07 July 2018, 23:06
EnglandHunting the Save Conservancy with Guy Whittall
Hunting the Save Conservancy with Guy WhittallI’ve been reading about hunting Africa for 30 years but started to consider it seriously when I retired a few years ago. Taking sufficient time off from work to travel, hunt, and recover from jet lag just didn’t seem possible, much less prudent with children in college. But I found Cape buffalo fascinating and kudu bulls extraordinary and the dream was always in mind. With retirement I’ve had more time to shoot and ended up with a lightly used Kimber Caprivi in .375 H&H and with buffalo in mind, soon another in .458 Lott. I didn’t want to be one of those poor souls who die with those rifles unhunted in the safe.
The internet has made it easier to research such adventures and the Accurate Reloading forums have been a wonderful resource. Zimbabwe appeared to be a logical choice with buffalo and kudu as goals, and both my reading and web browsing consistently mentioned the Save Conservancy in the southern lowveld and Roger Whittall Safaris. My wife and I were both biology majors at university and I’ve spent more time pursuing natural history than hunting game. The Whittalls were obviously dedicated to wildlife conservation, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and I thought they would be a good match for my goals. Both Guy and Hannah Whittall were very responsive and singularly helpful in answering my queries and shaping my plans.
Travel With Guns was recommended on AR and indeed of assistance in planning the trip and preparing the required documentation. I flew into Seattle, claimed my rifle case and suitcase, and went to the Air Emirates counter. Air Emirates was very accommodating about flying with rifles but they do want advance notice for approval. They also want the ammunition in a locked container separate from the rifle case. A TSA lock on the ammo container is a good idea!
I flew economy on Emirates from Seattle to Dubai, arriving about 7 PM Dubai time. Even in steerage the service was good and the food was superb. The Bose QuietComfort 25 noise-cancelling headphones were a blessing and work with both the in-flight entertainment and my ancient iPod. A one-liter Nalgene bottle of water was also appreciated.
Emirates kindly provided a hotel room for the overnight stay. You’ll need to go through UAE immigration, exit the secured area, and you’ll find an Emirates Connect desk. The nice lady there will put you on a shuttle bus to the hotel, about a mile from the airport. The hotel was similar to a Hampton Inn and had a restaurant with complimentary buffet-style meals. Both on Emirates and the hotel, Indian food was always on the menu and quite tasty.
I caught the shuttle bus at 0630 the next morning after breakfast and headed back to the airport for my Dubai-Harare flight. The Emirates ladies are lovely and helpful, but do pay attention to the 7.5 kg limit on a carryon bag, although they may wink up to 10 kg. As I had my good digital SLR camera and binocular along with essentials in my wheeled carryon bag, this was a problem. But my jacket with cargo pockets soon held the optics and all was well. I’ll just use a rucksack next time and save weight, besides having a better idea of what to pack.
For the Dubai-Harare flight, I was able to change my window seat to one in the rear of the plane instead of over the huge wing on a 777. This gave me a wonderful view of the Arabian Desert, Gulf of Aden, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Great Rift Valley, and other spectacles. Recommended for this daytime flight. We were scheduled for a stopover at Lusaka, but a small plane had a bad day and closed the runway there, so I was on Emirates’ inaugural DXB-HRE nonstop.
My seatmate kindly let me borrow his phone and call Hannah Whittall about my unplanned early arrival. She graciously met me at the Harare airport and took me to a beautiful guesthouse that evening and a delicious supper. As I approach 60 years I find I notice jetlag more and I had scheduled a “recovery day” which I happily spent at the guesthouse and seeing some sights in the Borrowdale neighborhood of Harare with Hannah.
The next day, June 19, Hannah and her lovely mother drove me down to Mutare where we met Guy for lunch. Although I saw a few vervet monkeys and baboons on the drive from Harare down to the Save Conservancy, I was surprised by the paucity of wildlife including birds. I enjoyed visiting with Guy on the drive south but wasn’t prepared for the dramatic change when we turned off the A9 and entered the northern end of the Save Conservancy.
The Conservancy is about 750,000 unfenced acres that owes its existence to the vision and persistence of Roger Whittall and the ongoing efforts of Guy and the other Whittalls and associates. Within minutes I was seeing a dozen species of birds, photographing a lovely giraffe, and watching impala and zebra herds crossing the unpaved roads. It was like when Dorothy lands in Oz and leaves her farmhouse. Life changed from dull black and white to glorious Technicolor. I saw about 30 different species just of mammals at the Conservancy and Guy was well-versed in each of them.
My wife and I visited the Galapagos Islands a few years ago and I found the Save more impressive and wonderful. Even when hunting diligently for buffalo, we were seeing many different species and Guy was happy to stop for a chameleon, leopard tortoise, or to observe a herd of wildebeest. The Save (and the Whittall’s Humani ranch) has dedicated photo safari areas and I would certainly bring my non-hunting bride on any return visit.
RWS has several concessions in the Save and Guy started me at the southern end in the ARDA area. This has lush grass and great numbers of buffalo although we saw plenty of impala, kudu, elephants, and even a handsome male lion. The camp is on the river with comfortable tent cabins with ensuite shower and toilet, and an open-air dining and lounge area. The staff is kind, the cooks talented, and I enjoyed impala, kudu, nyala, wildebeest, buffalo, and other delicacies. Over dinner Guy and I discussed plans for my hunt and I outlined how I really wanted to experience Cape buffalo hunting with a kudu as my only other real priority. I also shared with Guy on the drive down that I would never mind stopping for an interesting natural history lesson.
On Day 1 we started by confirming zero on the .375 and .458 (and I suspect Guy wanted to ensure that I had a prayer of hitting something with .458 Lott). Guy and the trackers started my education of hunting both small groups of dagga boys and the larger herds (often about 150 buffalo this time of year).
On Day 2 we were pursuing a few dagga boys and one thoughtfully came over and offered a full-frontal shot at about 10 meters. Guy had me up on the shooting sticks and cautioned “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!” even though I thought he was a decent, mature bull. As Guy explained, “Once you shoot your buffalo, the fun is over. I hate to end it this soon.” Guy wanted an impala for camp meat (and likely wanted to gently introduce me to hunting game in Africa) and we stopped a couple times for impala that afternoon. I carefully touched off the .458 and dropped an old impala buck in his tracks with a perfect neck shot. Trouble is, that was after hitting the impala I was aiming at with a high shoulder shot. That one went about twenty yards but I ended up with a double on impala. Well, more camp meat!
Day 3 also provided a couple opportunities on buffalo. Again, Guy cautioned me to not shoot yet and this did help rehearse me on the stalk, final approach, setting up smoothly on the sticks, and planning shot placement. My primary goal was shooting quarry well with a quick demise, so this suited me well. Guy even took a few “adventure photos” of me sighted in on a bull, although this bull wasn’t as mature and hard-bossed as some we had seen.
We hunted hard on Day 4 and 5 and got into buffalo every day but without a shot on a good, mature bull. I am deeply impressed by the visual and auditory acuity of these creatures and especially their superb sense of smell (and Zim’s swirling morning breezes). On day 6 while looking for buff, Guy (who has uncanny vision) slowed the truck and exclaimed “Nice bull!” I bailed out and chambered a soft (Federal 500gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw) in the .458 at his direction and quickly realized he meant a kudu bull! We rapidly headed up the slope and Guy set up the sticks, where I was fortunate to take a lovely bull.
On Day 7 we packed up and hunted on our way to Turgwe Camp in the Humani concession. This is an older, more developed camp with beautiful accommodations and a postcard view of the Turgwe River. It is shallow and without crocodiles currently, so we were treated to large numbers of impala, kudu, and baboon coming to the water along with the occasional elephant or nyala. Wonderful staff and superb food.
Turgwe Camp is near Roger Whittall’s ranch on Humani and I was also privileged to meet Roger and Anne Whittall and learn more about the family, Humani, and their extraordinary experiences in forming and preserving the Save Conservancy.
Guy played cricket for the Zimbabwe national team and is obviously competitive. I was content to simply hunt for buffalo and enjoy the incredible beauty, wildlife observation, and natural history of the Save, even if I didn’t take a buffalo. This was the trip of a lifetime. But Guy had the bit in his teeth and the buffalo didn’t stand a chance. After hunting hard on Day 7 and 8 (and a splendid buffalo bull charge on our Toyota Land Cruiser on Day 8), we started early on Day 9 and drove back south to ARDA. There were several large herds in the area and Guy found where one had bedded down in the late morning. We had a lovely picnic lunch at a local kopje (which gave me a chance to explore and investigate its geology) and then we headed back to Guy’s herd about 2:30 that afternoon.
Guy, our two trackers, and I headed quickly back to where Guy had found the herd bedded down, then carefully tracked their current movement. As we approached, we first heard the herd then began to see occasionally obscured black shapes or movement. Guy took the sticks, left the trackers, and continued to pursue with me endeavoring not to screw up the stalk.
Guy closed the distance but found the herd well-concealed by the mopane scrub without an obvious approach for a shooting lane. Playing the wind like a virtuoso, he button-hooked downwind, predicted their movement, and set me up on a strategic anthill. With the late-afternoon sun, deep shade, and coal-black bulls, I was grateful for the Leupold Firedot reticle.
Diana smiled upon us, and although the herd was taking several paths of movement, numerous bulls started to graze through about 50 yards away. Guy identified one as particularly nice but had me hold as the bull was facing towards us. He finally turned and offered a left-side broadside presentation.
I came 1/3 up the body on the left foreleg, pressed gently on the trigger, and managed to not topple backwards off the anthill. The bull buckled, went about 20-30 yards, and gave the mournful bellow described in all the books. We carefully pursued, came around his back, and found a beautiful hard-bossed bull cleanly taken with the shot. The .458 had nicely expanded to 0.80” and perforated the upper heart. Guy and I were both delighted.
My unspoken question for days had been “How do you get a 1700# buffalo into a Land Cruiser?” This was finally answered. Normally Guy divides the bull into a front and rear half and winches each into the truck. But we were just a few miles from where RWS was improving a waterhole to prevent the elephants from tearing up the water pipe. The backhoe with front-end loader was dispatched to aid with the operation. And buffalo steaks are delicious.
It was a perfectly executed stalk by Guy Whittall, right from the pages of the books I’ve read for decades, and one I will remember for the rest of my life. And the skinner even recovered the bullet under the hide of the far right shoulder.
With a spectacular finish to Day 9 like that, I might have happily spent my last day in camp with one of Guy’s delicious gin and tonics and taken more photographs of the gorgeous birds and crowds of wildlife enjoying the beach. But I had not hunted the Caprivi .375 and Guy was needing to set up leopard baits for his next client. I had a wonderful day taking a couple impala and learning how they choose trees, hang baits, and identify leopards, besides reliving the previous day’s culmination of a 30-year dream.
All good things must come to an end, so I sadly bid farewell to Turgwe Camp the next morning for the ride back to Harare. Another comfortable evening (and hot bath) at the guesthouse, and then long flights back home, without that civilized overnight in Dubai.
It was a spectacular experience which exceeded my expectations in every way. I’m already planning to return with my wife and son in 2019. Guy was a superb teacher and PH, Hannah is most kind and gracious, and the Whittalls are the dedicated, effective conservationists that Africa desperately needs and never gets.
I knew each day would be filled with wonderful experiences and rich memories I would want to preserve. Although I had a notebook computer (and ARDA had wifi for email, as did the guesthouse in Harare), I knew I wouldn’t have the energy to type or write a journal. Lacking a smartphone, I picked up an inexpensive digital voice recorder and made one or two daily logs. You can port this into Google Document’s voice dictation and get a passable transcription.
Much like when I visited the Galapagos, I came home with 550 photographs. If you are truly bored, I have some of these available for viewing on a Google Drive.
http://www.tinyurl.com/y7w35x4x
