Well - am off on monday morning at 03h00 CAT and going up to the concession to go and do some hunting.

well thats all im going to say for now - needless to say that i will be gone for a good 7 days hunting and a couple traveling

the 4 x 4 is packed, gear ready, kit sorted, rifle checked and re-cleaned, barrel mouth taped shut with electrical tape.

oh and a couple of softs and a whole bunch of solids....

watch this space..... i will post a daily update as from Monday evening the 4th if possible

ciao

As of Sunday 10th April - updated

i will upload photos at another time.

well what can i say except that it was one hectic trip, by far the most exhausting one that i have been on in the last two years.

the low down on the trip was to take care of PAC elephant and buffalo that are raiding fields. in reality trying to stop buffalo from eating maize is next to impossible and all that one accomplishes is putting a tangible value on the buffalo for the community excpet via trophy fees - meat, that way even though they occur losses from crop raiders they get it back in fair gain with meat. also the shooting does tend to chase the buffalo away for a couple of nights furthermore decreasing losses to crops. win

i arrived up in camp at about 23h30 and went straight to bed having left instructions with the staff to get ready for an early departure from camp together with the all the required gear for a fly camp in the bush, it did not take long for the effects of a long trip to take its toll and i was soon cutting down tree's along the banks of the river.

next morning i got up and marvelled at how low the water level was in the Limpopo River also at the clarity, it was dropping quick and i understood clearly why crop raiding had reached a zenith! while the guys were packing the rig for the drive up to the northern part of the concession i sat under the fig tree and had a slice of toast and a cup of bitter sweet coffee - something strange was going on, the river was becoming louder and louder, i looked upstream and saw a flotilla of white foam heading my way.

Southern Africa had recieved a lot of rain in the last two weeks and this was the flood water finally arriving downsteam on the Limpopo River close to where Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa meet. over the next two hours the river level had risen at least a meter and the water had come from grey greasy to turmutlious brown with tree stumps, etc, floating downstream...

the river level coming up so suddenly had effectively put an end to crop raiding in the Southern part of the concession along the Limpopo River from the Kruger bulls, my decision was made to move off up north to start with the elephant raiding crops some 2 hours from my camp.

We arrived in the area to set up the fly camp and to have a look at the activity of the crop raiding elephant, insidently crop raiding had gone off the boil and no activity had been seen in 4 days. interesting news is that the crop raiding elephant are a group of 7 bulls, of which 4 are trophy bulls over 60 pounds going by reports of the locals on the size of the ivory and the tracks. so insted of shooting one of the smaller bulls in the group and chasing the whole batchelor herd off for good i paid the farmer out in cash for damages recieved with the promise of more money if an elephant is shot in her crop resulting from reliable and accurate information from her. i got a call this morning from the farmer telling me that the bulls are back in the fields. my tracker is busy making his way to the fields as we speak to get visuals on the bulls and a hunt for one of the big bulls will be planned as soon as Bob gets back with information on the size of the bulls.

so back down south to Limpopo River to take on some crop raiding buffalo. in short i saw plenty of buffalo while down along the river, in excess of 300 buffalo whilst there - had i been hunting for myself i could have shot 3 trophy bulls a day but we had to shoot these buggers in the fields.

we i had my game scouts go out prior to my arrival in camp together with the community game scout to assess which fields were hardest hit and which farmers had suffered the greatest damage to their crops. the spoor and reports soon showed that big herds of buffalo were raiding crops with herd sizes varying from 40 - 150 buffalo per raiding party. it does not take much of an imagination to imagine what 150 bovines can do to a subsistent farm.... i did not even take any photos of the damage that these buffalo did as it would appear that the fields were simply bare of maize.....

the fields surround a massive pan that is grown closed by 8 ft tall reeds / grass, these buffalo take refuge in the long grass where they can take refuge from just about everything, to go walking in there is nasty and not fun at all. besides having 8 ft tall vegitation in it, it resembles a marsh / bog with thick, mulchy, wet black stinking mud and trying to walk through is a real mission - one can imagine what the mossies are like there and remember it is malaria area.

we had decided on a field where we would wait it out for the buffalo to come to feed, and settled in for the long wait. the temperatures must have been close to 40 C and the humidity exceptionally high and my white skin must have been like a fancy Rapala lure to the mossies and they zoomed in to try and carry me off whole to be eaten at leasure somewhere in the tall grass. i sprayed peaceful sleep, etc, etc, you name it and it didnt work for very long - i think the persperation had something to do with it. i eventually took a Remington gun oil wipe and rubbed my exposed area with the gun oil in desperation of trying to keep the damn mossies away. it didnt work, and by 10h30 the wind had picked up to such an extent that we would not even be able to hear the buffalo coming into the fields so we called it a night.

i was only too relieved to be back at camp away from the squadrons of mossies trying to attack my core existance.

the next morning we were out at the field again to see if the buffalo had come in and sure enough a group of about 50 had come and fed, the farmer said he didnt even think the buffalo had fed because he couldnt hear them due to the wind. we drove off with promises to be back to nab a buffalo in the field that night.

we took a drive along the river back to camp and stopped when we smelt a foul stench in the air - the buffalo had died whilst giving birth and due to the river level being high the hyena's were screaming on the Kruger side itching to get over to feast...

that afternoon we were back at the farmers field and settled in to wait, this time it was cold and i was thankful that i could wear a fleese jacket to keep the cold and mozzies away. i snuggled up like a todler on the back seat of the landy and got comfy for the wait ahead, sleep soon took me away - i was awoken by the sound of a mosquito squadron closing in on my head, so went the night with sleep being fitfull and non satisying.

02h00 i hear the buffalo off to the tree's, branches breaking and the occasional snort. kick staff awake and into position, moans and groans curses at the mossies all round.

02h20 the buffalo are visible and are about 60 m away, i tell the community game scout to hit the light and very soon the red light floods the immediate area before us. the buffalo are unfased and i whisper to Ishumael to take the one on the far right and ill take the one left of it. two cows standing to one side of the herd of about 60 plus buffalo. Note - there were two really big bulls in that herd and boy it would of been something to take one....

the sharp report of Ishumael's 375 and my 458 wm breaking the silence is ear shattering at that time of the morning, follow your target, my buff prances as to show that its taken a good hit to the vitals, i get a quick follow up shot in for insurance and she disapears into the long grass with the rest of the herd.

the silence that follows is.... well deafening to say the least, nothing stirrs - no buffalo, no nothing. i deicde to light a fire under a nearby tree and curl up for at least 3 hours of sleep next to the fire rather than turning back towards camp and maybe getting in an hours sleep before having to turn back to the fields.

my pillow comprises of a toilet paper roll and well it was not a good night, mossies and ants harrass me to the point of suicide - sun up could not have come any sooner.

we follow the blood spoor of my buffalo and find her some 50 m from where she took her shot - we heard her death below and knew that she was done.

we then took the blood spoor of the Buffalo that Ishumael shot and at once the blood trail did not look healthy, i turned back to inspect where the buffalo was standing where it was shot and saw immediately that the bullet had deflected somewhat from a small tree / bush that neither of us saw.

the wounded buffalo spoor lead straight into the 8ft tall grass in the swamp and i knew that this was not going to be fun at all.... the blood was lung blood but not plentiful.... tracking was VERY slow and i sent non essential staff back to the truck and gave my two trackers the option of staying behind - they thanked me and carried on tracking.

we took a good three hours to track the blood spoor through the tall grass and it was tense to say the least, we bumped into two smaller herds along the way that had bedded down for the day. the wounded buffalo was not amoungst them.

to cut a long story short, the wounded buffalo took us along and through every thicket of bush and after 7 hours we eventually found her with he herd, she was standing to one side looking rather sick. a quick volley dispatched the wounded animal and i was only to happy.

i did not take any photos of the buffalo that we had shot. the mosquito's, pepper ticks, wounded animal, having to shoot an animal at night, all added up and well to say that this trip was a blast would be otherwise. sometimes things just dont pan out as expected - it seemed like it had to be done. i could lie and say that wow what a trip, and blada-blada-blada but hey not everything in life works out the way you want it.

thanks for reading i will try and post Photo's below.

cheers



TBC - more to come when i get a gap

You sick bastard you



You know I would give your left nut to be there hunting with you.



Dont let the eles and buffys stomp you before I do.

Have fun and be safe Pard

SSR

if you post here day like you reply to emails we will all be toe's up before we here from you again you need a good manager to take care for things like that for you!!!!! and I know just the guy for the job!!!!! are you going to post the picture of dino?????????? nov. looks better after a chat with my boss today

Good luck Aubrey! I heard Nixon's hunter took a 95 pounder up there in the general area this week...

I want the posts!

Hi Guys,

short note - i have not even been able to set foot in the veld yet, i had to travel the opposite direction to have a look at an additional hunting destination....

needless to say i will post some info tomorrow night if possible and at worst case thursday morning.

regards

aubrey

Hey Pard,

Stay safe and stay in touch. if you hammer something fun take pics so you can make us sick.





SSR

Aubs

Be honest guy that landie left you along the rode and a cruiser had to come and town you into your camp.Thats why you not in the field hunting.


Mate enjoy your few days hunting wish i was there but believe it or not im working my ass off.

Luan

Luan he had to leave the Landy home it was broke he took a matatu to get to camp
and LOOK behind you your ass is still there!!! no one could work that much ass OFF ya ya ya I know your going to kick my ass when you see me again

Rumor has it Aubrey forgot his ammo!!! The Fed X truck has not arrived yet.

Mike

I think hes hunting Buffys

We just dont know if they have 40in hard caps or are size 6



SSR

maybe he broke his crayons has not figured out how to write without them yet????????? or the Landy is broken down again and he has not ran out of beer yet so he has not fixed it!!!!!! or he has sent one of the boys to town to get spares for the Landy while he guards the beer supplies. In any case we will know when he runs out of beer or when he really needs a McDonald's burger let the negotiations begin

Or what he REALY needs is a LAnd Cruiser!

Updated read the top - and Charl and Luan go and jump

I would like to take a moment to thank Dr. Hook for recommending me for the job of camp manager. And, to Aubrey, I humbly accept the position. Please forward future messages to Sengwe 1, Pelandaba Camp.

I'll bet poor little Bob is worn out, carrying "The Giant of Benoni" around all day and half the night!

Almostacowboy,
Our friend Aubery needs a keeper not a camp manager
But if he gets to many more irons in the fire he's going to need some kind of help!! I think a head doctor would be first in line. even though some of his friend say he is not equipped for a shrinks services

new PH quaters almost completed



staff compound aka "holiday inn"



skinning shed



cabbage patch with paw paw trees



everyone climbs in with the vegetable garden



view of the seedling nursary



this is what the limpopo looks like when it floods



the buffalo cow that died during birth



the community meeting re harvest



traditional Shangani woman attire



the team before setting out from camp on the way up north to set up fly camp

Aubs,

You,re wrong, sounds like a blast to me.

Happy hunting, wish I was there with you.



SSR

quote:

Originally posted by Cross L:
Aubs,

You,re wrong, sounds like a blast to me.

Happy hunting, wish I was there with you.



SSR

Sean,

You are right i did have a blast! it is these sort of trips that stick in ones memory

Thanks!

Aubrey,
you luck B$%@#$d wish I was there right now