Company. Ratanakiri safaris
Ph. Felix Barrado
Game sought. Lion,leopard,buffalo, eland,kudu,waterbuck,etc
Game seen. Except honey badger, stripped hiena,civet cat, basically everything!

I have a long hunting relation with Felix Barrado. My father used to hunt with him In the cameroon rainforest in the early 80’s. I hunted with him in the rainforest three times there this century. Plus two times in TZ in short safaris. due to work, new house and two children I had lost a little contact with him recently. Had a big surprise when I saw his offer in AR. I allways thought that a full bag Tanzania safari was out of my reach. This covid thing changed my odds. Allways look on the bright side of total chaos.
I called him and chatted for hours. He got this area a year ago and has the lease for 10 years. He told me it is the best area he has had in Tanzania. I thought he was overselling it a bit but as I have allways had incredible safaris with him would give it a chance. It delivered bEyond expectations. We saw leopards in full daylight three days. We had leopard feeding 10 minutes from camp. We saw lions everyday in full daylight. I must say the where fat as hogs and only touched one bait. So it was spot and stalk! Game was on.
First day we started hunting plainsgame for baits. He suggested hippo but I was reluctant to shoot another one. Funds were short and I preferred to use them on buffalo and assorted plainsgame. The first day Got kongoni, waterbuck and reedbuck. Game was on.
Hanged baits and two got hit. Build blind and no succes. He came back after dark. Next day he came back on time but a swirl of wind killed my chance.
That night Felix and I had a long conversation on what were my targets and the conclusion was I would focus on lion and buffalo. That done we would focus on leopard.
The next few days I screwed up all the tracking and succesful stalks with my 500 NE arrizabalaga & very poor marksmanship. I have hunted for a few years with that rifle but this area was more open than expected and I was shooting between 120 to 150 mts missing miserably hole dagga boys. I had to readjust my mental scheme and things improved greatly.
We had a bait at a corner of the concesion. A friend of mine went there with Tim Martin from the Osprey filming company and saw the bait had been hit by a huge lion.Refreshing tha bait was the plan for next day.
On the way back to camp after the early start I was having a profound meditation on the back of the cruiser when I was awoken by Felix saying “ grab your 500 and shoot that dagga boy”. As I watched to my right I could see three Dagga boys watching me from the other side of the river. The fortune was smiling to me! Grabbed the rifle, loaded It as I jumped and drilled two holes on him.( both high). “Ok grab more ammo and lets finish him”
As we where tracking an abundant spoor of blood we found him on some thick stuff. Shot again. Bomm. As we come near, slowly, Babu Mole says” Bwana now 2 Dagga boys big problem.” And they were heading to the thick, thick stuff.
As we advanced pole pole we heard what we thought was a long death bellow. Big smiles all over when suddenly another one broke the silence from another spot but ...... what we though were death bellows started to sound weird. The buffalo were running and bellowing in circles in the thick stuff. We didn’t understand what was happening but all became clear when we herd a grunt and saw a lion coming out and in again on the thick stuff. LIONS. They were finishing the job I had started. My first reaction was to tell Felix to let the lions finish the work, eat and that latter we could collect the horns and maybe a lion! Told me to calm down and as he was saying so we saw one of them moviving vegetation staight to us as on a shark attack! We started screaming and yelling as we waited for him ( or her) to emerge merely 10 meters of us. Decided wisely to turn arround and go back to the buffalo. The grunting, bellowing and movement stopped after the yelling and a tense calm appeard to fall arround us. The images I has seen were Imilar to jurassic park when the velociraptors attacked and u could not see them.
After what seemed an eternity we started quietly to advance again to see what we could see. Not much. As we got closer to dagga boys appeared straight on to us at 12 mts out of the green in what a thought was a charge. At 9 mys they turned left and I dropped one with the right barrel and hit the second one with the left one on the shoulder. He inmeditely dissapearde again in the thick stuff. The trackers hadn’t flinched an atom. They informed us that the two dagga boys were being chased by a lion. I never saw it! Apparently when I shot he vanished! Now we had one down and the other with a serious hit of the 500. The trackers could see him in the green and advised me were it was so I finished him. Now wait and check for lions. All of a sudden I see another Dagga boy and empty my to barrels with two solid thuaws. A third one! He dissapeared.
Time to check situation. I had shot all the bullets I had on me! I speak with Felix and says he will go in to check alone. I plainly refuse. He has two young girls and I like to finish what I start. So we send the trackers to fetch my last bullets from the car. They say they will go but they want someone with a rifle to go with them because now they don’t know were lions have gone. The gamescout goes with them while Felix, Tim and I wait. We can hear the shuffle of leaves were the buffalo dissapeared and we don't know if it is the buffalo or the lions.something is alive and waiting, like us.
When they return only 3 pills of the 500 were left in the car. Reload and slowly into the thicket. Very slowly. Suddenly the trackers point a lying buffalo and I let two go. He is dead for good. As I advance slowly with a nervous smile on my face the trackers point to my left and urge me to shoot??? A buffalo was lokking at us as if we owed him money. Thanks God I had reloaded my last bullet. Let tmy last bullet fly and he crashes through the thick miombo. Silence. I quickly crawl up a tree. No gun no party! I have my two own childs waiting at home. From my vantage point I could see the buffalo waiting for us and urge them to pass me a rifle. They do and as I aim I am pretty sure When I shoot I will fall from the tree like an apple. Shoot and the 416 feels like a BB gun after the 500. Pass the rifle down and Felix runs in to put an insuarence shoot.
We have 4 dagga boys in a 30 meter radius and no one is harmed!!!!life is good today! This has been the most furious action I have ever had hunting buffalo in my life! The 21 day license now enables you 4 buffalo wich has been a bonus.
When we got back to camp my friends Dani and Ramon had shot one each and early in the morning had seen by the camp a coalition of two BIG lions and had taken photos of them. We had been seeing lions every day and had seen leopards on daylight but this lions where what dreams are made of. My first question was I had heard in selous lions had no mane and this two had BIG manes. Felix explained that some have and some don’t but this area had not being hunted for 6 years and the adjoining N1 and N2 were left by Pasanisi and also had not seen a hunter for a long time. Now they have been declared national park.
They had made us the favour of hanging a bait, half of a fresh buffalo, and early in the morning we went to check. Untouched. Felix said we sould try to locate them because he was sure they were not far. As luck had being shining on my on this safari it kept on doing it. 10 minutes latter we had located the two brothers restingin the sun. As we appoached one crossed the river and dissapeared into The riverine thicket. The other one kept lying down, relaxed. As we closed the distance I prayed for him to stay put and when we could not get closer I layed on the sand and waited for him to stand. Minutes went by and all of a sudden he stood up and started walking away. I nearly screamed. He turned broadside, the scope steady, hairtrigger on and a bullet flied. At the shoot the lion whirlwind in a cloud of dust and grunts biting his foreleg, tail up into the air. Then he runned and disspeared in the long grass.
I missed my follow up shoots but I knew the first one was good. We waited and I would have killed for a Cigar. I quit three years ago but.... called the car and went into the long grass. I mustbsay allthough I was confident in my shoot I was nervous. Felix words had me on high alert. “ if he has a bit of life left he will fight and try to kill us. Keep focused” When we saw him, sun shining on him this esrly morning a feeling of fulfilment invaded me. I just could tap him and admire his power and elegance. Selous lions have mane! A dream fulfilled. I just could not stop thinking of my father and grandfather that started me on hunting with a BB gun for sparrows. Dad is back home recovering from covid but soon we will hunt together again.
Eland.
One afternoon as we were going back to camp Felix saw an eland sneaking away. Go for it. He is a big boy. As I walked uphill following Babumole I thought we had a good chance of catching up. As we crested, nothing, emptiness. All lf a sudden Babumole starts pointingand whispering shoot the black one, shoot the black one. I was looking arround without seeing black or white buthe kept getting more and more excited until I realiced he was on the next hill.Broadside. 247 mts. I had my trustworthy 7mm santa barbara and knew I had to make the shot count. As I aimed the gun Babumole kept urgen me to shoot. I wanted to but a cow had his shoulder perfectly covered. I waited and thought Babu would have a heart attack. Inhis will to help he pushed himself under my left shoulder but I would have non of it and pushed him gently aside. He was nearly crying. As the cow moved I left one fly and I heard a solid thump. You hit him screamed Babu. As we walked there I started thinking what would we so with the light quickly fading if I had wounded it like the kudu a few days early... he had run 20 meters and collapsed. Abu was looking at the tracks a d when I pointed it to him he was in ecstasy! Good Ñama Diego. Good Ñama. The eland was a beast and is probably the biggest I have shoot so far. My small sirocco bullet( norma) 150 grains had done the job drilling a perfect hole in his heart. That stalk will stay with me forever.
Kudu
As we were driving after I had missed (again) a buffalo we saw a magnificent Kudu. I jumped of the car and started following the tracks. The biggest error was I left my 500 behind. Never again. As we were following a pair of huge dagga boys appeared not more than 70 meters from us on the wide clean open. We inmediatelyhit the ground and they did not see us. We could clearly see he was 43 or 44 inches wide with horns dropping like the stock market in spain and was walking perfectly broadside. I wanted to shoot him with my 7 mm but Felix was very reluctant. He prefered to go back to the Gary, pick the 500 and follow. I had him and knew I could drill a hole in his heart but.... after the longest minute of my life with the safe of and an itchy finger wind changed and they run into a korrongo...
We ran to the car and grabbed the 500 and went in hot pursuit but plans went pear shape very quickly. As we advanced towards the Korrongo a magnificent Kudu appeared in the open plains at 310 meters! It was a beauty and I allways have had a soft spot for kudus. This one was the biggest Kudu I have ever seen in Tanzania. I was hesitant but decided I would play the cards I was given. I setteled on the sticks and left one fly. The thwack seemed like a solid hit but as two hours of tracking proved it was a low hit and we lost him forever. I was really upset about this because I absolutely hate leaving wounded animals. Next day we came back but no sign of him. Probably by then hienas would have finished him. I never saw another kudu like this on the safari.
Crocodile and hippo.
As we were hunting hippo for bait we saw a huge croc in a big amount of water left in the dry season. He was at least a 14 footer but I wa focusing on hippo and was told we would bait him. We slowly proceeded towards the hippo and as he stood up from the water I was urged to shoot. Click. Failure of my solid ( kynoch) my surprised face must have been a poem. This was a first one for me. The hippo lived happily everafter and I found out that the 5 kynoch bullets did not work. My fault. Yhey are old. We baited the croc but he only fed at night. There were two others in that pond but smaller.
As I completely run out of funds I resumed to be an observer and lend my car to my friends so their 2x1 safari became 1x1 after a few days we all left together.
Impala.
I shot and wounded an impala to refresh a leopard bait. The leopard had allready finished a reedbuck and an impala seemed perfect. A shot and two hours tracking to no avail. Hunting is peculiar sometimes. We tracked under a torrid sUn at midday without succes. Next day my friends came back to camp asking why we had left a Dead impala With the trophy by the road. They had found him two meters from the road were we had called the Gary the previous day. ??? Impala recovered! They left the body by the rosd and next day a leopard had taken it away into some thick stuff!
Niassan wildebeest.
I have shoot many wildebeest in my life but Felix insisted that this was a subspecies. They were so abundant that I said the only way I would shoot one would be with my double. Felix nearly cried when we saw a monster bull at 138 mts and I refused to shoot with the 7 mm. On the third day we were checking a riverbed with a big heard of buffalo when this wildebeest bull kept gettin in our way. After seeing there were no buffalo of note I de ided to try to get the wildebeest. After two shoots of my 500 he collapsed and I had my Niassa wildebeest. I had two on my license but I refused to take anotherone. Plenti of them screwed a few opportunities with other game.
In resume a wonderful safari that funds made shorter than I pretended.

Would really appreciate if I could whattapp photos to someone to post them. Thanks in advance. Photos are not in order but it is my first time winning with photos so hurray!!!

Great so far...

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

Felicitaciones!

Excellent Diego. 4 dagga boys in half an hour is unbelievable.

Thanks to all. Can anyone help with photos?

The easiest way to post photos is with postimages.org. There are instructions and a 60-second video tutorial at the link in my signature.

Hannay THANKS!!! Essiest ever! U are a genious!!!!

Fantastic safari, and report.Good for you Diego,
big congrats!

That's great, Diego! Thanks for posting it.

Fantastic TZ safari... congrats!

Nice work if you can get it, Diego.

Great safari, in the best hunting grounds on planet Earth.

I congratulate you, my friend in spirit, if not in life, and only wish I had somehow been able to be there with you!

Excellent!

That was a heck of a ride for you! Congrats!

Wow - that's a hell of a hunt with excellent trophies to boot- well done indeed

Incredible. Two great hunts by Spaniards recently!

Plenty of amazing Trophys taken on one Safari.
Congrats to all involved.

Thanks to all of u! Lets see whats next!

Nice

This is the area that has the offer in outffiters. Nachengo Magenge

Congratulations on
some great trophies!