March 2013,10 days
Rifa area
Pro-safaris Africa,Bulawayo
PH'S: Frik Muller Jr. and Frik Muller Sr.
416 Rem in a Blazer professional,
450 Nitro in a Westley Richards
Fro tuskless elephant and hippo.

Our hunt began on the 20 th of March after our arrival in Rifa on the 19th.
The grass was high and the leaves thick on the trees. The Zambezi was high as the dam had been opened to drop the level of Lake Kariba.
The first day we got a good amount of rain in a short period of time. The streams were raging and the clay very slippery. We did a lot of winching that day.,however, things dry up fast there and we were on the hunt again in the after noon.
For the next week we never fired a shot due mainly to the wind always swirling and giving us away. We did however see wonderful sights including wild dogs, a pride of lions, an impala put in a tree by a leopard and mostly eaten already.On the river we saw plenty of crocs and hippo's however with the river so high we only had cut banks on our side of the river making the approach to in range for a hippo difficult. On the 8th day we shot a hippo in the afternoon and on the 9th day we finally, after 61/2 hours of walking came onto the herd of elephants with the tuskless cow we had seen the day before.Frik jr. set up the shooting sticks and with hjis 416 I shot the tuskless cow. I shot a bit low and missed the brain,Frik stuck her in the ribs with the 450 and THEN the whole herd of about 12 to 15 elephants came in full charge, ears out, trunks up and on the dead run straight at us! The matriarch in the leed, we shouted and waved our arms to turn them but to no avail. Frik lifted his rifle on the first cow and I did the same, she dropped her head with her ears back and as soon as Frik fired I did too.. She piled up 4 short steps in front of us. In the mean time Frik Sr. stopped the injured tuskless as she was headed to join the others from off to our right.
Not even Alziehmers can rob me of that 20 or 30 second even!!
The whole trip was wonderful, that Frik Sr. came out of retirement to go with us. We first went with him in 1988 for plains game. At that time, Frik Jr.'s first client. To be reunited with old friends like this cannot be beat.
The camp, the meals, all the equipment is in fine order.The camp staff are great and the trackers beyond belief.
On the day we killed the elephant, we were on the track for 61/2 hours, the elephants were milling about feeding and we were always close to them. The trackers had to sort out where the tracks moved of each time the animals fed and milled around.
The bush was thick and overturned leaves, broken grass, all indicators to them where the elephants left from. It is an experience in itself just watch these fellows.We were never more than 4.6 k's from the truck in all that time!We saw where a baby had been born in the night or that morning, drops of blood and the bay's first dung.
We were in elephant in one way or another for 8 of the 10 days, always exciting.
One day a lion roared at us, a cub was in the trail 20 yard ahead, we backed out and as we were going away she growled again to tell us to keep going, we did!
I found the hippo kind of anti-climactic, at the shot it just sunk,only to surface and hour later after it gassed up. Not very dramatic at all, but I glad I shot one.
I've been to Zim 8 times now,each time with the Mullers. This trip was the most wonderful of all the trips just because of the game hunted(elephant) and the adventure that came with it. All were of high standard and quality unsurpassed.
They are a first class operation in a great area, and I'll always treasure my date with the Zambezi Ladies.(so called since the 50's for their know aggression).

Congrat's on an exciting trip!!

Any photo's?

Very nice, I'd love to see some pictures.

I'll try and get Brenda to post some pictures, I'm a dead loss at this stuff.

Great account of what turned out to be an exciting hunt. The Mullers sound like a great outfit.