Dates: Oct. 08 – Nov. 03

Area: Bangweulu, Makanga Camp & Chikuni Communal area / Royal Kafue Mukuyu Camp.

Operator: Royal Kafue Ltd.

Professional Hunter: Andrew Baldry (Fairgame)

Species Hunted:
Sitatunga, Black Lechewe, Tessebe, Oribi, Buffalo, Reedbuck, Sable, Puku, Litchenstein’s hartebeest, Leopard.

Species Taken:
Sitatunga, Black Lechewe, Tessebe, Oribi , Buffalo, Reedbuck, Sable, Puku, Litchenstein’s hartebeest.

Species Seen:
Sitatunga, Black Lechewe, Tessebe, Oribi, Buffalo, Reedbuck, Sable, Puku, Litchenstein’s hartebeest, Leopard, Zebra, Roan, Common Duiker, Blue Duiker, Lion, Crawsay’s Deffasa Waterbuck, Elephant, Impala, Crocodile, Hippo, Bushbuck, Warthog, Bushpig, Baboon, Vervet Monkey.

Rifles: Winchester Mod 70, .375 H&H Magnum, Swarovski 3-9x36
Nesika custom .300 Winchester Magnum, Schmidt&Bender 3-12x42

Ammo:
.375H&H Magnum:
Handloaded 300grain Swift A-Frame, Norma brass, Federal 215M Primer and76 grain’s of Hodgdon H4350. velocity 2500FPS.

.300Winchester Magnum:
Handloaded 180grain Nosler Accubond, Norma brass, Federal 215M primer and 82.5 grain’s of Hodgdon H1000. velocity 3100FPS.

The Idea for this hunt started during last years group hunt in Munyamadzi. Andrew indicated that he was thinking of doing a similar hunt next year only this time it was to be in the Bangweulu swamps.
Andrew knew that I was keen on this and said he would keep me posted once he had finalized the details. As it transpired no one else took him up on his group hunt offer leaving me as the only taker. Good to his word Andrew said he was still on for doing the hunt as offered.
The plan was to be totally self-sufficient taking all our supplies and Stephen Andrews skinner with us. Once in the swamps we were to rely on the knowledge of the local fishermen and villagers to point us in the right direction. We would be fly camping in the different locations; this all sounded exactly what I envisaged a hunt in the swamps should be.
So Andrew made the arrangements to purchase tags for the species I wanted to hunt (this is a ZAWA requirement to hunt Bangweulu and they are non-refundable if your unsuccessful) everything was on track!
A couple of months passed, Andrew rang to inform me that the Bangweulu wetlands was now being administered by Africa Parks a privately funded organization alongside ZAWA and that they had taken buffalo off quota. So Andrew suggested we could try for one at his area in the Kafue after finishing in the swamps, as he knew I wanted to hunt buffalo again. This didn’t need much thinking about as I had just read Frostbit’s glowing report of his lion hunt. So my 10day swamp hunt now turned into a 26day proper safari with everything on quota except lion!
With everything in place and ready to go, Africa Parks threw a final spanner in the works. They now required all hunters to use their dedicated camp in Makanga and what’s more they had shut down all Sitatunga hunting in Chikuni in favour of Photographic Safaris out of their Shoebilll camp.
Well I was already committed so I told Andrew that if we must we would use their camp.
I flew British Airway’s to Lusaka arriving early morning on the 8th October. Andrew was waiting in the baggage hall and quickly cleared my rifles through customs. (If you fly this route you can save yourself £50 each way by packing your ammo in your rifle case as British Airways charges extra if packed separately)
After a bite to eat and a shower back at Andrew’s house we headed into Lusaka to finish off getting the last of the supplies.
That night Julie, Andrew’s wife cooked up a excellent meal. Richard Bell-Cross joined us for supper and the conversation turned to sitatunga and what to expect in Bangweulu.
The next morning we set off from Lusaka for the long drive to the Bangweulu wetlands. The tar road was good, at one point we were less than 1km from the Congolese border according to my GPS.
Once we turned off the tar our progress slowed considerably.
A wrong turn led us to the village of Chitambo and the grave of Dr. David Livingston.

After 10 hours on the road we finally arrived at a campsite on the shores of lake Wakawaka a pristine spring fed lake some 30km from Chitambo.

Upon our arrival at the camp a lone opportunist appeared claiming to be the camp manager and assuring us his number two was collecting firewood and would arrange for hot water so we could take a shower.
He informed us that to stay at the camp we must pay him in advance as he had urgent business to attend to in the village. Needless to say that was the last we saw of him. When the real camp manager arrived he was not too pleased.

Andrew did a good job of convincing me the lake was croc free. So we went for a swim, the water was refreshing after the long hot drive.

The lake and surrounding area had been heavily poached with little if any sign of wildlife; the one thing that was in abundance was freshwater mussels. The locals obviously hadn’t cottoned on to them yet. That evening we cooked some up to go with our supper.


Two sitatunga females came down to drink at the lakes edge at last light. Hopefully this was a good omen for the coming hunt.

After packing up camp we set off towards Chiundaponde to sign in at ZAWA office and have a game scout named Morgan assigned to us. The drive from there to Makanga camp was 43km and took two hours as we got closer the terrain started to flatten out and the human encroachment decreased.
Upon arriving at camp both Andrew and I were pleasantly surprised. Africa Parks had constructed a very nice tented camp under the canopy of some very tall trees. Unfortunately the camp staff wasn’t expecting us so there was only the camp manager and a room attendant named Yorum present upon our arrival.


That afternoon we headed out to check my rifle was still zeroed and to see the machan the camp manager had suggested we sit in that evening.

We saw six female sitatunga and 3 males one of which looked very promising but he never came out fully from the reeds.


The following morning saw us up at 3.30am and after a quick cup of coffee we were back in the same machan as the evening before we saw the same young male spotted a few females but there was no sign of the big sitatunga we saw the evening before

After a late breakfast we headed out onto the flood plain and Chased around some huge herds of black lechewe. One group must have numbered a thousand or more, sorting through these herds proved quite a challenge and although we saw some fine trophies no shot opportunity arose.

The flood plain also sustained a healthy population of reedbuck and oribi.

Yorum the room attendant showed us two more machans that had been constructed nearby. To reach them required a waist deep wade trough the papyrus and reeds. We spotted a rare shoebill stalk.



One looked out onto the other side of the area we had seen the big sitatunga the evening before. So it was decided that Morgan and I would sit in the first machan and Andrew and Yorum would sit in the new one glassing the other side in hope of spotting the large sitatunga again. Nothing was seen that evening
Up again at 3.30 and back in the same Machan with Morgan. Andrew and Yorum went off to scout another Machan known as the harbor some 5KM away.
Neither of us saw anything.
We got onto a smaller herd of black Lechewe and spotted a good trophy. Andrew had the sticks set up and I had the lechewe in the cross hairs of my scope at 170yds, as I waited for a shot opportunity I didn’t take into account that he was now much further away; the shot kicked up dirt under him, a clean miss.
We soon found another much larger herd and this time after what seemed like eternity I took a broadside shot at 165yds. The Lechewe dropped instantly to a heart shot from my .300WM


Back at camp over lunch the camp manager informed us that all the sitatunga taken so far this season had been from the first machan we had used.
Andrew thought that this is probably the reason we had only been seeing the younger males and that the mature animals had all been taken or had become nocturnal. With that information it was decided to sit in one of the machans that nobody had shot from.
Whilst sitting in the Machan that evening a huge fire swept through the papayrus some 5KM away it burned well into the night .We assumed that it was started by fishermen.

The following morning we saw nothing but females and one average male some 900yds away.
So we decided that we needed to go deeper into the swamp, away from the areas that had been hunted and burnt.
Yorum Morgan Andrew and I made our way to a string of palm islands in the distance that could be seen from the edge of the swamp

After going trough banks of towering papyrus we came to an open area with a island in the middle once on the island it was obvious that the trees would provide a makeshift Machan.

Yorum Andrew and I spent the next hour and a half clearing branches from the tree in order to have a clear shot should the opportunity arise.

We headed back to have a good lunch and gather up our supplies as we intended to sit in the tree machan that evening camp on the island and sit again the following morning.
Back on the island Yorum made a shooting rest high in the tree from some wood he had carried in giving an almost uninterrupted 270’ view. whilst Andrew and I cleared an area in the middle of the island to pitch camp.

We rested up that afternoon and sat from 4pm till dark seeing a couple of females and an average male.
As the light started to fade hundreds of hummingbirds appeared around us feeding on the nectar from flowering tree we were in. As it got dark thousands of fire fly’s started to dance all around.
At half past four in the morning the three of us were all up in the tree peering trough our binoculars trying to spot movement. Some twenty minutes passed then Yorum pointed to where he could see a large male sitatunga some 500yds away. We watched it for the next ten minutes as it browsed slowly along the edge of the clearing, as it got lighter Andrew confirmed that it was a good Male.
The perfect shooting rest Yorum and I had constructed the day before soon proved to be completely useless as leaves obscured my view through the scope. Hastily Andrew wedged his shooting sticks through a V in a branch but I still couldn’t get steady. I eventually repositioned the sticks instructing Yorum to hang on tight to one end of them. Andrew ranged the sitatunga at 412yds. I was as steady as I was going to be in the circumstances. The sound of the bullet strike seemed louder than the muzzle blast but it was a good twenty minutes before Yorum brought us conformation of success.

Andrew and i finally made it out to the downed sitatunga!


Morgan the game scout came cartwheeling through the swamp with a huge smile on his face as he had been camped on the edge of the swamp and had herd the shot.

The hard work now began Yorum went to get Steven the skinner as we would have to skin and butcher the sitatunga in the swamp. As luck would have it a three fishermen appeared out of the papyrus and assisted in the extraction, one of them was clearly a Democrat!

Back at camp we were greeted with singing and dancing.
After a boozy lunch in celebration we went out looking for oribi that afternoon after looking over quite a few I connected with one at last light at 120yds.

The following morning we packed up and headed out to Chikuni to look for tessebe.
The herds of Black Lechewe at the Chikuni research area were vast and almost tame, as they are not hunted here. This made for some good photo opportunities.



The Tessebe population at Chikuni is a fraction of what it used to be according to Andrew. We drove for about an hour and a half over a patchwork of mud wall fish traps on the edge of the flood plain; eventually spotting a small group of tessebe that took off running at the site of us approaching. After some careful maneuvering to within 400yds of a herd of about 50 the hard task of sorting trough the herd began. Both male and female have horns. After a lot of deliberation I settled on a large male that had bedded down in front of an anthill I took a quartering away shot at the bedded animal at 235yds it never moved.

It field scored 18 ¼ “each side with 8 ½” bases it should score in the top 10 SCI and Rolland Ward.

That evening Andrew cooked up some great tasting sitatunga steaks and opened a good bottle of red he had been saving to celebrate our success.

The following day we headed out dropping Morgan off at the ZAWA office and stopping by the Africa parks office near by for a bit of constructive criticism. Followed by the long drive back to Lusaka.

To sum up, everything worked out well, we navigated our way around the constraints imposed on us by Africa Parks and came out with four spectacular hard won trophies.


Part Two Royal Kafue to follow shortly.

Awesome. Some of the best safari photos I've seen.

Very Nice Trophies!
sounds like this hunt was an Adventure

Outstanding!

Great report and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Jim

Amazing trophies, congratulations

Way to go with the flow--- you're in Africa--things WILL not go as planned. Look forward to the next part. Would have loved to have been there.

Great pictures and some great trophies. Congratulations on a nice report and an obviously great hunt.

Ah! The Bangweulu! Your pics bring back fond memories of a unique and very enjoyable Zambia hunt I made in 2004. Congratulations!

Awesome report and pictures - thanks for sharing. Congrats to you and Andrew on a great trip!

Beautiful photos and lovely trophies. Well done, guys.

Great report and pictures, man Andrew comes through every time... very well done by both of you, those are some great animals...Butch

Great report and trophies thus far and I look forward to part 2. I would have loved to joined y'all in the swamps. Maybe then I could have gotten the story behind Andrew's leprechaun trainers in that last photo first hand.

George

What a wonderful report. Some super shooting. Way to go.

Mike

Very nice indeed!
Congratulations to both you & Andrew.

Well done my friend!

Yes, well done Faisal and Andrew. Huge Congrats.

Great safari, Andrew delivers AGAIN!

Faisal, that's a real nice report. Appreciate all the photos and good explanation of what it was like. Congratulations on an excellent safari.

Anybody up for 2013?

Great report and photos. Congratulations on a succesful hunt.

Faisal,

You are one fortunate man. Andrew, well done on many levels.

Hunting with Andrew is on the to-do list. I am in for 2013.

Thanks for the post!

Faisal,

Excellent! I did two safaris in the Bangweulu and found it to be a magic place. Glad you got to expereince it and take some of Africa's real specialty animals. I'll be very interested in the chapter on the Kafue.

Well done!

Mark

Thanks for the report.
Great photo's and awesome trophies.
Cheers
Steve

Some lovely photos and animals there. A Sitatunga is on my list.

Great report and fine trophies. I really enjoyed your photos of the sitatunga in the bush. Well done.

xcellent report, thank you very much!

Great report and trophies, beautiful country and wonderful photos. This was a hunt, not merely a trophy-collecting excursion...looking forward to part 2!

Thank you all for your kind words.
I will have part two on Royal kafue up as a new tread in the next few days.
Here are a few more photos that i thought might be of interest.


every island we reached in the swamp seemed to have a healthy population of snakes!

the concentration of termite mounds on the floodplain has to be seen to be believed.
local agriculture favoured the cassava root which is grown in raised beds
local village life.


Yorum and family

picked up a few leaches in the swamp.

bird life

Wish I had jumped on that hunt when others cancelled out. Looks like a great adventure.

Faisal;

Wonderful trophies!!!!

My husband and I literally stopped off at Bangweulu in 2009 returning to Lusaka from the DuPlooy's Chanjuzi Camp. Prior to arrival I was skeptical about taking a Black Lechwe in such short time. As we were landing, I could not believe the number of animals I was seeing. As Mark Young said, "It is a magical place", and I'm so glad we added it to our itinerary and Black Lechwe to our trophy list.

Congrats to you and Andrew!!!! Well done!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Thanks, Faisal,or the photos and the report. Clearly some good hunting (and shooting) there.

Regards, Tim

Congrats!!!

Well Done Faisal! They are great hard fought trophies. Andrew showed me your photos when I arrived in Lusaka and I was very happy to see that you had done well. I look forward to Part 2 and your Royal Kafue adventure. Bevan

Outstanding trophies and a very adventurous hunt Faisal. congrats and well done.

Congratulations on a fine safari!! Very nice Tsessebe and Sitatunga...

Fantastic hunt and report faisal. I love your sitatunga, and what an experience. Nice looking tented camp too.

Looking fwd to Part 2!

I thoroughly enjoyed your report and agree with others, great pictures.

The way to go. This is was a true African Hunt. Memories of it will be with you for years to come.
Great report and photos.
Thank you for sharing.