Since Saeed is usually the one who regales us with the Selous, here is my humble version of the same thing, just not the same cast of characters!

Dates: 7/26/2015-8/18/2015
Area: Lake Natron North CGA, Kitwai CGA, Selous MH3 Block.
PH: Brian Van Blerk
Agent: Adam at Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Rifles: Dakota 76 .330 Dakota; Dakota 76 .375 H&H; Dakota 76 .416 Rigby

I have been doing this for a while now, and while there certainly are areas that I have not been to and would like to get to, one area that stood out as a "have to see sometime" was Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve. For those who are not familiar with the Selous, it is a huge area in southern Tanzania that is reserved for game use. No human habitation, true wild Africa. In discussion with Brian and Adam, while there had been some negative reports on the internet about this area, Brian felt comfortable trying for both cats. Adam has a deal where you pay Leopard prices and have a add on fee if you take lion. With the exception of a few plains game animals, I had shot pretty much everything I was going for in the Selous. This tended to reduce the pressure on both me and the hunting team. Since this was officially a 18 day hunt, I asked if we could tack on a few days in northern Tanzania to get some of the species that have eluded me up there. Of course, anything is possible with enough money, but a reasonable deal was made to attempt to take Gerenuk and Roberts Gazelle.

I booked the airline stuff through Shawn Kennedy at Gracy and flew Delta/KLM to Arusha and would leave from Dar Es Salaam. I know it is fashionable to bash the airlines but everything was timely for me, with no lost items. To be honest, while US customs always gets me through, I am continually amazed how much less red tape other nations governments introduce compared to ours. If you know and follow the rules, you get through them quickly. Unusually for me, Adam and another client were flying on the same flight to Arusha, so lots of hunting stories were told, and it did make the flight go quickly.

For the most part, packing was already done- I just didn't unload much between hunting in Zambia and coming out to Tanzania. Folks at work were good about letting me mess up my schedule like this, and I left on the 25th.

On arrival at Arusha, things were pretty much as before. They still show their "native wildlife" film with the Jauguar killing a cayman along with Leopard and lion clips. I have yet to not hear some of the photo crowd eagerly talking about the Leopard killing a croc... Oh well. I was sped across to Mt. Meru hotel, and after a drink or three with Brian, Adam and Matt (who worked with Adam), I retired and planned on a 6 AM start.

Masailand


Ol' Danyo Lengai


The next day dawned cold and windy. Temps were in the 50's F. Not quite what one expects in equatorial Africa, but at the altitude, its not abnormal.

Dust Devil


The drive to Lake Natron was a bit longer than advertised, it took us about 6 hours to make it to Lake Natron, and then another 3 hours to get to the hunting area. This area was very dry and dusty, with some huge dust storms and dust devils being formed as we drove in. One of the sights was Ol' Danyo Nerai, which is a sacred mountain to the Masai. As we passed through the surrounding area, we were shocked with all the litter and debris by the road. Lots was Masai, but as shown by the profusion of Red Bull cans, the phototourists were adding to the roadside garbage dump. We would be hunting out of Michael Mantheakis' camp in this area. We stopped at main camp and picked up our game scout as well and taking thee time to zero my .330 Dakota. The idea being using the .330 as ranges might be long, and the animals would be smaller. I was using the same 185 gr TTSX load as I used in Zambia for sitatunga. Jim Kobe had worked over the rifle in a hurry to fix the issue with shots impacting differently after the first, and while it was shooting a bit low when we arrived, things were quickly reset and we drove up to the area where the Robert's were found. On the way up, we saw numerous game animals, although no buffalo. I think this is probably the premier plains game area in Tanzania, with all the Masailand species present in good number and good trophy quality.

Gazelle


When we arrived where we were supposed to be around 3PM, we started seeing some Tommies and then a Robert's. The first one we saw was a good representative, but Brian was very much wanting to look over what we could see before committing to one. We had 2 days available, so we drove on. We then started seeing more gazelle, which unlike the Tommies seemed more willing to stand about 2-300 yards out and watch us. After about an hour, we came to a rather large korongo that had good numbers of Robert's in it. One almost got shot on the spot, but he led us to another group. This group had one that Brian said was the one. We stalked them through the korongo, with me getting on the gun at least 3 times. They wandered across the stream bed and we followed them up after they ran from noticing us. Fortunately, they stopped just on the other side behind some scrub. I shot him and hit a bit low, but broke both front legs with the shot and he dropped. He is a excellent example of the species.

Robert's


We then proceeded to Mantheakis' "fly camp." This was a 2-3 hour trip from where we were hunting. As we got close, we came upon the clients along with Lupo, the PH from Mantheeakis' outfit who were looking for Lesser Kudu at the time. They had us precede them in to camp, which was 15-20 minutes away. In my opinion is the nicest camp location I have seen. We were in a wooded korongo with a small waterfall and rapids right at camp, which made for soothing sleep. Lupo said that sometimes folks think that fly camp is a hardship spot, but in his opinion, it was much preferred to main camp. I was given my tent and promptly became somewhat ill- probably something on the airplane, so wasn't much of a conversationalist at dinner. The clients were from Italy, and very nice folks.

Ostrich in Natron


We then left camp late the following morning to drive to Kitwai. After dropping off the game scout we saw some Gerenuk, including a 15" monster...

Gerenuk.


We drive back to Arusha, getting there around 3-4PM and stay at Mt. Meru again. The following day up early and arrive at Kitwai at around noon, after stopping on the road to Simanjiro to get some camp staff for us- tracker and assistant tracker. We stopped at a village as well, picking up the game scout on the way in. This game scout was probably the least professional one I have ever met. She was not in uniform, was without a rifle, and later proved to be useless with poachers as well.

The plant life in the Masailand is desert type plants. There are some rather startling flowers there.

Star


Kitwai was a bit of a change of camp. The camp was near a masai village for access to water, and exposed on the slopes to wind, which made the camp rather chilly this early in the season. I would call this camp a spartan camp for africa. Its benefit was Gerenuk. There were lots of Gerenuk here. In the day and a half we were there, we saw over 30 different males, but unfortunately nothing as big as the one we saw in Natron. On arrival, we got sorted out and that afternoon went out for a look-see and found a fair number of Gerenuk. We also came across a motorbike with 3 guys on it carrying rifles. We sped after them and got within 50 feet before they noticed us. Unfortunately, a cycle can get through stuff that a cruiser can't and we rapidly lost him. The game scout could not even be bothered to yell at them to stop. As to hunting Gerenuk, the following day, this was a matter of picking out one and shooting him. I shot him a little low and just took out one leg. This resulted in a rather prolonged tracking job, but we ended up getting him just after noon, and were on the road back to Arusha to fly to the Selous the following morning.

Gerenuk


Ibis


The flight from Arusha to the Selous was a bit longer charter than usual, and also a bit more spendy (like $8000 one way...ouch.) But you have to pay to play, I guess. I found out that Adam's partner in Tanzania had decided that the client comments on camp warranted the movement of the camp. The camp had been located in a site that was more suited to elephant hunting than anything else. Unfortunately, elephant have been hammered throughout the Selous. While we did not see any recent evidence of elephant poaching, we did find a few old poached skulls and a skull that still had tusks in it. The area was pretty dry except for the areas surrounding water. The river we camped on had water, and there were a few springs that we found. These had a great variety of green plant life.

Flower


The Selous

We landed and as soon as the plane lifted off checked zero on the .375 and .416. These were both on, and since we had our game scout meet us with the camp staff, we were good to go. Lucky for us that was the case, as on the drive in to camp, we saw a quite good greater Kudu. He was a bit narrow in the curls, but had a lot of height and as we needed meat in a tree, we immediately decided to take him. This involved a very short stalk, up went the sticks, and my first animal in the Selous was down. We later noted quite a few good Kudu in the area, but this guy seemed to be the best of them.

Kudu


After loading the Kudu up, we finished the drive in to camp. On the drive in we saw dry land hippo, Hartebeest, Waterbuck, and Impala. In camp, we got sorted out and had a leisurely supper. The plan being to look around for places to put bait and get more bait as a matter of priority. one thing of note was the huge number of crocodile in the river pool next to camp. I recall thinking wandering around after dark would not be real bright... but they did put out kerosene lanterns at night and had staff guarding the camp entry areas to keep animals out.

Buff Herd



The next day we were out at 6 AM, which rapidly became a pattern except when we were out earlier for sitting on a bait. We were looking for spots to put bait, and found a very nice pan...but while we were looking at it, we saw a herd of buffalo. They were heading for water, so we cut them off on foot and waited for them to come in close. There were not many mature bulls in this group, and the one we selected was not too big (at least compared to what I am used to...) He was mature, so a good buffalo to shoot.

Buff 1


We then halved him and put half up in the pan we saw him from.

Leopard Track


We continued to look around and spent some time looking at hippo. We ended up going looking in some of the jungle around the rivers where the hippo were resting on dry land. This got a bit interesting at times when a hippo decided that he wanted to go towards us, and while we saw a number of them, we did not see one this day in a place where we could get at the hippo to recover him easily. We then put up the other buffalo half at a crossroads and went back to camp for the Kudu and put him up where we heard some lion roaring last night. This day we saw lots of different game animals, including Impala, Baboon, Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Zebra, Duiker, Kudu, Eland and the above noted animals.

The next morning we started out looking at our baits. The one that we put up where the lion were roaring already had a female leopard feeding on it. While I did not see her, the trackers and Brian did as we pulled up. The crossing bait had no activity, and the pan bait had a hyena trying to get at it. We saw a really nice impala, and I shot him and we had another leopard bait with him that we put up near camp at another likely spot. A good male eventually totally ate this one, but after we had our Leopard.

Impala


We spent some time then looking for hippo again, with no success in finding one that we wanted where we wanted him.

The third day we ended up finding a good bull hippo where we could get the cruiser in to haul him out, so we shot him. This was rather exciting in that I crept up on him as he was facing us, and when I could see him, shot. This was all of 10 or so feet away. He dropped to the shot and we backed off. He then started bucking, so in again, and shoot again to kill him, and then an insurance shot (that didn't go where it was supposed to...) and back off because of the rest of the pod. we ended up yelling, throwing stuff and driving the cruiser in close to finally get them to move away. He is a pretty good representative of the species. Unlike in Zambia, here they don't eat the tail. We ended up taking his backstraps for meat, and Hippo makes very good biltong.

Hippo


Egret


Brian then told me that we would use the hippo quarters for Lion/Leopard bait and the neck and guts this evening for a crack at the big Crocodile that is in the pool in front of camp. we then proceeded to put out 2 more lion/Leopard baits. I figured for crocodile we would throw the meat out and in a day or two hope to sneak up on him... Not so. That evening, when we got back, the skinners tied the stomach and skin to ropes and wheeled it down to the pool. It turns out, this is where they get rid of all the skinning waste, and the crocs are used to it. I got a cushion from the couch, my day pack and the .375 and set up at the fire pit for the croc to come. In the meantime, sundowners were served as we waited. Within 10 minutes the smaller crocs were up and feeding. by 20 minutes, the big one was grabbing meat. I was frustrated as there was always a small one in line with the shot on him. He ripped the stomach off and went back out, with a number of the smaller crocs trying to take it from him. He ended up in the water facing me maybe 15 yards from shore. I asked if I was supposed to shoot him there, and Brian told me that it was real shallow, and if I thought I could hit him, to go ahead. He just sat there staring at us and I took the shot. He convulsed and splashed a bit, but by the time I had worked the bolt, he was just still. Brian yelled to get down to the water and I ran down and was in awe as to how big he was. I was then designated croc guard as Brian and some of the braver camp staff waded in and got the ropes on the croc and then pulled him out of the water. I am not really sure how big he actually is yet- at the time, Brian paced him off and called him 13'. in the skinning shed a few days later, he paced him off at 14 and some change. No one had a tape long enough to really measure him. I guess he's just a "big lizard" and will leave it at that.

Crocodile


The following day was spent checking baits and placing the last of the hippo quarters and checking bait. I will note that the game scouts had a very strong presence here. I am not sure how much is the company's influence with the government, how much is Tanzania's efforts to curb the poaching crisis, and how much is just the company spending money of extra enforcement- probably all of the above- but in any case there were 4 different scout camps and we saw patrols most days. They were a valuable asset in telling us about game movement, in particular Lion and Buffalo.

We did find that a good male Leopard had hit our pan bait. A blind was hurriedly put up and we got out of there as fast as we could. That evening we sat for him, but he did not show. The trail cam showed he fed that morning about 7 AM, so a plan was made to sit on him the next day.

On the following morning, we were up at 4:30 and out at the Leopard blind by 5. Sunrise came and went and I was getting discouraged, but Brian "knew" he was going to come in. At 6:30, he showed up. He walked around the bait a time, then hopped up on the log we provided him and began to feed. He was moving quite a bit and Brian wanted to make sure he was the big male we had on camera. Brian had me wait until he looked at him after he dropped off from feeding, and then shoot. He dropped at the shot and we had Chui in the salt.

Leopard


Rather interestingly, I also got a bunch of game cam pictures of him right before and then after we shot. We took a bunch of photos and headed in for the traditional "Kabubi" party after a cat. The kabubi is part the african's love of an excuse to sing and dance and part a party due to the stress level of the hunt dropping due to success. In any case, you shoot from the car to alert camp, then drive in while singing a song that the refrain is Kabubi, Kabubi! the lead tracker usually is singing of the hunter's great prowess in saving all from the dangerous lion/leopard, and the hunter is given a crown and necklace and such. Its pretty silly, but does feel right at the time...

Kabubi outfit


Of course, since it was 9 AM when we got back, we were not going to sit and imbibe all day, there were Lion that needed hunting!

We went out after noon. We ran across some wildebeest, but when they ran, we came on a herd of all male Zebra. Lion like Zebra, so we decided more bait and stalked up on the group. The Zebra stopped near a waterhole and were relatively calm. I shot the first one a bit far back and he ran 10 feet and stood there. The second shot dropped him. Amazingly, the others just milled around, so I shot a second one.

Zebra


We then loaded them up and checked our other baits. One had been hit by Lion. While we were checking, we could hear them growling in the thick bush, although we could not find any mane hair. While I stood by with the rifle, the trackers put up a game camera and we got out of there. That evening, the camp staff got a beer or soda as they wished for Kabubi. They came by and sang a few songs for us, and we gave them a bottle of rum for more kabubi, and they then had a party, one of the few times we heard anything from the staff side of camp- they sang long into the night. To me, signs of a happy camp.

The next morning we went looking for the lion again. The one who was roaring was active the night before, so we decided to try and box him in. We put up both the Zebra as baits in the areas that he would have to walk through to get to where he was roaring, and wee already had the other two spots baited. One he walked right by, but did not touch, otherwise, we could not figure him out. We then went to where we had the lion hit to check that, but ran in to wildebeest and stalked up on them. I shot a really nice bull, but hit him too far back in the guts. We spent 5 hours tracking but could not get on him other than we saw him briefly as we drove to a spot to eat lunch. We initially had a good blood trail, but that petered out and then we lost his tracks. Most game with a gut shot tries to find a spot to lie up and you usually get another crack at them- not wildebeest- they are like the energizer bunny when not well hit- they keep going and going... This is the third game animal I have lost, and it does not get easier... Then we went and checked the Lion bait from yesterday and found that the Lion was a group of lioness, one with a nursing cub. They had pretty much halved the hippo quarter. That pretty much ruled out that bait.

The next morning we went out and the Game scouts told us about a Lion kill of a buffalo. We then went to look at it, and on the way found a buffalo herd. Initially we saw nothing with a decent spread and called off, but then decided that given the Lion activity, we needed a buffalo for bait and went back in. This time, the buff noted us and ran a bit. We kept trying to close for a shot, but they ran when we got close enough. We finally decided to get in front by using a korongo, but when we were halfway there, wee came across a Reedbuck. This was a bit of a mistake- I thought he was what I was after- as I don't have an issue with shooting one horned or odd animals, but Brian thought he had two good horns. His horn was quite good- over 12", and I shot him. He jumped at the shot and ran to where I could not see him, but Brian could. The mild profanity made me think I had pooched that shot also, but really he was standing there bleeding out, but Brian saw only half of the second horn. Despite my assurances I was happy with him, and that I knew when I shot, Brian was not happy about it... Professionalism or some such reason.

Reedbuck


That afternoon, we found that the bait where we shot the hippo had been hit. We again hurriedly set up a blind and that afternoon came back and sat on it. At dusk, the Lion came in. I did have a shot, but Brian was not sure that he was legal. He looked big, his shape was good, but we needed to see his head in daylight.

The following morning we were up at 4 again and out on the bait. This time they did not cooperate. We decided that we needed another bait. Looking for Buffalo, we find a nice herd and start snaking in. This time we see what is thought to be a huge Duiker. Brian calls off the buffalo hunt and we zone in on the Duiker. I shoot this 15# animal with the .416, and he proceeds to run about 100 yards, where we find him lying...and Brian is going on again... The duiker also has only one horn! He laughs and gives me a twig to use as a substitute horn... we all have a laugh, but if not for the half horn, he would have been an exceptional duiker. Not a big deal, but it sure was driving BVB nuts.

Duiker


We get back on the buffalo, and they are much more turned on now, after hearing the gun shot. I eventually get a shot and somehow manage to miss the buffalo. No one is sure if I just plain missed, a twig got in the way or what... but that buffalo avoided death and the whole herd really was turned on. We continued to stalk them to make sure that I had not wounded him, but he stayed with the herd and no blood was seen on him. We then stopped by the pan where we had shot the Leopard on the way back to camp and found Hartebeest. We needed meat, so while the biggest one was a mature animal, he wasn't that big; but that didn't matter to a Lion, so he was shot and dropped at the spot.

Hartebeest 1




We took him in and headed back out for Buffalo. On the way, we stopped at the pain near a spring to see what might be there, and we saw Wildebeest. We made a stalk on the herd and shot one that was a little smaller than the one I lost, but Brian felt had more mass. This time, I shot him repeatedly until he fell over- I shot at him 5 times making sure we got this one. This Nyasa Wildebeest completes my shooting all the wildebeest species. (Black, Blue, White Bearded, Cookson, and Nyasa- I don't consider the Golden Gnu/"king" wildebeest a species...) I was quite happy with getting this guy, as the wildebeest had been awfully spooky out here, and not that terribly numerous.

Wildebeest


We then start for our Lion bait to replenish it with Wildebeest. When we are almost there, the trackers start frantically tapping the cab... they see the Lion! Its the same one and his partner who we saw the other night. Brian climbs up on the cruiser roof and looks at him, then tells me to get out on the driver's side through the truck and climb up with him. He then shows me where he is- of course I look at his partner (who is about the same age I am told later, but is judged to be "too scruffy" to shoot. We then have the lion move off. We stalk over to the other side of the thornbush and there is some frustration as I can see the lion but can't find him in the scope. All of the sudden he is obvious. I can see his head and mane, but nothing else. Brian tells me to shoot him "right under the chin...and DON'T F^&! THIS UP!" I shoot and can't see him, then see him kicking in the dirt- perfectly done. I am then told to get to the seat on top of the Cruiser and we drive up to him. I am asked to take an insurance shot, and then we have to try and scare his coalition partner away. This takes a while, and from the growling, it sounds like he didn't go far. I and Brian stand with loaded rifles until the trackers get him in the cruiser and we go a quarter mile away to shoot photos.

Lion


Simba M'Bile


This guy is quite old. He has substantial tooth wear and has all kinds of scars on him. No doubt he beats the 6 year rule.

Teeth


(Oh and for the antis out there- I reserve the rights to these photos. No copying allowed...)

Rather interestingly, we run in to a Wild Dog lying on the road not more than a 1/2 mile from where we shot the Lion. There were 4 of them, with this guy willing to be photogenic and staying in the road for us giving lots of photo opportunities. he even wagged his tail like a regular dog, but apparently they do not tame, even if caught at birth, or so I was told.

Wild Dog


We then go back to camp, and a 1/4 mile out shoot the ceremonial shot... then the game scout fires a burst from his rifle also. We get in camp and are greeted wildly. This time I declare Kabubi to be 2 beers. Given that this one is at night, Brian and I get pretty tight. While lots of folks have shot more than one lion, I honestly thought my last one was the only one. Now, while I may not get the chance to do it again, I know never say never...

We get up late the following morning and leave camp taking our time to take down the baits. There is a lot of meat in camp now, given the Hartebeest and the Wildebeest that were intended to go in a tree but didn't make it there. We now are basically on a Buffalo hunt since the other Dangerous Game is down. We run in to a rather interesting sight on the plain as we head out. There are a pair of Waterbuck fighting who are pretty much oblivious to us. We watch for a while, and Brian tells me that the bigger one is losing. Apparently in this kind of a fight, the winner usually kills the loser, and indeed, the bigger one tries to run once and the other chases and hits him, forcing him to turn and fight some more. I am asked if I have any interest in shooting a Waterbuck... While I already have one, they are very regal animals, and another one will not be amiss. We then stalk up on these two and at about 100 yards, I shoot him. He runs, with the other following him, and I shoot again and he drops...along with the other one.... What the heck? We start walking up and the second one jumps up and runs off. Apparently, he saw the one fall, so he fell. No injury to him, and it was just plain weird, but Brian said he has seen it happen before. The trackers and game scout start jokingly singing Kabubi! at me. This becomes the camp joke- every animal got Kabubi!

Waterbuck


We drop him off in camp and head out to the plains where we have a number of baits, and on the way out see a group of 4 eland. I get on the largest one and shoot. He ends up running a ways but we get him in short order.

Eland


We then go back to camp and for the evening, head out late away from where we have been going most of the time (more to the north.) We had not been seeing any decent warthog then we popped one up with the cruiser. We slowly walk up to try and get a shot at him and he runs from cover, but stopped about 150 yards out. I shot at him offhand, and he dropped to the shot. Probably the most technically difficult shot of the hunt.

Warthog


The next day we went after buffalo and founds bunch of them. In the evening, we made a bit of a tactical mistake, and when we finally got the shot at an old Dagga Boy, I dropped him on the spot. The mistake was where we shot him, which was where we could not get the truck to him, and ended up having to cut him up on site and carry him to the truck about a 1/4 mile away. At this point, we still had 9 days left, and not much left on license, so we got a hold of Bushman and made a deal for a second 10 day buffalo license. I knew there were no big buffalo here, although a scrum cap remained a possibility. In any case, big head or small head, they are fun to hunt.

Buffalo #2


That evening, the way the hunt was progressing was the main talk of the evening at the fire. This was day 10, and we still had 8 days to go, with really little left on quota. I am going out hunting to get away from the world, so being asked about leaving early was a non starter. In the end, after discussing things with Brian and the company, I opted to get another 10 day license so I could hunt a couple more buffalo. Of course, after hubris comes nemesis... the next day we stalked a nice herd of buffalo, and found a really good bull, probably 38" or so and we got on him with a bit of effort. Unfortunately, when I lined up on him, just as I fired, he turned. I nicked his front leg, and we were off on the chase. We spent the rest of the day following him, and were called off the track due to darkness. Brian was sure we would at least gotten a look at him if we had another hour of daylight, but it was not to be. The next day we went out to follow up on him again and take the track, but when we got close it turned out that the track went across the boundary road into an open area, which was not on my permits. Thus, I lost my first buffalo ever.

Vulture


The whole team was disappointed with this turn of events, and while I tried to be philosophical about it, I still was not real happy with myself for pooching that shot. Fortunately, a chance to make it up happened pretty quickly thereafter and we got on another hard bossed bull that afternoon, and I shot a hard bossed but small bull.

Buff #3


The next day we started off trying to finish up on the dropping of baits. While we were doing that, there were a number of Hartebeest and Zebra around. Brian did think that one of the hartebeest was a fair amount better than the one I had, and we did a rather long stalk that had me up on the sticks 3-4 times before we finally got him in range and he fell to the shot as well.

Hartebeest #2


On the way back to camp, we drove by a particularly large baboon troop, and I was told that this is where I should get a couple baboon at that point. These baboon were not all that well educated, and after dropping one, we walked on a bit and collected a second.

Baboon


The following day was another buffalo hunt. We were in and out of the herd for over an hour before we finally got a chance at the big bull with this group. He was noticeably bigger in body that the others and had a bigger head as well. While getting a shot at a bull in this herd was no great challenge, getting a shot at the big guy was a bit. He expertly managed to leave a cow, calf, or immature bull between me and him for a dozen attempts...it shows how calm the buffalo were that we had this ability to seemingly go amongst them at will, with a bumping of the herd only meaning a few hundred yards of walking to get back in with them. I finally got my chance and broke his shoulder with the shot, so he was much slowed and ended up trying to get into some nasty thick scrub. He was a turned on bull, and as I had used up all my .416 ammo, I was using the .375. I emptied the rifle at him before he got in there, with all 5 shots connecting. I then stuffed my last 4 rounds in the rifle and we went in after him. Fortunately, he was very sick after that fusillade, and when we found him he was standing with his head hanging. I put one in his shoulder and he laid down, and then 2 more in the shoulder had him collapse. The final round, a solid, was used to pay the insurance on this bull. While 2 of the running shots were in the guts, the other 6 were all in his lungs or shoulder area. This bull was one that had the adrenalin flowing! An appropriate bull for the final buff of this hunt.

Buffalo #4


For the next 4 days we tried to get a bushbuck, and we looked around the areas of the concession we had not really been hunting. There are a good population of Roosevelt Sable here, but after shooting a monster in Lukwika a few years back, I was not interested in shooting anything that was smaller than him, and thus while we saw a bunch, none were even close in size to that. That evening we talked quite a bit about strange things that happen while hunting. No conclusion was reached, despite a very long conversation with Mr. Gordon and Mr. Absolut. We were also treated to a farewell song from the staff and a home made chocolate cake (which I still don't understand how they can cook stuff like that without an real oven...)

Another excellent safari from the Cat Man!



The following day, which also happened to be Brian's birthday, we flew back to Dar and since my flight didn't leave until right around midnight, celebrated at the Sea Cliff bar. We did talk about the whole Cecil thing quite a bit, and while at first I thought I would leave sleeping lions lie, after contemplating the whole thing decided that I can't let some misguided folks have me run my life to their dictates. Thus, I do submit this little write up to my fellow hunters.

My thoughts on the Selous is that it is a truly wondrous place. The MH3 concession has one of the better camps I have been in, and was probably the "happiest" camp I have ever hunted in. The staff were attentive (as always), helpful, and professional. Brian as a PH and friend is about as good a guy as anyone could hope to meet, with an almost unparalleled record on cats. I had read some previous reports that MH3 was not that easy a place to hunt, and while it is not as full of game as say Maswa or Lake Natron, it still has a lot of great hunting, its just a bit more work to get it (or is it luck?) While there were a few reminders of the old poaching debacle, we only found 2 poached skulls, and those were both rather old, from the look of them, probably last year's, we also found a cow skull with the ivory still in it from a old lion kill as well... The antipoaching presence was dramatically heavier than what I have seen before. While it is a bit too late to save the glorious old Selous elephant herd, it does look like maybe the government is serious about putting a stop to it in the Selous, and maybe in 20-30 years it will be getting back to where it was. Obviously, in the Masailand areas there is still some work to be done, especially in areas where the concession owners are not taking their responsibilities seriously and the Masai overgrazing is something that the government is going to have to find a way to deal with as well. I will note that the nonhunting areas other than national parks show a serious dearth of wild animals, as compared to the hunting areas (which act as buffers for the parks as well) tending to support the longstanding statement that if the animals have financial value, they stay; if not they are ruthlessly removed.

Congratulations on a very "full bag" of trophies.
Wonderful photos and that eland is fantastic!!

well done.

cheers

Nick

Fantastic


Good hunting
Carl Frederik

That sure was one dandy safari - congratulations to all.

Wow, what a great safari, an adventure of a lifetime for sure, congratulations.

Congrats on a wonderful safari. And yes that Eland is amazing!!!

Congrats on a fantastic Safari!

It looks like there was plenty of action on this hunt.I really like the lion and the leopard-congratulations!

Great Safari.. great report.

One question.. Did you see any live elephants and/or fresh elephant sign?

Well congrats doesn't quite say enough. That was like one of the 'back in the day' safaris. Amazing.

Hell of a nice Safari.
Very Nice Selous Lion and the Eland is a brute.

Hongera

Looks like a very successful hunt! Great hunt report.
Congrats!

What a top notch safari with a most impressive bag, that is a beautiful lion and I´m really impressed with the eland, seems like Brian delivers again.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Charles,

Another great full bag safari. Congrats! I particularly like the Roberts (I don't have one) and that eland is a toad.

Mark

Bravo ! Well done, indeed ! Hmmmm.... $8,000 U.S. one way charter flight ... I am not much for looking into the future ... but dare I say ... soon we'll see the return of the old days ... foot safaris ...

Jealous, I am! Congrats!

Wow, what a hunt!

Congrats on the cats and buffalo but the eland is my favorite.

What a toad!

A totally amazing safari! Congratulations!

Best regards, D. Nelson

CR.

Thanks for the great report. and pictures. Brian is tough to beat, and really fun to hunt with. Very best to you.

Butch

Wow!, just Wow!

Congratulations on a fantastic hunt great report

Wow - congratulations. What a bag and what a hunt.
Thank you for your report and pictures.
Jytte

Well done!!!!
Great full bag. YOu are one of the few that get that done in one trip!

Amazing hunt. Properly done as well. Congratulations, hunt of a lifetime.


Dutch

Superb safari! Well done and congrats.

Congrats on a "dream" safari!

Well done.

What a great safari. Michel's camps are the finest I've ever experienced. I suspect his idea of a fly camp is more luxurious than most main camps you'll have.

I had the pleasure of sharing a true fly camp with Lupo Santasilia in Simanjiro in 2012. His comment about enjoying fly camps does not surprise me. Our only inconveniences were lack of ice and an occasional baboon raid on the kitchen.

What a great Roberts.

And everything else as well.

What a fantastic report. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Congratulations on a wonderful hunt!

My goodness what a hunt.

Those are kind that "need" the full ammo weight allowance.

Congratulations on an oustanding safari again.

Fantastic hunt!!!!! Well done indeed!

Thanks for all the kind comments!

It will be hard for me to do better than this one. Everything just clicked.

Brian is the one who did the hard part!

As to elephant, we did see a couple of small groups of elephant, and in some places there was a fair amount of sign, albeit nothing big of foot.

I think we saw 5-6 elephant in total, none had any legal ivory.

.
Charles, Great report and Pictures. Loved the Roberts! Well done and congrats. Thanks for the write up and sharing the Pictures.

Charlie

.

Great hunt and thanks for sharing the pics and story. MMP

Just a note, and it's corrected now...
The mountain is ol danyo Lengai, not Nerai. Thanks to the helpful soul who noticed it!!!

A very good read! Congrats Dr. Butler!

The Mountain of God. I will be there next year or the year after that at the latest.

I want to get back to the Selous as well.

Congratulations on an extraordinary hunt.

Looks like you had a great time and hunt.

Michel Mantheakis Natron concession is called Lake Natron GCA South-West. If you were in Lake Natron GCA North, then you were illegally hunting

Interesting... I thought they called it north, and it goes to the Kenyan border, or so I was told...

But it was Mantheakis' area.

Very nice hunt CR; you sure seem to pile them up.