03 October 2008, 07:29
adrookLuangwa Valley Zambia with Muchinga Adventures (More Pics Added)
Safari dates: 9/16-9/25 2008Booking: Mark Young with Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Travel: Melanie Brown at Gracy Travel
PHs: Alister Norton and Abie DuPlooy
Area: Luangwa Valley, Nyaminga Concession, Zambia
Rifles: Wffn Hein .450 Dakota with 1.25-4X Leupold in Talley QR mounts with 450 gr Barnes TSX handload and Winchester M70 .375 H&H Mag with 2-7x Kahles CL in Leupold QR mounts with 270 gr Barnes TSX handload.
Animals hunted and taken: Cape buffalo, Hippopotamus, Puku, Bushbuck, Impala
Animals hunted and not taken: Hyena, Warthog
Animals seen but not hunted: Elephant, Lion, Baboon, Cookson's Wildebeast, Honey Badger, Greater Kudu, Zebra, Waterbuck
We booked this safari through Mark Young with Adam Clements Safari Trackers back in mid-2006. The service we received from Mark, Adam, Jamie, and Chantelle was outstanding. This was the first trip to Africa for all of us; myself, my wife Paula, my hunting partner Tim, and our observer Brian. The entire trip was nothing short of perfect and could not have went better. I have heard and read a lot of horror stories about first trips to Africa but our's could not have been any more different. Everything was superb. We flew the Delta Atlanta-Dakar-Johannesburg route and then SAA from Joburg to Lusaka and then chartered into the concession from Lusaka.
We got into Lusaka on Saturday and spent the next two nights at the Holiday Inn. Johnny and Laura's able assistant, Teresia, picked us up on Sunday and took us to the strip mall where the locals come to sell their wares. We bought a lot of neat souvenirs. If you go to Lusaka don't miss this market, they are only there on Sundays.
Here is Teresia helping Paula negotiate the purchase of a table.
We chartered into camp on Monday. Wayne, the pilot for Staravia, was a delight. We got to know him a bit since he would spend the night in camp before flying out the next morning. Wayne and his father own Staravia, the charter company. When we chartered back to Lusaka at the end of our safari Wayne let me ride in the co-pilot's seat and then gave me a crash course in flying and then actually let me fly the plane. He then asked if I would like to see how the plane flies with only one engine to which I said "Sure!". He cut the starboard engine and then I got to lean into the back of the plane and yell "Oh Shit, we just lost an engine!!!" We all had a good laugh after everyone realized we weren't going to die.
Here's some pics of us chartering in.
Here we are heading for camp.
On the way to our camp we stopped by the Kamira camp where AR member Andy E (one of the new owners of North Fork Bullets) and his party were staying.
After we got to our camp we had a nice lunch. The food in Johnny's camps is excellent. Words can't really describe just how good the food is.
Here is a typical dinner. Yum! That is Abie DuPlooy at the head of the table. When there's lead in the air, there's hope! If you know Abie you know what that means.
The chalets are spacious and very comfortable with toilet, sink, and shower. The beds are comfortable and have good mattresses and mosquito nets.
I hunted with Alister Norton, we could not have been a better match. We became good friends over the course of this hunt. Alister is a fantastic PH and a blast to hang out with. My wife adored him and I really appreciate how attentive he was to her needs and how hard he worked to include her in everything and to make sure that she had a good time and was enjoying herself. Alister had her right up there with us when we stalked the animals (even buffalo), she was right with us when I shot the buff and even when we were tracking him after the shot not knowing if he was dead, alive, or laid up waiting on us. Fun stuff!
Here is my fearless PH, fearless for putting up with my shit for 11 days, he has that in common with my beautiful wife.
Alister and his Uncle Abie. Sort of like the bush version of Batman and Robin or The Lone Ranger and Tonto.
On Day 1 we we woke at about 5:00 am and had breakfast. We were on buffalo by 7:00 am. The typical day consists of driving the roads looking for fresh tracks and then when we would find them we would begin to track on foot. We cut the tracks of a herd of dugga boys that AR member GarBy had actually told me about the night before we left after he had returned from his safari. We tracked them for about 3 hours and finally got to within about 80 to 100 yards of them in some pretty thick forest. One bull was visible which Alister estimated to be about 43". I could see him but he was in some pretty dark cover and here is where I had a snafu with my scope. My .450 wears a 1.25-4x Leupold with a super heavy duplex crosshair. The combination of the too heavy crosshair and only 4x prevented me from getting a shot as I didn't feel I could precisely place the shot into the buff given all the cover he was surrounded by. The buff took off. We caught up to them once more but the only bull we could get up to was a smaller maybe 36" bull, we didn't get close to the big bull again. We tracked them for the rest of the day until we eventually chased them across the river and into the park.
I know it may be heresy here to say this but I will never take a 1.25-4x or 1.5-5x scope with a heavy duplex on a buff hunt again. I am certain that that combination cost me that buffalo. For all you true believers, that scope and its Talley QR rings will be in the classifieds forum shortly. My .450 will wear a 2-7x or 2.5-8x with a standard duplex next time.
We had better luck on Day 2. Shortly after leaving camp Donald, the game scout, spotted a nice bushbuck. We hopped out, did a short stalk, up on the sticks, and bang! I took a nice bushbuck. Aren't they just beautiful? Bushbuck are one of my favorite animals, I love their pluck and pugnacity. They're tough little guys.
We drove on a short distance looking for buffalo tracks when Alister spotted a nice puku. We glassed him and Alister said "That's a nice puku, if we see him again later in the safari we'll take him." I said "Let's shoot him." and Alister said "We don't want to fill all of your tags in one day." to which I asked "Do you think we will do better than him?" Alister said "Probably not" so I said "Let's take him." He spooked and ran a short distance but the trackers were on him and we found him in short order. Up went the sticks and I shot him at about 60 yards. The bushbuck and puku were both taken with the .375.
We loaded the puku and decided to head back to camp to drop it and the bushbuck off at the skinning shed. It was on the way back that we spotted the tracks of the herd of dugga boys that we had chased into the park the previous day. The buffalo had crossed the road after we had passed through a short time earlier that morning. Had I not decided to take the puku we would have missed the tracks because we would have driven on and not come back to go to the skinning shed at that time and we most likely would not have gotten on this buff. Funny how the hunting gods smile on you at times. We went back to camp and dropped off the bushbuck and puku, had coffee and then headed back out to track the buffalo. We only tracked them for about an hour before we were on them. My first shot was at about 90 yards with the .375 and the 270 gr TSX. The buffalo went down and got back up and turned to run off. Alister yelled "Shoot him again!!". I shot him again, a quartering shot through the ass as he ran off. We waited for a few minutes and went to where the buff had been standing. We immediately found blood and took up the track. He had made for the really tall, thick kasense grass where the visibility is effectively zero. We were close and could hear him moving in the grass. Alister asked me if I minded if he shot if the buffalo were to get up. I said "Not at all." I thought it very considerate of him to ask, Alister is no Mark Sullivan type. Alister sent Lamick, the tracker, up a tree to see if he could spot the buff. About that time we heard the death bellow and Alister smiled and whispered "He's dying". Lamick spotted him in the grass and motioned to where he was. We waited for a few minutes and went in. We found him lying down dead but I shot him in the chest again just to make sure. It was a really exciting hunt. I can't wait to do it again.
Here he is.
The skinners recovered this bullet from the buffalo. It was a quartering shot and the bullet penetrated about 5 feet of buffalo and came to rest under the skin on the far side. The load was 74.0gr RL-15 with Fed 215 primer. The 270gr TSX will kill buffalo. The bullet still weighs 270 grains.
After the buff we took a break and, at my request, had a party that night. A good time was had by all.
On Friday, Day 4, we came across a poached elephant. He had been shot in another concession and had come into our concession and died. Alister said he was 25-30 pounds per side. The bastards had chopped out the tusks and left the rest. The game scouts and some of the villagers smoke dried the meat, so nothing went to waste.
Here is what was left after they were done.
On Saturday, Day 5 Brian decided to take an animal. Brian made a perfect broadside shot with Tim's 30-06 on this nice impala.
This is Paula and I with Brian and his impala. This was Brian's first kill ever. He made a good shot and a clean kill, can't ask for more. A hunter is born and has a bright future ahead.
Unfortunately for Brian this was the first kill of his hunting career and Alister informed him that he must respect hunting tradition and eat the impala's balls raw. He was a sport about it but I think that he much preferred them sliced and fried that evening in camp to raw.
On Sunday, Day 6, we had a shooting contest with the big guns, we were shooting at a box out on the dry riverbed at about 300 yards. Abie has a Browning chambered in .450 Watt that weighs about 7 pounds. He got into a shootout with a hippo and was forced to fire 7 shots in rapid succession and it broke off one of his molars. He came back to camp with half a tooth in his shirt pocket. If you have never met Abie you are in for a treat, he is a hoot.
Here I am shooting Abie's .450 Watt.
Speaking of shootouts. Here is Tim right after he killed his old dugga boy buffalo. He had quite a firefight with the old boy, notice that there isn't many rounds left in his ammo carrier!!!
Those buffalo are tough!!! That is a story for Tim's report which he will be posting in the near future.
On Monday, Day 7, we found a nice hippo bull and I took him. I wanted to hunt hippo on land but they come back into the river at 3:00 or 4:00 am and it is just not feasible. I shot this guy in the water, not sporting by any means but interesting nonetheless.
My gunbearer on the hippo hunt.
We hired some fishermen for a few kwachas to butcher it. I was just waiting for someone to be decapitated with a native axe during the melee but, alas, no one was.
Here's Freddie, one of the trackers, carrying the hippo's tail to the cruiser. We had hippo tail soup that evening. Delicious.
I thought it was interesting how much grass was in the hippo's stomach. It looks like emptying the grass catcher on a lawn mower.
When the fishermen were finished this is what was left. From hippo to bloody spot in 2 hours. In Africa protein does not go to waste.
On Tuesday, Day 8, we headed to the village to deliver two bales of clothing that had been purchased by Alister with money that had been most generously donated by AR member Jeff H during his safari earlier in the summer.
I snapped this pic of this big old baobab tree on the way to the village.
At the entrance to the village Alister pointed out buffalo bean to us. Nasty stuff!
Alister instructed the villagers to queu up to receive the clothing but this was done entirely for the benefit of my wife and I.
This little guy was quite sad.
Alister said that the orderly distribution of the clothing would last, at most, for only a few minutes before descending into chaos. He could not have been more correct. They mobbed us and we ended up driving off and throwing the clothes at them as they chased the cruiser. My wife and I were on the back of the cruiser and there was a time for a few minutes where I felt like they would have torn us from limb to limb to get the clothing if they could have gotten to us. A mob mentality is quite sobering. We were in no danger, however, and it was neat to experience how such a simple thing as some children's clothing could make them so happy.
We stopped at the school on the way out of the village but the reaction was the same. We had to drive on and throw the clothing to them.
After we cleared the village we stopped for a cold drink and a few more villagers showed up, my wife gave them some candy.
The villagers definitely appreciated Jeff's generosity.
On Day 9 we had some time to kill so Alister dressed my wife up as a PH and took these pictures of her posing with his rifle and shooting sticks. As much as I think of Alister I have to say that she makes a better looking PH than him or, at the very least, I would rather share a machan with her than him (Alister knows what I mean).
There is so much more to tell about this safari, if I only had the time. We had the time of our lives and we are already making plans to return. We have wonderful memories and made some great friends.
Alister.
He told me that the client makes the safari. I beg to differ. The PH made the safari for this client. If you get the chance to hunt with Alister, jump on it. He is one of a kind, the best.
I cannot say enough good things about Johnny DuPlooy's Muchinga Adventures, Johnny runs a phenomenal operation. Everything was perfect. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Here are some miscellaneous pictures.
Alister got us in close to this guy.
Pod of hippo.
Glassing a pod of hippo looking for a big one.
Herd of puku.
Wall spider, you will share your quarters with these guys but they are friendly and they don't snore.
We also shared quarters with these cute geckos.
and these frogs who lived in the bathroom by the sink!!!
This is a spider that I killed crawling up my bare leg in the cruiser. I took it back to camp and Abie said it was a black velvet spider and that it has a necrotizing bite like the bite of a brown recluse. Glad it didn't take a piece out of me!!!
Here is where the food is cooked. Amazing.
Here is Tim with Samson the cook (a genius) and Mati, one of the waiters.
Here is the fire over which the food is cooked. They build a mopane fire on one side, bake bread on the other side (all of the bread is fresh baked and delicious) and cook on the steel plate over the top.
Here is where the camp staff is quartered.
Here is a typical morning's view from camp of the river. The Luangwa is a zoo, a wonderful, magical place.
Lastly, sunset on the Luangwa River. These two pictures say it all. We started missing the place before we even left.
