impala, warthog, bushpig
Additional seen: Giraffe, white and common blesbok, blue and black wildebeest, sable, gemsbok
Rifles: Rem 700 7mm Mag with 160 Barnes TSX, and Rem 700 300 RUM with 180 Scirroccos
Travel arrangements: Steve Turner, Travel With Guns

Having to follow Tim Herald’s hunt report with his family and Charl at Infinito Safaris really sucks, but I will do my best. Thankfully they left a few mature trophies in the hills for the rest of us., and we had a great time ourselves . Like so many other AR posters before me, I’ll just try to condense and copy my journal entries from a day-by-day point of view, and then throw in some pictures to go along with it. Please excuse the extreme length of the report, we had so darn much fun I didn't want to leave anything out.

History - I had seen a couple posts in the past years about people hunting with Charl and his annual hunt, but never paid much attention before. In the Fall of 2012, I saw it offered again and took the time to read it. Wow, I thought, what a great deal for a hunter and also to help pass on a contribution to an injured PH also. Since I met the requirements Charl had stipulated, I put my name in the hat and was surprised to get an email from Charl on New Year’s Day telling me I had won the first prize. My wife was sure it was a set-up, just to get me back sooner than our planned and agreed on two year wait., after our May 2012 trip to Namibia. After a string of emails back and forth, meeting in Reno at SCI and finally settling on dates that would work for both of us, we had a plan. I extended the hunt by a week, in order to hunt some of the more difficult game to locate, and ensure better chance of success.

My close friend and hunting partner, Albert Garrison from Matagorda Texas had never been over to Africa but had listened to so many of our stories and looked at some of my trophies in the house - he thought if he could go along, it might be a trip of a lifetime and lots of fun for both of us. He was certainly correct on both counts. This trip would prove to be very entertaining and enjoyable for both of us, and we gave Charl as good a ribbing as we got back!!!!.

The departure day finally arrived and we were ready to go. I would meet Albert in Atlanta for our Delta flight across the pond. True to most of my trips, we had plane trouble in Salt Lake City and were almost two hours late leaving. The pilot was able to make up time and get priority landing in ATL, so by running from gate to gate I made it with just 15 minutes to spare. That’s way too close for an international flight! The actual travel is long, but uneventful, and soon we were touching down in RSA.

Got into the main hall at O.R. Tambo and soon met Charl Van Rooyen, Tim Herald, and my son David Page (Fluid Peak Films). They were dropping off people, picking up another client for their trip to Moz, and meeting us also. David laughingly tells me about what has been happening and also that Charl has a new nickname (Big Sexy) given him by Tim‘s group. We laugh and decide that Big Sexy and Big Papa (a name for me from another time on an Arizona elk hunt) will be a real pair on this hunt.

The SAPS office was a 2 hour nightmare with 45 hunters arriving on this flight alone, and even the people with pre-approved paperwork were delayed substantially. Saw Bruce from Gracy and he remembered me from a previous trip to Zimbabwe with Chifuti Safaris. True to form, my rifles were next to last to come out. TIA, just roll with it!!!!! Got into the van, had a nice 3 hour ride to the lodge and had plenty of time to catch up on things and learn the routine. Met Charl’s capable partner Erika, and also Willie and Gerda Roux (the owners of the lodge). After a quick and light meal we were off to bed.

Day One - Man, is it cold! About 28-30 degrees at 6:00 AM and ice on everything. Coming from hot summer in Idaho and Texas, this is a real change for us. Albert brought long-johns and is really glad he did. I don’t get very cold, so am fine with just my normal hunting gear. The general plan is coffee and toast or cereal in the dark, hunt for about four hours, and then back to the lodge for a great brunch and break during the noon hours. The animals just seem to totally brush up during the middle of the day, so you don’t miss much anyway. Back out hunting from 2:00 PM until dark and then return for a nice social hour and dinner, then relax around the fire pit with stories until tired.

Lodge pics






True to form and my luck in general, have a flat tire to deal with first thing and end up getting to the range a little late. I have brought two rifles and we will share if we’re together in the Cruiser, or split them up if we separate. When we hunt together in either Idaho or Texas we have shot each others rifles a lot, and have utmost confidence in them. The 300 Rem Ultra Mag is sighted in perfect, and the 7 Rem Mag is just a tad high and almost centered. Close enough, we believe, and don’t bother to adjust (this will come back to haunt us later).

Drive from the low country of the lodge up into the canyons and hills (4000’ to about 6000’ elevation) and hunt the morning. See lots of impala, hartebeest, and finally locate several kudu bulls across a canyon. Two are about 50”, but a little young; the third is a great bull about 54”. I tell Charl that I want Albert to have the first try at his first African animal, and I’ll stay at the truck with the other tracker to glass. He looks at me like I’m crazy and asks if I know how big this kudu is? I say “Yep, but it doesn’t matter“.

Off they go and manage to stalk down into the canyon and close to gap, and a fourth monster kudu slowly feeds up to join the others - 60”er by all of our later calculations. Here the unfamiliarity with shooting off sticks rears its ugly head, and Albert misses the big one cleanly and they’re gone. We are all just sick, but that’s hunting. Since I have a management impala and warthog included in my hunt, I talk Charl and Albert into shooting them. I have plenty of animals under my belt, and think it will be a better treat for him. Coming back down into the thorn scrub we find a herd of impala with a decent ram, and he makes a good shot to put his first animal in the salt. Congrats!

Albert Impala picture


After brunch and a short nap, I take my camera for a walk and get some good pics of the lodge and surroundings and video all the accommodations for my wife to look at when I return. We take off about 2:00 PM and are off in another direction and up a new canyon. We see quite a few kudu, a couple bushbuck, and some mountain reedbuck but no trophies in them. Our primary tracker (Solle) has eyes like a hawk and sees most animals long before we do. After a couple days though, we have the various colors and patterns of the animals down better and start matching him about one for every two of his.

As we get up into the cliffs, he sees klipspringers jumping from rock to rock and we get to evaluate them. Two females and a ram with horns above his ears! Charl says they have been trying for this ram for a while without success. A range of 230 yards up at a 45 degree angle is a tough shot, but doable. I hold right on the bottom of his chest to compensate. The trigger on the 7 Mag breaks cleanly but the bullet sails harmlessly over his back and they’re gone. DAMN; remember that decision not to re-adjust the scope at the range?

Continue on up the mountain and top out in the rolling rocky hills where we can see a long way. Couple very distant mountain reedbuck, but very young. Kudu cows on the distant skyline, and local people down at their house and fields chopping thatch for repairing their roofs. What an idyllic setting to see the sun go down on RSA. Looking off into the valley we can see for miles and miles. We go around a big cell phone tower up on top and the support enclosure, and continue down the ridge to the end.

As darkness starts to fall, we find a big mountain reedbuck ram bedded with his ewes in the yellow grass. They all jump up and begin to move and I finally get a shot as he stops behind some gray thorn brush with no leaves. He looked very clear in the six power scope, but there was a giant puff of white bark and limbs in front of him and they’re off and running around the head of the basin. Charl and I take off running down our side of the hill and he has stopped about 150 yards below us in the only opening we had. One shot and he’s down now, and we find he is a beautiful old 7 ¼ “ stud. As we continue to examine him, we experience dismay. The first shot has hit the branches in front of him, and either the deflecting bullet or debris took off half his nose! No more shooting into brush this trip.

Mountain Reedbuck pic


Back to the lodge in the dark and find a fabulous meal waiting of mountain reedbuck chops, pork, chicken, veggies and salad, and a much too-appetizing dessert. I can tell I have returned to Africa once again, because they have a large stock of my favorite Schweppes Dry Lemon soda. With a touch of gin, I am in heaven. Just don’t know why they can’t see to import this into the States, but they don’t.

Gin pic


Day Two - Up and at them this morning. I have found that most African coffee does not agree with me or my taste buds, so have gotten into the habit of bringing Folgers coffee-singles or one-pot packs along with me on my trips, There is both a coffee pot and a 220V water boiler here at the lapa, so we are golden. The plan is to try to find the big kudu Albert missed again this morning. Hopefully he wasn’t too spooked and will come back up out of the canyons to the more accessible ridges again in a day or so. See plenty of mountain reedbuck, impala, duiker, kudu cows but not the bulls. Get a shot at a stationary jackal at a ranged 300 yards, and it sails right over his back (again????) and off he goes. A hundred baboons make fun of us and run off up the mountain - if I wasn’t hunting trophies, they’d be in trouble!

Off again after lunch, and glassing canyons for kudu again. No big ones and everything else is young. Coming back down into the thorn flats we get on a big herd of impala and Albert is able to get a rest and wait for the herd ram. He stops at 200 yards in a powerline right-of-way and at the shot bucks and runs. We see the 160 grain TSX kick up dust a hundred yards past him, and are sure it went clean thru. After looking unsuccessfully for an hour, Charl finds a couple drops of blood, then jumps the ram and says it is a high (? WTF) neck shot above the shoulders and it gets away. DAMN again! Had a very big duiker bedded in the middle of the road, but after shooting light was over, so returned to the lodge for dinner.

Stripped down the rifle that evening after leaving the fire, cleaned everything on it, checked all screws and tightened anything to eliminate issues. Nothing found at all, and it may be a non-issue and just the scope. Adjusted the Leupold M8-6Xx42 scope 2 clicks left and 2 clicks down and we will shoot it in the morning before hunting.

Day Three - After toast and coffee we’re off to the range again. The rifle is dead center now but still just a tad higher than my ballistic table taped on the stock, so I take out two more clicks. Now it is perfect, and a five shot group of three different 160 grain loads (TSX, AccuBond, Partition) are all well inside the one inch mark. We are ready for anything now.

Go on up to where we have been finding big kudu bulls and jump a couple 50”ers, but no shot opportunities and they get away in a confusion of red hartebeest and are down into the rocks and trees. Continue our travels and find another two bulls, and one is a toad at about 54-55”. Big body and massive horns, he is an African dream! Albert is able to make 3 of 4 shots on the money at 300 yards, and the bull is down for the count. Even better is the fact that we can get to it for pictures and the recovery crew can get the truck close. Has a huge body (later weighed at 360 pounds hanging in the butchery) and really nice shaped horns. The picture opportunity is nice with good sunlight and open area to pose him. Found out later he actually taped 56/54”.

Albert Kudu pic




After lunch, we are able to do a great many things you don’t normally do on safari. Put out some bushpig baits, checked trail cameras, sat a 20 yard waterhole bow hunting blind for a big warthog or bushbuck that had been seen in a certain area, toured Charl’s butchery and home property, and met a lot of the background staff that makes things happen and go smoothly. Out for the usual afternoon hunt, but don’t find the quality trophies we are looking for. Another dinner and fireside chat, and off for a well-deserved rest. Driving by the various Euphorbia plants (trees which turn into cactus) and Protea (flowering tree of RSA, wish we could have seen them bloom) reminds us we are not in South Texas or the desert Southwest.

Day Four - Up bright and early this morning, and going to try for the big klippie again. Have a plan in mind to get another vantage point and better view and shot opportunity. Bring along a Caldwell shooting rest for the rifle, in case the shot is really long. It has been very cold every day, with lows below 30 and the daytime high’s only around 60. Albert claims he hasn’t been warm since he got here, and is longing for that 110 degree heat index of coastal Texas and his fishing guide business. The animals have been just standing in the sun for the first hour to warm up themselves.

Up the canyon with the cliffs again, but no klippies to be seen, as it is totally in shadow at this time of the day. We continue on up and our tracker soon finds them out in the tall yellow grass on top, soaking up sun and getting a bite to eat. How he could see them at a half-mile is beyond me. They are out in a large meadow above the cliffs, and we see that we could come at them from around the hill and above. Off we go to give it a try.

When we start our stalk over the hill, we find that the yellow grass is really about waist high on us, and the animals are hidden down in it with just their eyes showing. Of course, two full-figured fellows like Charl and I stand out like elephants on a beach, and the little guys are gone. We follow down the hill and get 180 yards from the cliff top. I make sure there is a TSX in the chamber, solid rest on the Bog-Pod shooting sticks and say I’m ready. Charl says to watch, as he is going to call them back up. He says that no one believes this will work, but he swears by it and gives 3-4 soft blasts on the mouth call. Nothing. Wait about two minutes and blow it again, and darnn if the little devil doesn’t hop up onto the rock edge and give me a perfect broadside shot. At the report, he leaps off the edge and is gone. Was he really there at all? There was no whop, and I wonder if it was a miss again?

Solle runs down the hill and climbs out of sight, and before you know it returns with the perfectly shot ram. What a trophy! Charl says it is 6-7 years old and they have been hunting him for 3 years. Over 4 1/2” long with lots of growth rings and nice bases.. Definitely life-size mount for this guy! We get our pictures and then it is a Chinese fire drill scramble to get it back to the butchery to skin, cape and freeze.

Klippie pic


Lunch, nap, and ready to go out again. A guy could get to enjoy this routine. Only go out for a couple hours and return early for dinner. The boys are going to go out and hunt bushpigs tonight, and I’ll catch up on reading and writing. They return around 8:30 PM but no shot opportunity. The pigs came in but the wind was bad, and they only stayed a minute or so before running off. Never even got to turn up the blue-ish lite that Charl uses, to simulate a full moon.

Day Five - Have a new plan for today. Still trying for the big bushbuck last seen in one particular canyon, so we are going to push it from the bottom to the top at first light. The trackers (Solle, Phillip, and Richard) will beat the brush while we go up the road in the center from vantage point to vantage point, in case he runs up the sides of the canyon. Takes a couple hours but all we move is duikers, kudu cows and mountain reedbuck. Appears he has given us the slip and left the area. Back for breakfast and then we load up to go to another low-country area where it is better for nyala and bushbuck.

Since we both want to shoot an nyala and haven’t really agreed to who is the first shooter, Charl flips a coins and Albert is up first. After several hours of checking creek beds, ponds, brush, and ten foot high reeds we find a nice nyala bull and he threads a 7mm bullet thru a 4 inch window to the bull‘s chest. Bang flop, those TSX’s give fantastic results. Large gray chunky body with perfect stripes, classic shaped horns, and a beautiful mane - it is truly a gorgeous animal. We get him back to our skinners and they get to work on him with gusto. My turn to go look and shoot one now.

Albert nyala pic


After another hour or so, we locate another bull off in the brush but are having a difficult time sizing him up - something is wrong with us seeing his horns. Charl and I meander thru the sickle brush with the sticks and get closer to see better. Walking slowly and slightly off-balance, Charl stops abruptly and I quickly put my foot down without looking. A 3 inch long thorn goes right thru my soft-soled boot and passes between my first and second toes. Holy chit, that would have hurt! Take a quick moment to fix that, and we’re back sneaking again. We now see that the bull has a nice long right horn, but the left one is even longer but pointing off at a 90 degree angle to his head! I’m freaking out with excitement, as my son and I love to shoot all these old weird trophies, and I know he’d love this guy. But Charl talks me into passing as he is a little young and we continue on to find his partner. Once located feeding in the thick brush, we see that he really is a much better and older bull, so we wait and as he clears a bush I take the shot into his open shoulder at about 50 yards. Short death run and he is down for good. Coated in mud from wallowing, and horns caked from digging them in also, he is really light colored. Classic flair out to the horns, and nice mass with ivory tips.

Joel nyala pic




There is a little time left for the day, and we continue to check out the area. A large herd of rooibok (impala) crosses a plain, and the best ram just looks too good for me to pass up. He’s 260 yards out, but with the 7 Mag properly sighted in now (and renewed confidence), “Black Death” barks and the ram is down. Pretty face with fighting scars from defending his girls, lots of big rings and growth, and nice sweep back he will make a pretty mount. Because they have too many warthogs on this farm (and the young ones are good to eat), the management pig becomes a sausage donor on the way back to the lodge!

Joel Impala pic


Albert warthog pic


Day Six - Today we are going to split up for a change. Albert is still looking for a trophy warthog, so he and Charl will take the 7 Mag and go try the big agricultural fields down the Valley a ways. My PH Dries has a surprise for me, and has arranged permission with his grand-father to allow me to hunt the family farm for big bushbuck. This is a large property with good bushbuck which also has hippo, sable and Cape buffalo and they have a couple miles of river bottom that criss-crosses the property. He has only allowed two other hunters this opportunity, so I am excited. We check a dam and see some hippo but no other animals watering or feeding this early. Go up to the farthest corner of the property, and start a slow still hunt through the bottoms, yellow grass, and acacia trees. I’m packing the 300 RUM today and feel a little over-gunned for bushbuck, but its weight is comforting with the other animals in the area.

After about an hour of walking, we have spotted several ewes and young males but have no tries for a mature one. Hearing a lot of alarm barks, we decide to slow down to a standstill and get even quieter than before. This is just like trying to stalk and jump shoot whitetails in the river bottoms at home in Idaho. Loving every minute of it! As Dries passes through an opening, I enter it and glance to my right. There is a gorgeous mature ram slowly feeding out of the thorn scrub about 70 yards away with his head down, and the sun behind him. He looks jet black, the horns are twice the height of his ears, and I can see they’re starting to get mass and flair outwards. I snap my fingers twice and when Dries turns around I am crouched down, on the gun off-hand and ready to shoot. One glance at the bushbuck and he has the sticks up for me, but we are both stooped over so I grab one leg. With us in the bright sun, we don’t dare move to stand up fully. The ram continues to feed straight towards us, and at 40 yards he looks up to notice us and realizes we are something different than he is used to seeing there. The wind is perpendicular and he can’t smell us at all. Looking right and left, I know he is ready to vanish. So it is time for me to decide. I caress the trigger on the 300 Rum and “unleash the beast”. It breaks, almost of its own accord, and I see all four legs go straight out as he belly-flops into the tall yellow grass. I may have to nickname this rifle “Mucho Oucho”. What a great feeling, I have just taken the fourth and last of the special trophies that I really had my heart set on taking this trip to RSA.

Everyone has heard the stories of wounded bushbuck and their ferocity. We ease up to find him in the dense cover, in the event he is only wounded, and he’s down for good. Never even took a step! What a pretty animal, and how very different from my Chobe bushbuck ram from Zimbabwe. He will get a similar pedestal mount like the other and they will have a prominent display together in my trophy room.

Joel bushbuck pic



After all the “grip and grin” photos, we are off to Charl’s place to cape and skin the ram and return to the lodge. Since it is early yet, we go up on the mountain looking for kudu but see only a half-dozen young bulls up to 50”, and females of all species. With Albert’s big bull in the salt, I am really being picky and will be holding out for one over 55 inches now. Albert and Charl have returned with another management warthog, and he is feeling better about hunting them down in the agricultural areas. They saw quite a few pigs, just no big ones, and the farmers tend to shoot off any so dumb as to hang around the farm crops. After a night of raiding, they head up the hills into the brush. Still have plenty of time to find a big one.

Have a great Western omelette for brunch, then we relax and catch up on pictures and video around the place. Back out and head up to the top hills near the tribal trust lands and cattle areas. Locate four big kudu bulls across the valley, but no way to get close to them for a try. Two appear to be 50+, one about 54, and the last 56” or better. We take a bunch of telephoto pics with my Nikon and try to get a good idea of his size. After much discussion in Afrikaans between Dries, Solle, and Phillip he takes off at a lope from the Cruiser and circles the entire valley to try to push them back towards us. Man, without the efforts of these very dedicated and able-bodied trackers we wouldn’t be half as successful as we are on our hunts.

Kudu pic from a distance.


The plan almost worked to perfection. All four bulls saw Phillip circling, and started to head our way long before he got anywhere close. The two smaller bulls came right across and up our hill to 250 yards. The two big bulls had played this game before, and bailed off into a completely hidden and impenetrable creek bed and gave us the slip, without us ever seeing them again. And we thought we were so smart! Back to a treat of barbecued beef steaks and all the fixins and South African wine, then fireside toddies and conversation with Charl and Erika, and then a very comfy bed. Remember watching bush TV? You only get one channel!

Fire pic


Day Seven - Back up into the mountains again, a little earlier today to see the ridges as the sun hits them and starts to warm everything up. Have the spotting scope along and plenty of quality binoculars, so we really do find a lot of animals out to great distances. Find impala, hartebeest, reedbuck, zebra, and finally the kudu. One is long but appears smaller in body and young. The other looks like me - big and fat and old! Good looking horns, even at that distance so we plan a stalk. It is a long way around so will have to change mountains and take quite a while to get there. Stalk in from the top and down the ridge to the point they were on, bust a herd of kudu cows we hadn’t seen and they took the bulls with them. It was a good plan and stalk, just bad luck to spook the cows and have them go that direction.

Glassing pic


Continue checking all the trail cameras for the various bushpig baits, and it appears they are coming in really late the past couple times. Will hunt back up the way we saw the big kudu bulls, and see what develops. Found plenty of young bulls, some more mountain reedbuck with one almost as nice as mine, but he is safe. Located two groups of three klipspringers each but the rams were much smaller than mine. It is nice to see this much game in the area. We travel cross-country across the high veldt and make our way down and incredibly steep and rocky path to the bottom of another canyon. I do not know if even a Land Cruiser couls go up this one for all the loose rocks, so its probably a one-way circle.

Find an older leopard bait, but looks like only badgers or small cats have been on it. Certainly nothing with an appetite of a big predator and it has dried with meat still on it.

Leopard bait impala


Day Eight - Charl has a couple very important appointments so we give him a break from us. Off again with Dries, Solle and Albert to try a different set of ridges today for kudu. The big bulls we are finding are only after a lot of glassing, and usually in the thick stuff on the sunny sides of ravines. We still have not located the really big bull that Tim and Charl saw two weeks ago on the earlier hunt.

My tracker Solle is amazing at spotting game, and with the help of binoculars, can really find them no matter how well they’re hidden. After just a couple minutes, he is pointing out a kudu bull and hollering for Dries. He is so excited, that he’s switching to English, “Beeg bull, beeg bull”!, and I’m getting excited too. All four of us lock in on the area he is looking and find bits and pieces of the animal, soon it is apparent it is a really nice bull. We find his partners in the thick brush and soon have 3 bulls over 50 inches identified.

I’ve told them what I already have at home mounted, and what my desires are so we have only been looking for the best of the best. This first bull is a stud. Way down in a canyon and across a hillside from us, so we just have to start dropping down to get closer and try to reduce distance and level the shot if we can. They are moving in and out of the heavy brush feeding, and soon we have identified a fourth bull. When it rains, it pours, it seems! Going to have to be really careful not to shoot the wrong bull by accident.

Our side is starting to get really steep and brushy, and is rapidly reducing the visibility for a shot. I get locked into a dead tree for support and a standing rest, and know this is as good as it is going to get. The laser rangefinder shows 290 yards and still pretty steep at 30-40 degrees, but the 7 Mag and 160 TSX is very good for the job. Anyone who has hunted kudu knows how long they can stand still and just look and listen; imagine how I felt after 15 minutes of this. At least the delay allowed me to double check the range several times and get my breathing under control.

As they slowly file thru the only opening I have, I keep hearing “No, not that one, he is the last”. As he steps into the gap, Dries gives a loud shrill whistle and he stops with an 18”x18” clear view of his shoulder. As he looks up the canyon towards us, my once rock steady cross hairs start to dance all over the target. I realize that not only is adrenaline starting to kick in, but I have been holding my breath the entire time. Two huge quick breaths, lock in again, and all is fine now. You’ve practiced for this all summer. Low on the shoulder to compensate for the angle, cross hairs steady and clear on the target, a featherlike caress on the 3# trigger and let it surprise you. At the report and recoil, I get another round chambered as fast as I have ever done it. Three sets of cheers come from the others and I see the big bull falling and crashing for almost 70 yards down the steep hillside. High fives never felt so good!

They all said at the report they heard the bullet impact, he jumped and the back legs came clear up to his shoulders on the jump as a classic heart-shot tends to do, and he was dead before he came to rest. Solle took off running down that rock-strewn hill and was there in mere moments. He raised the massive horns and started yelling! Sounded like he kept saying “we killed a monster”, but it may have been just my imagination. We covered in 15 minutes what he had done in 5, but got there with no broken ankles. When we got there we found the TSX had angled down, breaking the shoulder, wrecked the heart, and exited the other side. He was truly a massive old bull, and really in his prime. In the pics I am braced to keep both of us from sliding down the hill.

Joel Kudu pics




After all the backslapping, we looked around and realized where we were. “Houston, we have a problem”! Dries was able to get cell phone coverage and made a call to the butchery for Phillip and Richard. The tracker Solle then ran back up the hill, took the Cruiser and went for more help because this big bull was going to be caped and skinned in place, then quartered and packed up in little pieces. In this part of RSA, because of the big rocks and terrain, canyon recoveries are always difficult. When they got it back to the shop, we had 404# of skinned hanging kudu. Even bigger and heavier than Albert’s! He measured right at 56” with big barrels, and carried his mass all the way to his tips. Thirteen inch bases!!!! What a stud bull.

Because of the early kill, we had an opportunity to go about 30 miles away past Groblersdal and look at crop damage done by a small herd of hippos coming up into a wheat field at night. Got to meet the representatives of the Ministry of Environment and tour the property with the owner’s son and a plant manager for the orange packing warehouse. Had a tour of the orange packing operation and was simply amazed at the complex technology required in farming and distribution anymore. Stopped at a lovely lodge and restaurant for lunch on the return.

After an early dinner, Charl and Albert took off to sit the bushpig bait, and I’ll get caught up on reading, writing, and organizing gear. They rolled back in a couple hours later around 7:30 PM and a bushpig hitched a ride home. Not the big trophy boar but one of the smaller ones. As Charl pointed out, they are tough to hunt and any bushpig is a challenge to take. When they came in Albert only saw 3, but Charl said later there were 5, and the big one was at the back. Albert thought they all looked the same so he took the best shot offered and dropped one.

The plan for tomorrow is to get a little later start when things have warmed up, and continue looking for a trophy warthog for Albert in the tall yellow grasses around the low veldt agricultural fields again. Will try a different farm today to see if it makes a difference.

Day Nine - Met a wonderful old gentleman at his farm, and he provided us with a Land Cruiser and a helper to show us around and look for pigs. Saw a lot of game and many sows and young, but no trophies again. This is really getting tough to put up with. Warthogs should not be this hard! Back to the main lodge at Thaba Nkwe for lunch, and this afternoon we will sit on a waterhole for them again.

Nice relaxing afternoon together in a blind and saw no warthogs, but plenty of photo opportunities on wildlife and birds. Love looking at all the colors and patterns on songbirds, and laughing at the antics of guineas and francolin. For an old Texas quail hunter like Albert, it was just driving him crazy seeing all the game birds and not shooting any. J

Bird pics




Francolin pics


Guinea pic


On the way back in that evening at dark, we found a nice big boar with 5-6” sticking out of his lip. In the excitement of finally seeing a good boar, we failed to get a round chambered and it was the loudest click you’ve ever heard! We named that pig “LUCKY”, and he ran off to live another day. As we made our way back to the truck and lodge, a light drizzle was starting. What is this? It never rains in June/July/August. Have to wait and see what that does to our pig hunting.

Day Ten - It blew off and on throughout the night and even rained a little bit. Not enough to keep us in after coffee, so we’ll give it another try this morning, and off we went. About two hours later it looked dark gray and really threatening and we soon realized we couldn’t see the Valley anymore for the storm. Headed back to the lodge and got inside just as it started to pour and lightning knocked out the power. After about 4 hours we had power back, the skies began clearing and we decided we could give it one last try that evening. At 2:30 PM we started out again.


We tried everything we could think of - cruising the roads, glassing the senderos and power line cuts, driving around blocks of thick thorn and then waiting to see if it moved anything, and finally just praying and watching the sunset in the distance over the mountains. As if hearing our pleas, a suicidal boar warthog came out of the brush and offered up a perfect broadside shot. Last hour of the last day, and a perfect sunset to take pictures to cap it off. You can see from the picture that he was an escapee from a snare, but it was still tied tight around his mouth and jaws. We saved him from a terrible fate, and were glad to do it.

Albert warthog pics






Pack up things tonight and get ready to leave for home tomorrow. Funny how these trips take forever to get here, and then are done and gone, long before you are ready for them to end. As Albert was so fond of saying :

“Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future. Today is a gift, and that is why they call it the present”.

Take the time to enjoy your present, each and every day, and just maybe you will get to return to Africa for another go at your dream!

Well done! Charl has moved up into the Big Leagues!

Great report and pics. Your trophies are outstanding...especially a monster Klippie. Really enjoyed your report.

Great report, super animals, well done to you and Charl. I remember my hunt with him from 2010 and spending the first two nights at the same lodge while we hunted nyala and then we moved on to differnet properties Charl has access too.

Willi

Awesome!

Great report Joel. Glad to meet you guys and a big congrats on some fantastic animals!

Great report and great animals well done

Great report! Very nice kudu. Congrats.

Outstanding Hunt,and Great report of the adventure!

Congratulations

Great report and fabulous photos!!! Congratulations. Hunting with Charl is always fun!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Nice report and photos. Looks like a great time!

Enjoyed the report and photos. Thank you for posting.

Great hunting report. Fantastic trophies. Sounds like one heck of a time.

Waidmannsheil!!!

Great report, good looking trophies, and one heck of a smile.

It really looks like you had a great time. Are you planning a return trip yet?

Don

Well done report. Love the pics, especially the birds- shades of Saeed's excellent photographic work.

Blank...well done! Enjoyed your report as always and your great pics!

Albert's gonna want to go back every year now

Way to go Charl and Erika

Roland

Very nice. Well done. I should have been there with you in David's behalf.

Sounds like he is doing very well in Moz with Tim.

Great pics.

Hopefully we can see each other and chat soon.

Justin

Looks like "Big Papa" had an enjoyable hunt with "Big Sexy"! Congrats and well done!

Very well done! Great report

Great report with some nice pics. Sounds like a great trip. That kudu is just beautiful! Nice Klippe too. Bruce

Thanks for the positive comments guys, glad you enjoyed it. It really was a fun trip, with no pressure to have to find and kill everything under the sun. We took our time, looked at a lot of good trophies and were pretty selective. I know that Tim Herald must have had his hands full with all the family looking to hunt as well.

Here's a couple more pics you might enjoy.

Garden area water fountain - They pipe this in from a mountain spring 5 Km away in the hills, and it comes up here in the fountain, overflows and fills a small creek and koi pond, then runs all the way down to keep the lake charged. Clear and cold all the time.


At one of the lodges, we looked at this amazing copper artwork. It was a raised relief of a pride of lions, in a copper sheet!


Where else but Africa would you find giraffe leg bones packaged and ready for sale??


The Thaba Nkwe (Mountain of the Leopard) Lodge caters to weddings and receptions all Spring and Summer, and had some amazing features and accommodations. This chapel was just lovely, both inside and out.


My free-lance PH, Dries, with my kudu. My apologies for leaving him out of the original post.


And finally, the trophy wall picture. No report is complete without seeing all of them together.

Tell your friend it is okay to smile in pictures.

Great photos. How I miss Africa.

Great report and terrific pictures

Well done guys!!!

Yep, it does sound like a mirror image of my trip - great animals, friends and countryside.

Hey Joel: That tree just to the left of the chapel was the one that put a nasty thorn in my skull during my June Bucket List Hunt. Charl had to surgically remove the stubborn old boy! A lovely place to stay at, and close to Charl's own property!

Proper hunt that and some really good trophies taken there.

Blanc:

Congrat's on another great safari. BTW, this is "woodruffhunter". I used to post on that other site.

You are the one would who really got me excited to go to Africa a few years back! I really enjoy your stories and will be going back in June!

I had to mention the "Dry Lemon" part of your story to my wife. We became addicted to that drink when we were there. I wish they sold it in the states. Oh well, just another thing to look forward to when we return!

Thank you all for the kind words and compliments. I must just also say that Joel and Al were some of the most laid back, yet focused hunters we have had. We enjoyed hunting with them, and enjoyed their company, to no ends. I love all the stories around the camp fire about peoples lives, especially if they are "ring heads" and have a life of experiences behind them!

And we killed some nice stuff!!!!!! LOL!

Outstanding, Blank, just outstanding!


.

If I were to spend 10 days with Charl, I'd certainly need more than that one bottle of Gordon's :-)

I did try to behave myself, but you're right, we needed a re-supply mid way through the hunt! There was the token Red Heart rum, Amarula, Tafel, etc. to be sampled as necessary.