At the beginning of 2023, I knew that I would likely, but not definitely, be going to Cape Town in August. I also knew that our 40th wedding anniversary would be on the first day of the conference, and for scheduling reasons, any hunting would have to be done before the conference. Not to mention…it would be really hard to miss our 40th anniversary because I was hunting, even if there was a professional component to the trip! I talked to Andrew Pringle of Crusader Safaris at the DSC convention but didn’t have the final decision on the conference until June 3rd. Andrew could still accommodate me, and with less than 9 weeks to go, we quickly planned a “Side-trip safari”.

Trip report – Baavians River Conservancy, Eastern Cape, South Africa August 2023

Outfitter: Andrw Pringle, Crusader Safaris http://www.crusadersafaris.com/

PH: Shaun Higgs. Shaun is enthusiastic and good company.

Trackers: “Whitey” and Mabhutana

Dates: Hunted August 7-12, 2023

Location: Baavians River Valley, near Bedford. This is a deserty hilly area, resembling parts of Utah and Arizona to me. The vegetation can be thick, with plenty of prickly pear and acacia thorns.

Species hunted: Bushbuck, Cape Eland, Waterbuck, Cape Kudu, Waterbuck, Fallow Deer, Lechwe.

Game species seen but not hunted: : Giraffe, black wildebeest, impala, mountain reedbuck, vaal rhebok, warthog, duiker, grysbok.

Rifle: I used a camp rifle, a Hill Country Rifle in 300 Win Mag with a Swarovski scope.

Travel arrangements: The safari was scheduled before a conference in Cape Town. We flew American to DFW, then Qatar Airways to Cape Town via Doha. We then flew FlySafair from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha); the camp is about 2.5 hours from the Port Elizabeth Airport. After 6 days of hunting, we flew back to Cape Town on FlySafair. After the conference, we flew back to Doha and spent two days there before returning home. We used Kathi (WildTravel) who posts here to book the flights.

The flights were all smooth; we had scheduled reasonably long layovers at each stop and had no problems. I think I may post separately on our experiences with the airlines and stopping over in Doha, which we quite enjoyed.

Accommodations: The most deluxe location of the four African safaris I’ve taken - a permanent camp with a lodge and chalets. The chalets are equipped with a fireplace and electric space heaters, bathroom with shower, a separate bathtub, sitting room with a sofa and a refrigerator with cold drinks, etc. As I understand it, Andrew bought the property recently and has been renovating and building.

Hunting situation: The area around camp contains a number of “hill farms”, or what we would call ranches here – all huge, quite hilly. We drove, stopped, glassed, walked, glassed, walked, glass. The hill walking was moderately tough – we climbed and descended quite a few hills. On the longest day, we descended 1400 feet on a hill with cliffs, scree, boulders, prickly pear, acacia thorns, and other entangling vegetation. By the time I got down, I had lost my Fitbit, suspenders, and fleece!
The shots were longer than expected and I made regular use of the Leica Geovids to check ranges.

Philosophy and Goals: The first three safaris I took all had specific game sought. As this one was scheduled to be short, 6 days, and before a conference in Cape Town, I had a very relaxed view towards the whole safari, planning to just enjoy what ever opportunities arose. But I was hoping to take a bushbuck and eland if possible. This would be my third safari where I hunted bushbuck, finally successful. When I got there, the subject of fallow deer came up – I knew from an earlier report by Charlie64 that it was possible to hunt fallow deer in South Africa, but I didn’t realize they were available in this area. As I had hunted them a number of times in Sweden, I added that to my “species of interest” list. But otherwise… I planned to just see how things went. And they went well.

Red Hartebeest –

I had an opportunity on a nice hartebeest the first afternoon, so I went ahead and took it. We were high up in the hills, and a band of about 20 hartebeest were in view; we were able to get in position to take a 305 yard shot, prone using a bipod. At the shot, the hartebeest dropped. But then it got up and walked off with the rest of the herd. By the time I could be sure of shooting the right hartebeest, it was 550 yards away. The second shot went through the eye – not exactly where I had aimed – but instantly fatal!


Waterbuck –

On the second evening, we were looking for bushbuck that we thought might come feed in an irrigated field. Indeed, there was a young bushbuck, but this waterbuck came in and I took the opportunity.

Bushbuck –
This was my 3rd safari looking for a bushbuck; I was extremely pleased to get this rather old one, missing most of his teeth!


Cape Eland –


Cape kudu –


Fallow stag –
After hunting fallow deer in Sweden on several occasions without success, I was quite happy to be successful here. We spotted this one on the far side of a deep, shaded valley after glassing for a half hour or so.




Lechwe –


Conclusion – We had a great time, with very minimal planning!

Misc. comments
Shooting – The shots here were generally longer than other safaris I’ve taken. Perhaps the PH despaired of getting me closer on the hills! But I guess he expected it, as he had me start with the 300-yard gong at the camp shooting range.


Travel arrangements – flying Oklahoma – Dallas – Doha – Cape Town – Port Elizabeth while switching airline networks in Cape Town and scheduling layovers with ample cushion makes for a very long trip about 51 hours door-to-door. We paid $3200 each for the QA portion – Oklahoma to Cape Town, about a $1000 more than I paid last summer to fly to Harare on QA. QA was overall fine, and we had access to both the “Gold Lounge” and “Platinum and Gold Lounge” in Doha. The Gold Lounge is a similar standard to an Admiral’s Club; the Platinum and Gold Lounge is somewhat better than the American Airlines Flagship Lounge.

Layover in Doha – We arranged to stop over in Doha for about 40 hours on the way back. We had some local hosts on the first day. We visited the main souk, the falcon souk, the National Library of Qatar, the National Museum of Qatar, the Inland Sea, and did some shopping. We stayed at the Hilton Doha, and closed the visit swimming in the Persian Gulf.

Miscellaneous photos

Congratulations on a reason to get in the field!

Looks like you had a good time there.

I like Qatar airlines as well, but the extra time flying through Doha and back bugs me a bit. 50+ hours in transit does not sound fun!

Thanks for a nice report. Damn fine rifle for a camp gun too.

A very successful "side trip" safari!
Thank you for sharing your experience.

JCHB

Love your old bushbuck!

Some nice trophies for a "side trip"! Way to go!

Congrats on a fine group of trophies....they are all great, particularly the Bushbuck and Waterbuck!

What a great hunt report, thank you for sharing!!
Please tell us you celebrated your 30th Anniversary WITH your wife in Africa!!
We have celebrated many Anniversaries in Africa, including 30th...proper dinner in the MAHARANI HOTEL in Durban... the pianist played "YELLOW BIRD" and "TIE A YELLOW RIBBON"...and there was a standing ovation!!
We will celebrate our 55th on a full Circumnavigation of Africa from Barcelona next year!!
I have heard many times that Crusader does an excellent job!!
CONGRATULATIONS... I want to follow in your foot steps for Cape Eland, grysbok, Vaal Rhebuck, Klipspringer...
CheerZ,

quote:

Originally posted by 470EDDY:
What a great hunt report, thank you for sharing!!
Please tell us you celebrated your 30th Anniversary WITH your wife in Africa!!

We will celebrate our 55th on a full Circumnavigation of Africa from Barcelona next year!!
I have heard many times that Crusader does an excellent job!!
CONGRATULATIONS... I want to follow in your foot steps for Cape Eland, grysbok, Vaal Rhebuck, Klipspringer...
CheerZ,

Unfortunately, we didn't spend our 30th anniversary in Africa, but celebrating our 40th there was great! The circumnavigation trip sounds interesting - is it by ship, or are you flying from point to point?

I've been very happy with both of the Crusader safaris.

BOTH Crusader Safaris... Hunted there twice, or two different outfits??

A cruise on Seabourn Sojourn from Barcelona November 30, 2024, clockwise, 90 days!!

CherrZ,

.

Jeff, Congratulations on a fine hunt! Some great mixed bag trophies from takbok to eland! Well done to you both and thanks for posting - a good read!


.

quote:

Originally posted by 470EDDY:
BOTH Crusader Safaris... Hunted there twice, or two different outfits??

Crusader Safaris has several areas in South Africa. This trip was the second time. The first time was in 2019, in the Unkomaas Valley in KwaZulu Natal. The trip report is here:
Unkomaas Valley, KZN, RSA with Crusader Safaris - May-June 2019

Besides the Baviaansriver conservancy (where I hunted this year) and the Unkomaas Valley (2019), they also have a camp in the Stormberg Mountains. And, I understand Andrew just closed a deal on a new location.

quote:

A cruise on Seabourn Sojourn from Barcelona November 30, 2024, clockwise, 90 days!!

I looked this up and found the map below - looks like a great adventure. I hope you'll post about it.

Interesting, sounds like some good options with Crusader!!

You got it... that's the Seabourn Sojourn circumnavigation...!!

This will be our 4 cruising journey around Africa, but the first full circle.

In 2019-20 we did a 94 day from New Zealand up New Guinea, Solomons and WWII sites, then down the Great Barrier reef on the east coast of Australia, down to Tasmania, and all the way around Australia, up to Komodo to see the dragons, up to Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Seychelles, then hop scotch down the Africa coast to Cspetown. At the end of this one we flew up to East London, John Sharp's brother met us and brought us John's new book, and we drove into Queensland and onto Hunter's Hill where I hunted Southern Roan, and on God's Mountain took a great Aoudad- #16 SCI, and completed the SCI AFRICAN 29 AWARD. We flew home westbound thru London making a full world circumnavigation by sea and air. When we arrived ain't the Seychelles from Australia, that completed our second full circumnavigation of the world in 3 cruises.

In 2013 we did a full World Cruise on Silver Seas, LA to Miami westbound. It included the east coast of Africa, around to Walvis Bay, Namibia, Cameron, St Helena Island and up to Dakar before heading west to South America.

Earlier we had met the Regent NAVIGATOR in Seychelles and did a similar Africa cruise and on to Miami.

Next year, I am going to try to do a number of day hunts, or hop off, join up down the line to complete my Tiny 10 collection... I need 4, which Crusader has...

I do write a cruise log for friends, I guess I could cut n paste here!!...and figure out how to post pictures!!

We love Africa!!

CheerZ,

Well done and some impressive trophies

Congrats! Thanks for posting.