Bangwuelu Swamp with Andrew Baldry

Dates. 30 August to 9 September 2024
Outfitter. Munyamadzi Safaris
PH. Andrew Baldry
Rifle. Mr Baldry's Jarret 416 Rem Mag. Ammunition. Hornady
Flights. Malaysian Airways, Auckland to Heathrow, (Cancelled at last minute!) Replaced by flight with Qatar Air.London to Lusaka, via Kigali and Harare. Return. Rwanda Airways.
Heathrow to Auckland. Malaysian Airways.
Game hunted and collected. Buffalo, Sitatunga, Black Lechwe and Tssebbe.
Other game seen. Common Reedbuck, Oribi, Spotted Hyaena.

I flew to England in early August to get over the jetlag, see friends, and call up roe bucks during the rut. I don't ever need to kill any more Roe bucks but it is still one of my greatest thrills to call them up within a few feet during the rut. It says something about the sheer number of deer in England now that on only 2 days out of 26 spent in Gloucestershire did I not see a deer, either Roe or Muntjac. Mostly when I was not even looking for them. I did sit up with my old hunting mate for a few evenings with his rifle but saw only young bucks or fine trophies in their prime that could do with another season or two of breeding. My friend got two Red foxes which pleased him more than any deer.

On 29 August I flew from Heathrow to Kigali in Rwanda and then on to Lusaka, stopping at Harare on the way. The first flight was in a modern Airbus with excellent Business Class seats and service. The second flight was in an older Bombardier with very ordinary seats and no entertainment screens but the more intimate atmosphere of the cabin made for most interesting conversations with my fellow passengers. At the new Lusaka terminal on 30 August I was met by Andrew's charming wife Julie and taken back to their home which they built themselves in the bush. That evening I met the Texan hunter who took the lovely bull elephant with Andrew which has already featured on this forum. He certainly knew how to relate a hunting story! Andrew does not consider himself to be an elephant PH, he hasn't done enough of it. He is a cat man but even on elephant he still manages to get remarkable results.

The next morning we were up at 4.30am ready for the very long drive to the Bangwuelu Wetlands. We left at 5.15am and arrived at 5.30pm just before dark having stopped twice just for gas. Andrew's foot was flat to the floor all the way. I like driving through Africa and enjoy seeing new country but this drive is not particularly scenic or interesting with low bush or poor villages all the way. Most people hunting Bangwuelu fly in and if I was doing it again I would definitely do that. Apart from a couple of monkeys we saw no game.
The Bangwuelu Park is managed by Africa Parks who do a great job all across Africa but this place presents unique challenges. There are over 20,000 people living inside the park, traditional fishermen and hunters, so even if only 10% are still hunting (poaching!) you still have a huge problem. They try and mitigate this by allowing trophy hunting to provide jobs, meat and money but the reality is that the flood plains used to carry far more game than they do now and while game numbers are stable their effective range is still contracting. Africa Parks have some innovative programmes to try and engage the local population in conservation but it will all take time and a lot of money.

Africa Parks sell a package of one Sitatunga, one Black Lechwe and one Tssebbe but you can also add on licenses for Buffalo, Reed buck and Hyaena. I initially only booked the basic package but about a week before I left Andrew persuaded me to add on a buffalo. In between sitting for Sitatunga, morning and evening, at the first camp we would have nothing to do all day. I was reluctant at first because Greg had just been killed not far away but buffalo are an addictive drug and I succumbed.
We eventually arrived at Kayeshi camp which has just been set up and built by a remarkable lady, the wife of a well known Zambian PH, and it far exceeded my expectations. It is a hunting camp not a South African lodge but it has everything you need for a very comfortable stay and the hostess was charming and well informed.

It was too late to go and sight in the rifles so we went out at dawn the next morning to try out Andrew's 7x57 Brno, built in the Mannlicher style with double set triggers. It is a beautiful gun but I couldn't really get on with it and much preferred his .416 Rem Mag, Jarret rifle with a very light conventional trigger. We then went to look at the machan we would be using for Sitatunga. It was built in a tree on the edge of Papyrus swamp which stretched to the far horizon. A sea of reeds. The edges had been burned in places giving limited views of more or less clear swamp. The swamp is edged with a thin strip of riverine trees and scrub but beyond this the flood plains stretched virtually unbroken to the other horizon. The plains are divided into "fields" of about 40 acres by low banks about 2 feet high. These are maintained by the fishermen and as the floods recede and the fish are trapped in the "fields" they cut holes in the banks so the water flows out and the men place baskets in the holes to catch the fish. These banks can slow your drive across the plains as they sometimes have to be reduced in height to get across.

We drove across the plains to look for buffalo but we couldn't hunt them because my license had not been issued yet. There were a lot of Common Reedbuck on the plains but I didn't see any huge specimens. The head tracker, Mutale, pointed out a line of tiny black dots, miles away. Buffalo! But, in my opinion, completely unhuntable where they were, on an open plain with grass 4 inches high.
The Game Scout, Geshan, a small man with a huge work ethic, told us that the previous week they had been collaring the cows in this herd. No wonder that they looked nervous while we were still over a mile away.

In the evening we sat up in a machan for Sitatunga. The wind was strong and very cold and all we saw was one young male.
The next morning I got up at 3.20am. I had a streaming cold caught on then plane and had hardly slept. I put on all the layers of clothes I had with me and sat in a camp chair with a blanket over me and have rarely been so cold. The wind was bitter and as it slowly got light I could see that Andrew was shivering so much he couldn't hold his binos steady. You wouldn't have believed we were not far from the Congo border! The Sitatunga wern't impressed with the weather either and we only saw a couple of females and a small bull.
I went back to bed and as my buffalo license wasn't approved until afternoon it was too late to go and look for them. In the evening we sat up again in the machan in the cold wind and saw absolutely nothing.

On 3 September we sat in a different machan and saw nothing once again but now, with only two days left for this part of the hunt, I had a buffalo license. After breakfast we set off across the plains to look for buffalo and soon found the herd very near where we had seen them before. On the open plain with absolutely no cover. We drove off to the West to get downwind of them (The wind was blowing consistently from the East) but while we were still over a mile away they spooked and headed for the horizon in a cloud of dust. We followed slowly after them and eventually they passed through a belt of dryer ground with termite mounds topped with bushes every 100 yards or so. When we reached this we left the truck and stalked from ant-hill to ant-hill until we reached the last bush. The herd was out on the open plain beyond about 500 yards away with two old dagga boys trailing far behind. The herd bull was a proper tank of a bull with impressive horns, just the sort to breed from, but the two trailing the herd were quite ordinary old boys so we went after those.

The tracker, Mutale, was a Sitatunga specialist and clearly had little experience with buffalo. He wanted me to shoot from there, 500 yards from the bulls. Andrew told him to cut some branches from the bush and we would proceed straight at them behind the tracker carrying our "bush". There was a low "fishing bank" about 200 yards out and we made it to there at a low crouch holding on to each other in a line. We lay down behind the bank and again the tracker wanted me to shoot. The cows in the herd were watching us with interest but the 2 bulls were lying down. Andrew argued with the tracker and persuaded him to crawl on. We got to within 200 yards and the tracker flatly refused to go any closer. I don't know whether he was afraid of the herd spooking or just afraid of the buffalo. Andrew put the sticks up and asked what I thought. I wasn't thrilled about the situation. I have never shot at a buffalo at anything much over 100yards but that was in the bush and this was clearly as close as we were ever going to get to these spooky buffalo. I am not a great shot. When I hunted for a living I could shoot with a certain amount of style but my hunting prime is covered in a thick layer of years. However, I still have to cull quite a few deer every year so I am confident shooting at game.
The two bulls were facing us head on and Andrew said the one on the left is the better of the two but there wasn't much in it. The one on the right then turned side on and I decided to have a crack at him. He bucked at the shot, ran 20 yards and turned to face us. I hit him again in the centre of the chest and he reared up in the air then lumbered off after the other bull. After 200 yards he stopped and went down. While we were waiting for him to get sick I asked Andrew to call up the truck. I was ready for a cold drink after that crawl in the hot sun. It took a long time for the truck to appear but when it got within 100 yards of us the bull got up and ran off another 200 yards before going down again. There was clearly still a lot of get-up-and-go in the bull. We got within about 150 yards of him and he got up and ran slowly away. Andrew told me not to shoot but I was steady on his nose as he quartered away to our left so I fired. The bull pitch-polled and crashed down in a cloud of dust. He raised his head again and this was the opportunity of a lifetime to be a hero and do a Mark Sullivan. I should have marched up to him and asked him how he wanted to die but unlike Mr Sullivan I am a rank coward so I whacked him again through the shoulder at 80 yards and he finally expired.

This was a hunt I would never repeat. It was a buffalo shoot not a buffalo hunt although the stalk and crawl was sporting enough and very memorable. Having said that, we collected a buffalo from a spooky herd I considered to be unhuntable and with only a few hours available to get one. It was a testament to Mr Baldry's ability to get his clients the trophies even in the most unlikely of circumstances. He was a solid bossed, deep-curled old bull, not ancient or particularly wide horned, a fairly standard buffalo but I was pleased to take any bull under those conditions. The men quartered the bull and we loaded him and returned to camp with the first buffalo of the year in time for lunch.

After lunch, at 3.30pm we set off for a different machan. The weather was now warm and the wind had dropped so we were more confident. As we approached the machan we spooked a Sitatunga bull out of the bushes at the edge of the swamp. Her had about 25 inch horns, which is good for this area where the Sitatunga are smaller than the Ugandan monsters, but he was gone into the papyrus.

We got into the machan and within 5 minutes a Sitatunga bull emerged from the papyrus and began grazing on open grassland only 110 yards away. I wanted to shoot him but Andrew said he was too small. He looked pretty good to me after all those hours and days seeing nothing! About half an hour later another bull appeared about 100 yards in front of us but very obscured by reeds. I saw long, white-tipped horns and got all set with the .416 but had difficulty finding him through the 6x scope. I saw his shoulder quartering away from us and fired but he dived into the tall papyrus. This was not good. We started to wade out across the swamp but Andrew stopped me saying I was too heavy. An accurate remark but unwelcome! The tracker and game scout continued, sinking thigh deep until they reached the spot where the bull had stood. They yelled and held up reeds with blood on them, then struggled on into the dense papyrus and disappeared from sight. After what seemed like ages there was a shout of triumph, as they found him only 10 yards in. With great difficulty they dragged him out and the driver, who had brought the truck up, went out to help. It was a lovely old bull, with ragged ears and worn, white-tipped 26 inch horns and I was most pleased. We returned to camp in triumph with much celebration. It is not every day you shoot a buffalo and a Sitatunga.

This part of the hunt now being complete we slept late the next morning, getting up at 6.30 and having breakfast before leaving for the long drive around to the Western side of the swamp. The camp truck left before us to take the buffalo meat to the area chief for distribution. As we reached the edge of the hunting area the road was blocked with trees dragged across but we could see the tracks of the other vehicle going straight through so it had clearly only just been done. About 25 yards further on we could see another road block. I didn't like it. It smacked of ambush. When I got out to pull the logs away I could see many more blockages for quite a distance. It was a lot of work in a short space of time and there were several different human tracks. Andrew fired a shot with the 7x57 to let them know we were armed. I walked in front of the truck clearing the way for a couple of hundred yards but we saw no one and no reason for it all. They couldn't have known we were coming so it was presumably a message for the camp truck. Perhaps they were not happy seeing all that meat from "their" buffalo going off to the distant chief? We drove 8 1/2 hours to the Africa Parks Bangwuelu headquarters, Nkondo Camp where we spent the night because the Shoebill Island Camp which we were to hunt from, was full of birders. While there was little wildlife to see at this camp, Africa Parks are making efforts, with some success, to re-introduce poached-out species. We had dinner with two Africa Parks scientists, one of whom had hunted with Andrew and had a most informative discussion on the park management. Some programmes were working really well, while others like the Cheetah re-introduction scheme were more challenging. Who would have imagined Cheetahs would be killed by Lechwe? Overall though, the Park is clearly much better managed now by Africa Parks than it was by the Government.

5 September 2024
The track to Shoebill Island Camp was very rough and difficult in places and it took nearly 3 hours to travel a relatively short distance. I was surprised to find that the truck from Kayeshi Camp had followed us with the same driver and the skinner Marco but with a new game scout called Boshit. We called him Bo! Because of the drought we were able to drive right up to the camp and the birders there said that the water had receded so far they were unable to get near the areas where the Shoebills nested. I had planned to go out on one of their canoe birding trips but they dissuaded me. The lagoon in front of the camp dining room was covered in a wide range of bird species including some migrating European waders but nothing I was unfamiliar with. After settling into camp for an hour or so we set off to collect a Black Lechwe. This is not a hunt. It is a shoot. The area around the camp is a research area and the huge herds of Lechwe are as tame as domestic sheep. As you drive through a herd they walk out of your way then stand and look at you from 20 yards. When you get out to the hunting areas they are less tame but you can still drive up with 150 yards before they start walking away. Out here the herds were nearly all male. Females are said to be more vulnerable to poaching or Hyaena predation. The herd were scattered across the plain about 1/2 mile apart with a few hundred animals in each group. Choosing your victim is the biggest challenge. I said I wanted a very black one with wide horns. They are said to get blacker with age but I fancy not all of them do. The very blackest ones all had short horns, perhaps because hunters select out the long horned black ones. The longest and widest horned males were no darker than Kafue Lechwe but much smaller. You have to compromise. We looked over the first herd, approaching until they walked off in single file and then moved onto the next mob of perhaps 500 males. There were several nice animals in this lot but we moved on to look at another herd. There didn't seem anything special in this lot and Andrew wanted to go on to the next herd but I said they all look pretty much the same to me. You can go on looking at thousands of Lechwe all day and end up going back to the first ones. We drove back to the herd with several nice males in it and drifted them away again. This time the largest males were all in the front and they began to run across to the first herd we saw and eventually the two herds merged. There was one male we agreed was a good compromise, not the blackest or the longest or the widest horned but a good balance.
I got off the truck and onto the sticks as the herd drifted past about 150 yards away. I had to wait until he was clear of all the others and the .416 poleaxed him. He went straight down and hardly twitched. A beautiful 26inch horned specimen. We loaded him up and went back to camp for lunch.

We went out again at 4pm to look for Tssebbe. The Banwuelu Tssebbe is a separate sub-species, larger than the Southern ones. We drove across the Lechwe plains until we reached a drier area with termite mounds and bushes. It still flooded in the rains and there were still the fishing banks impeding progress in places but at least you could hunt and stalk here. This was a hunt, not a shoot. I was riding in the front with the driver but when we were in the right area I asked the driver to stop and I got up on the back. As soon as I sat down I could see a Tssebbe looking at us through a gap in the bushes about 300 yards away. We tried to get the driver to back up but he was hard to communicate with and he went forward instead and spooked the herd. They are said to be the fastest antelope in Africa and I wasn't about to run after them. We drove for hours without seeing any more until on the way back as the light was fading, Marco the skinner, spotted a lone bull in the distance. We got down and started stalking from ant hill to ant hill until we caught up with him only 100 yards away at last light. I was on the sticks and steady on his shoulder when Andrew said "Don't shoot! Too small!" Well, like the first Sitatunga bull, he looked big enough to me but that's why I'm not a Zambian PH!
In the dark the behaviour of the Lechwe near camp was very different from daylight. They were terrified of the car lights and one herd charged straight at us. One small female ran straight into the front of the truck and went off on three legs. Hyaena bait, poor thing.

6 September 2024 We got up relatively late at 5.30 and saw the dawn over the lagoon with a stunning sunrise reflected in the water as thousands of Lechwe charged through the water making a tremendous noise. Then we went back to the Tssebbe area. The game scout soon spotted a lone bull so we followed him and surprised him on the water hole only 50 yards away but it was the same one as last night. We drove on and found another lone male, a much older one, and started stalking him. We got quite close and could see his backend behind a bush as he was looking at something. It was a Hyaena den only 60 yards from us with a number of adults and one tiny black cub. They retreated into the holes leaving one outside on guard. The Tssebbe was still standing there perhaps 150 yards away but when Andrew moved out try and see his head he spooked. We carried on after him for some distance but then he really ran off so we returned to the truck.
We soon found more Tssebbe, four bulls together and we followed them a long way before they spooked and joined a really big herd. The game scout said that this was the main breeding herd with 500 animals and we set off after them. This was really difficult. The wind was blowing on our backs and there were so many animals that some part of the herd could always see us. We approached them again and again, sometimes getting within range but then choosing a male with both sexes identical apart from thicker horns on the bulls was a challenge. Andrew was determined to go on, always just one more anthill but at midday with a sore foot I went on strike. The game scout went back to fetch the truck and we drove around in a huge circle to get down wind of the herd and intercept them. When we saw the first ones coming we stopped and waited to watch them drift past us. It was still difficult to pick out the bulls but eventually Andrew pointed to the closest animal to us, a strange coloured, almost silver bull. He was still a long way off and I should have allowed more for the bullet drop from the .416 but he was hit low in the heart and he staggered off for 80 yards before going down. Not the longest-horned Tssebbe but very thick and I assumed his strange grey colour was due to age.
That completed the hunt as I only had licenses for the four species so we had a relaxing afternoon looking at the birds. It was a pity we couldn't go out to see the Shoebills but it had been a great hunt and you can't have everything in this life.

We got up at 5am the next morning and loaded up before setting off on the very long journey back to Lusaka. Andrew headed for home like a Racing Pigeon and we arrived before dark. It was 48 hours before my flight to the UK and I had the opportunity to meet other PHs and people involved in the hunting industry and some, like the taxidermist, were very informative about the challenges facing hunting in Zambia.

In conclusion this was a first class short-duration hunt which I would recommend to anyone interested in these unusual species, with the only caveat that it would be better to fly than drive. Andrew Baldry is still one of the most effective PHs in Africa, not just in Zambia and I cannot recommend him more highly.

Great hunt report! Congratulations!

Great report thankyou.
Are you willing to elaborate on those challenges to hunting in Zambia ?
Cheers

Great report! Any pix? I hunted Bangweulu twice. It is a very special areas and unique in Arica. Interesting that when I was there in 98 and 2000 there where very few buffalo but there were 1,000's of tsessbe. We ran into a herd as we were leaving camp and it took a full 15 minutes for them to clear out of the way. We saw no people where we actually hunted.

Mark

Congratulations on an interesting and successful hunt. Nice report!

Thank you Andrew for posting those lovely photos

quote:

Originally posted by the Pom:
Thank you Andrew for posting those lovely photos

You are welcome mate and good to hunt with you again

Andrew,

Nice pix! Brings back some great memories.

Mark

Sounds like a great time and hunt.

Thank you for sharing.

Andrew, thank you for the photos.

Very cool hunt in a very unique setting! I love reading about hunts like these! Well done

great outcome, trophies and pictures but what else can be expected when you re hunting with Andrew.

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
great outcome, trophies and pictures but what else can be expected when you re hunting with Andrew.

The weather was foul and we had a freezing front move in something I have never experienced before

Congratulations to the hunter and to Andrew. Some very fine looking trophies in those photos! I LOVE the Bangweulu Swamp.

Great report and photos!

Many thanks for posting.

Thanks for the well-written report and congratulations! I had to do a Google reverse image search to figure out that the skull you're holding is a shoebill skull. Interesting.

quote:

Originally posted by Hannay:
Thanks for the well-written report and congratulations! I had to do a Google reverse image search to figure out that the skull you're holding is a shoebill skull. Interesting.

Very neat birds

Pom - Great report, thank you. Brings back memories for me. Hunted Bangweulu with Andrew, way back in '04. I still remember walking to machans in the pre-dawn darkness, following little pieces of white toilet paper to find the way in the dark.

Walking across those highly unstable, floating matts of grass and occasionally poking a leg all the way through.

Great trophies all. Thanks again.

Pom,

Great report. Congrats on a great hunt.

Andrew, tell me more about this. I've always wanted a sitatunga and both red and black lechwe.

congrats on an amazing hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Pom,

Great report. Congrats on a great hunt.

Andrew, tell me more about this. I've always wanted a sitatunga and both red and black lechwe.

Here in Bangweulu you will hunt Black Lechwe and Sitatunga in two different zones of the swamps, with the possibility of adding other species such as Buffalo. The Kafue Lechwe is hunted on the flats a few hours outside Lusaka and calls for a spike camp.

Well done and thanks for posting!

Congratulations to you and Andrew.
Great trophies.
That 416 Jarrett is a very accurate rifle.

Andrew,

Thanks for the info and sounds interesting. Spike camps are no problem. Now what if you added a cat?

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Andrew,

Thanks for the info and sounds interesting. Spike camps are no problem. Now what if you added a cat?

No cats in Bangwelu.

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Andrew,

Thanks for the info and sounds interesting. Spike camps are no problem. Now what if you added a cat?

No cats in Bangwelu.

I think lavaca was enquiring elsewhere

Lavaca,

You'd need to move to the Luangwa for probably the easiest leopard in Africa and the lions are brutes but expensive.

Mark

Mark,

Hunting both cats again next year, but have been wanting to try them in Zambia. They can't be more than in Tanzania.

Great report. Bucket list for me... just need a black lechwe to finish out most of the lechwe available in Africa. Don't think Gray Lechwe are on license anywhere...

Unfortunately some areas in Zambia will soon match the Tanzania prices.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Mark,

Hunting both cats again next year, but have been wanting to try them in Zambia. They can't be more than in Tanzania.

Mr. Pom,

Happy to see you had such a fantastic safari with Andrew. Some excellent trophies you got.