Family Safari with Zambezi Hunters

Area: Sango, Save Valley Conservancy.
Dates: 21st May to 3rd June 2017
Outfitter: Zambezi Hunter (Booked Directly: Alistair Pole & Winston Tylor)
PHs: Ian Bachelor (My Father’s Hunt) and Thierry Labat for Leopard.
Rifles: 375 H&H, 300 Win Mag and .243
Animals Hunted: Leopard, Eland, Waterbuck, Kudu, Zebra (2), Warthog, Giraffe, Wildebeast (2), Jackal, Honeybadger, Klipspringer, Baboon and Bait Impalas (10).
Animal Hunted but not collected: Kudu (saw many, wanted an above average one).
Animal Seen: All of the big five and just about everything thing else the Save valley has to offer, the area is extra loaded with game specially Impala, Zebra, Widebeast and Girrafe which are present in great numbers throughout the concession.

Hunt Objective: This was a repeat of our last family safari in Mokore with a retake on Leopard, only this time it was to be hunted by my elder son. The main idea of this hunt was to have some fun time for the whole family in African bush. We wanted to hunt an area where we could enjoy nature with comfort in presence of all Big 5 within the area. Being a family safari both me and my father encouraged the younger hunters to fully participate and shoot as many quality animals as they can. Building on last time’s experience the young hunters and wife performed well 

Zambezi Hunters (ZH): Run by Alistair Pole and Winston Tyler ZH is an excellent company that paid careful attention to every detail of the trip delivering a customized Safari which only had pleasant surprises that exceeded our expectations. They operate in some excellent areas and their backend dealing is second to none, they have our highest recommendation.

PHs:

Thierry Labat

There are a lot of great reviews about Thierry on AR and I can now gladly say that we found Thierry matching every word of praise that is written here. Thierry is a great PH who has the best ethical hunting sense that I have ever experienced, his thinking and reaction to different hunting challenges on the trip was simply amazing. He has a passion for Leopard hunting and his methods are thorough that reflects in his successful results. On top of being a great hunter, he is a gem of a guy a pleasure to be with and always thinking about the comfort of his clients. I have hunted a few times in Africa and can safely say that he is the best PH I have hunted with so far.

Ian Bachelor

Ian was my father’s PH assigned to plains game hunting of my Sons and he also helped in Baiting process. My father and Sons enjoyed hunting with him. He is a old school PH who works hard to deliver a very enjoyable safari experience. He conducted my Sons hunt very well encouraging them to believe in themselves with great results. Ian has been extensively hunting in Tanzania and other part of Africa and it was great discussing his experiences over the years.

Traveling: We took Emirates via Dubai and Lusaka to Harare, as usual, Emirates was a treat to fly with. We arrived at Harare in evening and cleared the immigration in a breeze. Zambezi Hunter’s Managing Director Winston Taylor was waiting for us outside and took us to Armadale guest house in Harare.

Early next morning we chartered into Sango and was recived by our Phs.

Area: Sango is one of the most game rich concession that I have been to with amazing number of plainsgame, Buffalo, Leopard and Elephants. Rhinos, Wilddogs, Lions and Cheetahs are all present and were seen on this safari.

Cheetah got real close to Impalas but then they were more worried about us thats why they didn't go for the final charge.

Thierry calling Wild Dogs, they came as close as 3 yards from him.

Sango Tented Camp: A great traditional African Safari Tent that is so luxurious that it far exceeded our expectations. The details given to everything is just phenomenal and the sundowners were made a special occasion. The camp is scrupulously run by Jannie and Cathy Leibenberg.

It was Ian’s birthday during safari and he got to cut a wonderful cake that we all enjoyed.

Sango Lodge: is about as luxurious as you can get in African Bush, it is really astounding to see such a spectacle in the middle of African bush. We stayed here in the later part of our hunt for a short time. The lodge is managed by Matt and Tshana:

And the GYM

The Plains game Hunt for the Kids: The kids had a great time hunting in Ian’s guidance and under the watchful eye of my father who loved seeing his grandsons following the family traditions.

The skinning Shed

The Leopard Hunt: Thierry is Leopard hunting artist and it is a mesmerizing experience to watch and participate in Thierry’s show. We had 12 baits put up in 4 days of hunting and had 7 different males feeding along with lot of females on different baits as shown in the Map.

My son shot the Leopard on 5th evening of the hunt and first night in blind with a well placed 375 bullet and the Leopard going 25 yards from the bait tree before giving up. It was an old male and a great proper trophy that my son can be real proud off.

Mudini setting up baits.

Trail Cam is an integral part of today’s Leopard Hunting

Conclusion: Keeping the hunt objective in mind, this is probably the best place run by some quality people of both ZH Hunters and Sango and with the professionalism of the two PHs, this was a class safari that we thoroughly enjoyed from A to Z.

Some Sundowner we had:

Sun Setting on the last day of Safari

Ahmed Sultan

Posts: 733 | Registered: 29 June 2007

mboga biga bwana

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