Air Travel; Qantas flight QF63 & 64 with add $90 each way for add bag allowance (Economy=23kgs per bag).

Safari companies; Kambako Safaris & Nyati Safaris.

Pro Hunters; Ryan Cliffe, Matt Hully- Miller, Paul Wellock and Toni Wicker.

Rifles; Customized Husqvarna M98 in 9.3x62 with Schmidt&Bender 4x Scope and a Custom M98 in 458Mag.

Ammunition; Hand loads with Woodleigh 286grn FMJs and 286grn Swift A Frame soft’s for the 9.3 and 480grn Woodleigh Soft’s and Solids for the 458.

I arrived at Johannesburg on the 26th of July with one day spare prior to leaving for Mozambique. So with the spare time I assisted Jumbo of Kambako Safaris in preparing a load of supplies due to be trucked up to his hunting area in the north of Mozambique.
That evening was spent at Afton Lodge for dinner and then some drinks at a local waterhole.
The next morning with a sore head I was introduced to the other hunters of Tim Heralds hunting party then off for the flights to Pemba and Kambako Safaris main Camp at the Niassa Reserve.
For the next twelve days I spent time filming one of the hunter’s experiences and travelling to the Pemba beach Lodge with Jumbo.
During this time I was involved in assisting the guys in evacuating my good mate Stu Taylor after the terrible accident he was involved in.
Apart from this terrible event I have to say during these 12 days the camp was full of fantastic people and it was a real joy to be there with them.
The next stage of the safari was for me to hunt with Zim PH Paul Wellock for a buffalo, Eland and other Common Plains Game.
Day one started with us driving up to two Lion that had just killed a Zebra then onto following up the spoor of three buffalo that had earlier drank at a water point. We followed the Spoor until midday where we stopped at a hunting road and had the Toyota brought up for our lunch break. Just before 3pm we started up again on the tracks of the Buffalo from earier. These tracks brought us to where the buffalo has slept and then fed that afternoon. They then mended through a mixture of open glades, Jesse and Bamboo thickets. Just as the daylight began to fade we all heard the sound of the buffalo moving in one of the Bamboo thickets. As we moved to the right we spotted one bull which was estimated at around 38” with big hard Bosses and old. Being the first of my own hunting days I elected to hold off on this lovely bull. We decided to bum shimmy closer to get a look at the others. This certainly wasn’t the quietest of stalks but it worked. The first Buff moved on and we then saw one of his mates lying down. He was of similar size age and shape so we kept moving on in. As this bull stood up to our noise the third bull came out of the Bamboo for a look. This one grabbed my attention as I could easily see his horns were over 40” inches and an old bull. At fifty plus meters I placed the bead on his shoulder and at the shot he buckled and ran back into the Bamboo offering no follow up shot. I found some blood about thirty meters on but was a little concerned with the small amount of it along with the fast fading light yet the Trackers all sounded very pleased with the shot and spoor. Fifty meters on with a sigh of relief I spotted him dead in amongst the Jesse bush facing our direction.
Morning photos on recovery;


PH Paul Wellock with one of his happy Trackers;


The next eight days that followed were spent hunting Eland, Hyena, any exceptional Warthog, bushbuck and bushpig. We also kept an eye out for any monster Duggaboy’s.
Day five was spent tracking a particularly Sage old eland Bull that kept climbing Ant nests to see who was following. It was early afternoon when I spotted him doing just this but unfortunately no shot was offered.
That night was spent at a Light camp and the next day we followed another set of Eland Tracks in an area close to the day before. Around 11am we spotted a grey patch in front which turned out to be a nice Eland looking in our direction at close to 200m. After checking him out with the Binoculars I decided to take him so with a rest against a tree I took a shot with the Eland bucking from the hard hit of a 9.3mm Swift A Frame soft bullet, followed by Woodleigh Solid.



The rest of the day was spent recovering the Eland due to the distance from the Toyota and any road.


All the other game I was after “played hard to get” which wasn’t a problem as I’m over big kill numbers and am quite happy with the whole aspect of the Safari .
In short time I was saying my farewells to my friends at Kambako Safari and was flown by Cessna back down to Pemba to spend a day at Kambako’s beach lodge. The next day I flew on down to the city of Beira and was picked up by “AR” member “Freischuetz” for the long drive up to the Zambezi delta flood plains where I was to be spending the next few days checking the place out and hunting buffalo.
Both the main camp and a light camp were pleasant places to stay during the hunt and along with two other Clients (great guys) we had the area to our selves.
The light camp that we stayed at for a couple nights;

During my time there we casually hunted the area looking over buffalo and plains game.
One morning I was invited for flight over the extensive flood pains, swamps, rivers and palm tree thickets. This was fantastic! To fly 50m above dozens of Elephant, hundreds of buffalo, crocs, hippos, warthog and antelope is an awesome experience.
One day we were informed of a buffalo that was raiding a local village’s crops so we went out to investigate. The Bull was doing a fine job in pruning the maize plants much to the anger of the local people. We tracked it across a river into some thick jungle then on through and across the river again after being disturbed, then over our tracks and fast over open ground past the fields. As we followed his tracks we found some blood which was a concern. Likely a wound compliments of the villagers, some who lost family killed by a buffalo only a short time before.
We again bumped him in some thorn bush so we decided to stop for lunch and a short kip thus giving the buff some time to settle down.
After a rest and a good lunch of local Pawpaw, Bananas, Coconut and a Coca-Cola we started on his tracks expecting him to be bedded by now. We tracked him through a river and some open ground to a forest with a thicket within. Fully expecting him to be within that thickest patch we preceded with care. We found he had indeed bedded there then moved on and across open ground to a small swamp with head high razor grass. We sent one of the trackers around to see if he had passed on through or was still within. The tracker signaled that he was still within the long grass so we moved on in. In the center was a small clearing with some water where he had drank. As we slowly moved on the tracker franticly motioned to the wall of grass. On peering in I could make out his horns and some dark outline at no more than six meters. With this he exploded up to escape only to be hit by a 480grn soft bullet in the front of the shoulder then as he was almost out of sight a Solid just above and left of the tail.
As we made our way into the open I found good quantities of blood but no Buff, then with the directions provided by the other tracker we found him in a slight depression off to the left of the swamp. With a couple more finishing shots we completed another great hunt and the local people had meet and one less problem.
This buffalo had a swollen leg likely from a gin Trap and a puncture at the base of it tail , likely from a spear.

I enjoyed my time in Courtarda 14 and must find time to get back over and see more of that area and its buffalo.
With some spare time in Johannesburg I went out to visit Stu who was recovering from some operations after the accident three weeks earlier and then made the uneventful flight home.


More photo's bellow.

I really like that ol Dugga boy. Proper hunt too. I am headed to hunt with Zambeze delta on the 18th, cant wait.

Well done Adam!
Keep it coming.
Brgds,
Andreas

quote:

Originally posted by bwanajay:
I really like that ol Dugga boy. Proper hunt too. I am headed to hunt with Zambeze delta on the 18th, cant wait.

Which area will you be hunting?

Oz,

Love that mature eland and that ancient buff, way to go.

Mike

Now that is a Buffalo! Awesome old boy in the razor grass!!

Well done Adam... love that cagey old eland bull watching for you on his tracks. I love hunting eland almost as much as buffalo. A true tracking game.

As to bwanajay's location in Moz, he and I are leaving the 19th of this month to hunt with Mark Haldane in Coutada 11. Should be a fun hunt in the Marromea Swamp for buff and plainsgame.

Good stuff Adam. Glad you got that eland. I know you wanted to do that about as much as buff. Thanks for all your help while over there as well. I sincerely hope we get to share a camp together again - under better circumstances...

First buffalo is a beauty. Second Buffalo is a beauty.

2 nice old buff and a worn down eland. Dosent get much better than that.
Congradulations

Congratulations on 2 fine buff and that eland!

Very nice OLD animals.

Great hunt Adam!

Congrats and thank you for sharing!

Thanks for the report!

What a great series of hunts, must of been one hell of a trip! Eland sure looks like an old warrior.
Both Buffalo are as amazing as only Cape Buffs can be, but the 'feeling" of helping out the local's with getting rid of the crop raiding Buff plus the added bonus of protein for them makes it all worth while.
With the lions did you get a decent look at any of them?
Quick question on the add bag allowance with Qantas as going back over in May, did you book an extra bag above the 23 kg limit or how did it work?? Hate paying overweight baggage but the rifle case alwasys throws things over.

Scott

Scott, Yes with two rifles I am always over the 23kg limit so it is best to pre book the extra bag in advance as it beats the rate you get at the airport.
Seen plenty of Lion there and this year a good portion of the Buff heads in the Skinning shed were over 40".

jealous yet again mate congrats on another great trip! one of these days I'll get enough coin togeither to join you

Well done for sure!!! Congratulations.

Best regards, D. Nelson

Handsome buffalo those.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Handsome buffalo those.

Actually that last buff was darn ugly but he did provide an exciting hunt.

Congratulations and thanks for the report!

quote:

With this he exploded up to escape only to be hit by a 480grn soft bullet

What kind of soft was it?
At 6 yards in the long grass I would have opted for a solid

Reading your and others reports lately has really got me itching for a buff hunt! Time to start planning.......

Good stuff, it sounds like you had a great trip.

Oz, well done on the 2 lekker old buff. The eland is also very nice! Ryan Cliff and Mat scud Miller and I all did our proficiency exams together. They are good guys.

quote:

Originally posted by Thierry Labat:
Oz, well done on the 2 lekker old buff. The eland is also very nice! Ryan Cliff and Mat scud Miller and I all did our proficiency exams together. They are good guys.

Hi Thierry,
You might remember me from about ten years ago down Chewore. I was hunting with Tsetse Joe and Big Paul with PH's Myles McCallum and Peter Wood.

Oz, i indeed remember you. Glad to see you are still hunting quite a bit. Happy hunting!

Some more photos of the Delta area that I hunted;
Main Camp;


Typical Terrain;


Herd of Buffalo on the open Plains;


Close quarters Jungle;


Crossing swamp ground to get to some Buffalo country;


Add' Photo's Courtesy of Nyati Safaris.

I must have missed this report when I was hunting. Congratulations. I really must visit Moz sometime. Looks like a fascinating place.

ozhunter;

That last photo says it all about "the swamps"!!!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Has to be a couple hundred buff in that one photo...did you see other herds during your flight?

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:
Has to be a couple hundred buff in that one photo...did you see other herds during your flight?

Yes, and some groups of Ele.
There are plenty of buffalo but the place can support far more.
Would be magic if they re introduce Lion to the area.

Sounds like the buffalo are and will come back in numbers. The lion I am told never did that well in the swamps?

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:
Sounds like the buffalo are and will come back in numbers. The lion I am told never did that well in the swamps?

Yes, Buff numbers should build up like cattle on a Ranch providing they don't over shoot their quota and control poaching.
Supposedly the cats did not recover from the flood in the earlier part of the century.

Looks like a proper hunt and some very nice trophies. Congratulations. I'll have to hunt Moz again one day.

Adam,
Enjoying reading the Hunt reports and especially this one.
Beautiful old Buff and Eland.
I hunted Coutada 10 in 2010 so this brought back fond memories.
Cheers mate.
steve

I, like Mike, missed it while hunting as well. Great report and pics! Congratulations!

Nice hunt report Adam. A couple of really nice bulls. Congrats on that eland. I chased an old eland bull for a couple of days on my recent hunt as well. Every time we got a glimpse of him, he was doing the same thing; looking back over his trail as he stood on a ridge line with the wind coming over the hill in his favor. Smart those guys are!

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:
Sounds like the buffalo are and will come back in numbers. The lion I am told never did that well in the swamps?

Yes, Buff numbers should build up like cattle on a Ranch providing they don't over shoot their quota and control poaching.
Supposedly the cats did not recover from the flood in the earlier part of the century.

Adam, I can report that there are now 9 Lions in C10. Spoke to Paul Ferreira at a meeting two weeks ago. There is also reports of Lions on our side of the Zambesi (north bank). I'm flying up there in two weeks to have a look.

quote:

Originally posted by infinito:

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:
Sounds like the buffalo are and will come back in numbers. The lion I am told never did that well in the swamps?

Yes, Buff numbers should build up like cattle on a Ranch providing they don't over shoot their quota and control poaching.
Supposedly the cats did not recover from the flood in the earlier part of the century.

Adam, I can report that there are now 9 Lions in C10. Spoke to Paul Ferreira at a meeting two weeks ago. There is also reports of Lions on our side of the Zambesi (north bank). I'm flying up there in two weeks to have a look.

Thanks for the update Charl...How did Paul do in his first year in C10?