I previously returned to Humani with my wife in 2021 and had another splendid hunt, taking a lioness with Guy Whittall. Kathy again took over 2000 photos and had a tear running down her cheek when our charter Cessna departed from the airstrip. We visited with old friends in Missouri in 2022 and learned that they wanted to visit Africa (with cameras) but weren’t sure where to go, and they asked to travel with us. What fun!

Guy had encouraged us to visit Gonarezhou National Park (at the southern tip of Zimbabwe and about 100 miles south of Humani. The Whittalls had everything arranged and the four of us flew into Harare in early August and stayed at Homestead, the lovely guesthouse run by Susan Stooks, Hannah Whittall’s mother. It is close to the airport, quiet and confortable, and the meals are fabulous. After a restorative night’s sleep, we left late that morning for our charter flight down to Humani.

Guy was in South Africa for his son’s graduation, but sister Sarah and Guy’s appy PH Regan met us at the airstrip. Roger Whittall Safaris recently added a photo safari car which was perfect for Gonarezhou and exploring the splendor of Humani.



We spent the night in beautiful Turgwe camp, and the next morning started south to Gonarezhou with Regan, Sarah, and her husband Mark. The Frankfurt Zoological Society (Germany) now runs Gonarezhou and added a new campsite along the river. These cabins have electricity, running water, toilets, and showers, and attached kitchens and were comfortable and convenient. We saw lots of hippos, elephants, giraffes, impala, and a lovely anomalous Burchell’s zebra, besides the spectacular cliffs and geologic formations of the Park.



After three days of exploration in the Park, we returned to Humani and Turgwe camp and were greeted by Guy. Peter Wood was hunting with a client and it was good to see Peter again and share camp. Guy had thoughtfully arranged for another PH, Peter Solomon, to join our group. Peter and his tracker escorted my wife and friends in the photo safari car, and he proved to be a superb naturalist and welcome companion. Kathy kept her Nikon running and our friend captured some superb video of the wildlife.




The next morning, Guy and I (along with his tracker Boniface and our Parks Scout) began looking for Cape buffalo. We saw buff every day of our ten-day safari and the wildlife at Humani is thriving. I saw a number of splendid nyala and kudu which would easily have “made book” and the elephant herds are full of calves and rather cheeky cows. We met this young bull one morning, who displayed the “flehman response” trying to get our scent.



While I hunted, Kathy and our friends thoroughly enjoyed both Peter and exploring Humani. Kathy is becoming a pretty good Zimbabwe ornithologist and is up to about 125 species photographed, and Peter was superb at identifying the many birds and happy to stop for photos and videos. The lilac-breasted roller and white-fronted bee eaters are particularly lovely (excuse the R-rated photo).





Guy and I had good luck finding buff and spent the late afternoon of Day 3 watching a group of ten dagga boys sharing a river beach with a small herd of elephant. We then moved on and encountered a herd of buff and got a good look at several mature bulls. Lovely beasts, but I’d taken two buff previously at Humani and had told Guy that we should look for something special.

Guy thought he'd seen a particularly big bull on some "Council land" where he has a concession, just outside the Save Conservancy. It was an hour's drive away, north of Humani and west of Sango and Mokore, and we spent Day 4 looking for these elusive old bulls and finally located them late that afternoon.

While we stalked buffalo, Peter continued to show the photographers more wildlife.





We returned early on Day 5, found their tracks and continued the stalk. After about two hours of stalking, Guy and Boniface heard the bulls. Guy and I continued the stalk through the thick mopane scrub but the damn dried leaves and seed pods made this like walking over breakfast cereal. Snap, Crackle, and Pop with every step! We went about 400-500 yards very slowly with Guy working the wind and terrain and me endeavoring not to spoil his good effort! We finally started seeing black ears and tails twitching.

We ended up on a small rise with a shallow depression between us and a bull about 70 yards away who was intently looking at our position. We were well screened by the thick mopane but held motionless. Guy glassed him but his boss wasn't quite yet fully hard and he lacked the spread we wanted.

We held position as the 4-6 dagga boys seemed to be moving towards us slowly. Guy was slowly scanning with his binos, stopped, and whispered "Bill, I've found your bull!" He was off to the right about 100 yards away and we could only see part of his horns. He took another step or two and raised his head. I cautiously shifted the rifle on the sticks and centered the reticle.

My Kimber Caprivi .458 Lott rifle wears a Leupold VariX-6 1-6x scope with their FireDot reticle. I had the scope on 4x. The FireDot was activated and is a blessing, as a bull is a deep dark black, usually in shadow, and the reticle center doesn't often show well.

Guy whispered "This is the bull. Take the shot if you can." Damn. This bull was framed in the mopane but only presenting a frontal shot, slightly turned with a bit of his (anatomical) right neck and upper chest showing. I had a clear view of his head and neck, but the lower half of his body was obscured by mopane branches. I sure wasn't going to aim for the heart and pray that the 500 grain bullet made it through, especially after having a shot in 2021 deflected by an unseen twig.

I’ve benefited from good rifle instruction from Caylen Wojcik (moderndaysniper.com). With Caylen's coaching running through my mind, I'd positioned on the sticks so my natural point of aim put me on the buff. The stick height required me to bend me knees a little, but changing the sticks would be noisy and involve too much movement with the bull staring in our direction. The reticle was holding pretty steady and staying within the center upper chest/neck. I figured that I could center the base of the upper chest and put the bullet through the upper chest, lungs, and great vessels, with a decent chance of striking the top of the heart. The cervical spine of the buff dips low in this position, and was also a potential target. I held just left of the midline (due to the bull's orientation) and my wobble seemed to be about a 6" circle. I did not think I could get steadier and knew we could not get closer, and that I was very unlikely to see a better bull. I found my respiratory pause and pressed through the trigger.

The rifle fired and reminded me that during all my cogitation I had not forced my left hand to hold on for dear life. The rifle came back in recoil and the scope whacked my right eye before I ran the bolt. I came back down on the sticks and the bull was gone.

Guy yelled "He's down!" and we quickly moved through the mopane towards the bull. At fifty yards we could see his head thrashing and Guy ordered "Shoot again!" Trouble is, I could only see his head in the scope and no body shot. We got to about twenty yards and further up on that second rise to where I could see more of the body. Still only slight movement of the head/horns but Guy had me send a couple insurance shots. "It's the dead ones that will get up and kill you."

We both stopped, both winded and excited. Guy said "You spined him! I was worried--a neck shot buff may drop and then get up and run for days." The bull died quickly and humanely, without giving that eerie death below I've heard before.



He is a superb old bull with solid bosses, a spread just under 40", and great curls. He scores 108" under the SCI system, and record book class starts at 100". I'm unlikely to ever take a better bull in Zim, and the hunt and stalk were just perfect! I’m including a photo of the horns with a more typical bull taken at Humani.




Kathy wasn’t bored either. Peter took them out one evening and called for lions. Several pairs responded, including one lion who came up right behind the safari car and rather startled our friend! They also found a leopard one evening.



I also had a crocodile on my license, and Guy had his staff looking for a 11-12’ croc. There were several good ones around the reservoir at Humani, but he learned of a big fellow along the Save River. We scouted and found where he had beached himself to sun. He had monster feet and was likely a 13’ croc. We baited this area with a baboon.

To get to the site, we had to ford the Save, which isn’t deep in mid-August but this did involve wading across and then some barefoot stalking along the banks. I’m a retired emergency physician and digging splinters out of feet helped put the kids through college. I brought my boots along after the first adventure, and the sand got so hot that Guy brought along some sandals.

We often returned to Turgwe camp for lunch and a break, and Ledmore, the camp chef, is quite talented. Our friends found the exotic game meat utterly delicious and the puddings were superb (especially the Malva pudding and custard!). Our previous visits to Humani have been in late June to very early August. Mid-August meant that Humani was somewhat dryer, but new birds were present. We saw buffalo weavers for the first time (although their nests fill the baobab trees and electrical transmission poles). Better yet, the lesser masked weavers were busy next to the dining camp, building nests in the baobab branches. I sat enchanted for an hour watching the males work and the females occasionally inspecting their efforts. What a show!



Guy and I gave it a good try but we didn’t catch that big brute of a croc out of the water. We did see his 9’ friend but decided to leave him to grow. I was completely satisfied with a superb hunt and a splendid bull in the salt, and we’re already planning a return visit in 2025. Humani is superbly managed, a haven for wildlife, and Guy and the Whittall family endeavor and succeed in making each visit memorable and marvelous.

Every since my first visit in 2018, the yellow-billed hornbill just signifies Humani and the Save Conservancy to me. Kathy got a fine photo of one, and it will remind us of one of our favorite places on Earth.

Great hunt report with some Outstanding photography!

Great report! I love the bird pictures.

Fantastic!

But I did not see anyone barefoot??

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Fantastic!

But I did not see anyone barefoot??

I figured that surely the bird porn was sufficient. Nobody wants to see my naked size 12s covered in sand!

quote:

Originally posted by England:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Fantastic!

But I did not see anyone barefoot??

I figured that surely the bird porn was sufficient. Nobody wants to see my naked size 12s covered in sand!

Very true.

But we were hoping to see some bare sights that give the heart a few missed beats!

Your photos are fantastic, thank you for posting.

And by the looks of things you had a great time, and that is what matters.

Thank you for the kind words, Saeed. For the record, we flew Qatar Airways this trip as it was my friend's preference. But having flown economy on both Qatar and Emirates, I prefer Emirates!

It was fun to "hunt my camera" at Gonarezhou although I still prefer hunting Cape buffalo with a rifle. My good Nikon is wonderful but inconveniently large. Let me put in a plug for the marvelous Nikon Coolpix P950. It has a 16 megapixel sensor (reduced size), an effective 24-2000mm zoom lens (35mm equivalent), superb image stabilization, and takes good video. My wife adores hers. At 35 ounces, it is quite portable. I was sufficiently impressed to buy one myself that goes with me hunting in the Land Cruiser.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos and interesting and well told hunting report.

Guy is an old friend and we are planning to get back to see him very soon.

.

Super photographs and a nice bull to boot !

Thanks for the write up and sharing the pictures!

.

In my humble opinion it seems that Humani and the Whittall family never fails to produce

Really great photography, especially the birds. I bet that lens was a monster!

Nice report, good trophy and superb pix.

Congrats!

Mark

Thanks for the journey.

Enjoyed the photos.

The bird photos are super!