24 July 2017, 16:17
Andy Buchanan. Film AfricaBUCHANAN HUNTS- Leopard- Plainsgame
Booking Agent: Buchanan Hunts (Michelle and Andy Buchanan)Operator: MJK and Mbalabala Safaris
Clients: Conrad and Asa Miller (father and son)
Hunt Combination: Leopard Plainsgame 2 x 1
PH: Brian Ellement
Tracker: Big Mike (chafudzi)
Cameraman: Andy Buchanan (self)
I first hunted with Conrad in Asa in 2011 in the Makuti Hills of the Zambezi Escarpment as a cameraman with PH Kevin Lowe. At 14 years old, it was Asa’s 1st African Safari, a gift from his father and we successfully hunted a dagga boy and like so many of us Asa was hooked on Africa
Asa and i
Since then my sister Michelle and I have visited the Millers often in Louisiana and they have become like family to us. Last year Asa had saved enough for his own safari and he chose to hunt a leopard and his father Conrad was going to hunt plains game.
Buchanan Hunts laid out the options and Conrad decided on Sadinda as it was here that he, 20 years ago, had become hooked on Africa on his first safari with the late Mark Ellement. Only this time Conrad and his son would be hunting with Marks son - Brian Ellement.
Michelle and i Crabbing
Duck Hunting
With dates, licenses and permits all organized by Michelle, it was off to Africa and the first stop was Cape Town, where Mish and the rest of our family hosted the duo and showed them what Cape Town is all about
Table Mountain
Vineyards
wine tasting
After the Cape Town trip, a feverish Conrad (who had picked up a cold) and Asa flew to Victoria Falls International airport where they were met by Brian and myself before making the 2-hour drive to the camp on the banks of the Zambezi River in Sadinda.
We received a very warm welcome from the co-owner and operator Marthinus Kok (Tinie), apprentice hunter Dean Peel and the rest of the friendly camp staff.
The next day priority number one was to check the prebaits that Dean had put out. Conrad, hanging in by a thread managed to join us as he wasn’t going to let this flu get the better of him. We were all very excited to see the first bait closest to camp, where the biggest male had been feeding for 3 nights already. After checking tracks and trail cam footage we all agreed that we should build a blind immediately and sit tonight. The other baits were miles away in this enormous piece of hunting land that makes up Hwange Communal. There was not enough time to check them all today so we took it from Dean that this was the pick of the 3 males that were feeding and got busy with the blind
Bait site
Blind
At 430 pm, Asa, Brian and myself snuck into the blind on our walk-in path, leaving the coughing Conrad to wait anxiously in camp. We sat quietly well overdressed for the impending cold night, listening to the evening chatter of birds and watching the light fade and the sounds of crickets conducting the twinkling stars in the dark moonless sky.
As the minutes turned to hours one has plenty of time to contemplate whether the cat is going to come back. Is he full? Has he killed elsewhere? Maybe he has gone on his territory patrol….. or if he does come back, is the wind swirling? Will he come in from the same place? Can he hear us shifting in discomfort? I wish that game scout would stop shivering so much behind my chair!!! F#@K it is cold!! And dark, I can’t tell if my eyes are open or closed! CRUNCH……….
He is feeding. I hear everybody leaning forward. We have discussed this, let him feed a while and relax before I slowly turn on my rheostat infrared light that my camera can pick up and I can relay what’s happening to Brian who is directly on my right. I wait for him to feed before whispering to Brian – “he has jumped into the back of the tree, hidden from us, I can only see his tail, he is feeding through the branches”. He will come around says Brian. I turn the light off. After a little while there is a thud, slowly I turn the light up and he is sitting in the shadows in the background, he walks up to the tree and jumps straight into the back again. Out of view. I hear a couple of 4 letter words from Brian. This pattern continues for about an hour before the leopard vanishes into the darkness
Leopard in the back of the tree, hidden from us.
We hung around until 4am in the hope that he may return, at this point Asa was shivering and it seemed as though he was coming down with the same fever as Conrad, so we called it a night and returned to camp rather frustrated. The next day both clients were man down, so Brian and I check the rest of the baits which confirmed we were sitting on the right cat and returned to where we had sat to put thorns in the back of the tree and to see if he had returned after our departure, which he had not. We refreshed the bait and left. We decided to give that night a skip as Asa was in no condition to sit silently in a freezing blind.
On day 3 we all returned to discover that the leopard had come in at 930pm. He had eaten a bunch of meat and stayed all night, darn it!!! Would he return? And if so, we all guessed it wouldn’t be early and that it would be a long sit.
4:30pm into the blind we went. It was as the sun had set, there was a frantic tap on my knee. Brian had leant forward to look into his spotting scope and there he was!! Right on the parallel branch he had been avoiding.
“can you see it Asa”……… “yes”
“Can you see it Andy”………”no”
My camera was in that horrible light where it’s too dark to pick up the type of light that a scope or binocular can. Thankfully Brian was willing to wait a while and use the flashlight. I switched on my infrared and relayed to Brian that he had moved on to the ground at the base of the tree. He kept looking at us. He looked edgy. When he feeds again we will hit him with the light. He relaxes and goes up on his haunches to feed. I relay that he is feeding.we wait in the hope that he will get onto the broadside branch, But he never does so we decide to go for it before he moves away again.The next time he Feeds!!!! He goes up on his haunches and grabs the bait, Brian switches on the flashlight – the leopard freezes, staring in our direction – he sits down, looking and listening intently, his head down covering his chest. He is on to us - It’s now or never.
Brian: “whack him in the chest when he lifts his head”. As he lifted his head the shot rang out…….. through the camera I see it’s definitely a hit and he is bolting in our direction!!In the darkness my ears confirm what I saw as the growling and crashing through the brush gets louder as he boils straight towards our grass blind. I hear Asa trying to rip is gun from where its tied to the blind and Brian is wrestling his flashlight from where it is tied. I am defenseless so I assume the fetal position in my chair with my hands over the back of my neck in anticipation of the leopard bursting through the front of our grass blind. Thankfully he misses the blind by a yard or 2 and crashes into the bushes behind us, where he lay just out of sight. Through the dust of the chaos we glimpse a flash of spots and then….. Nothing, but a groaning growl. Not the normal gurgling of a lung shot leopard but an infrequent, short, aggravated growl. We listened for what seemed like ages and still every now and then there was that terrifying growl. Brian decided to call the truck and get out of there. It was strange leaving the blind in the direction of the bait.
After much excitement, discussion and a sleepless night for Asa we returned at Dawn ,Tiene, Dean and Brian took up the blood trail and there he was – stone dead! 8 yards from the blind.
Smiles all round for a great result
Let the leopard party and the Vundu fishing begin.
Brinking beer, whiskey and catching fish.
Big cat followed by a big fish (Vundu)
Conrad surprised us by bringing our brother ,Royal Marine Commando Craig Buchanan into camp
Great fun
We hunted for Kudu for a few days and Asa made a great shot on this bull
Asa had Dreamed of hunting a kudu ever scince his dad had mounted his in their home 18 years earlier.
We spent the rest of the day Bird shooting
Big Mike Chafudzi
Sadinda is not primarily a plainsgame area so on the 7th day we headed to Mashure, in the Lowveld, where we hunted a couple more trophies. Did some bass fishing and had a great time with our Louisiana friends.
Mashure
Father and son, Best of friends.
Asas Zebra
Brown Snake Eagle
Conrads Zebra
Giraffe
Impala
Lylic Breasted Roller
Big old last day Waterbuck
The Bass fishing was great during lunch.
not just a camera man
Little bee eater
Thank you so much to Conrad and Asa for entrusting Michelle and I with the booking, planning and organizing of this trip – until next time…………Here is a small highlingts clip of the trip.
https://youtu.be/W7ILSFvIO7c
For more info visit buchananhunts.com
He was a bit larger when I met him in 2011.