12 August 2011, 07:18
DPSZambia - Munyamadzi report: July 10 - 31, 2011 - (Celebration Video Clip added)
A video clip has been added at the bottom of the post. 8/16July10th - July 31st 2011
Operator: Munyamadzi Game Reserve Zambia
PH: Thor Kirchner
Booking Agent: Jeff Neal Inc.
Travel Agent: Kathi Klimes of Wild Travel
Airline: Delta
Rifles: Dakota Arms .375 H&H left hand and a Remington .338 Ultra mag. left hand. I used the .375 for everything and never even pulled the .338 out of the soft case. My son used a camp .270 for all of his animals.
This was my first dangerous game hunt. I’ve hunted many parts of the lower 48, four times in Alaska, New Zealand, South Africa and Tajikistan. Dangerous game is what I’ve been reading and dreaming about for several years. I found out about this hunt through Greg Brownlee who works at Jeff Neal Inc. I was not planning on a trip to Africa this year so for me this was a very last minute hunt. Greg did a great job answering my many detailed questions regarding this hunt and I enjoyed working with him.
Circumstances just happened to allow my 26 year old son Andrew to go along with me on this hunt since he is transitioning into opening his own jewelry store in January. Even though I didn’t want to be away from my business for 25 days we figured this may be the one and only time we get to do a 21 day hunt together.
Once the hunt was booked Kathi Klimes helped me line up my airline tickets, hotel, travel insurance etc. She was very detailed in her communication and I appreciated her help. I will use her services again in the future. We flew business class using Capitol One miles. The experience was great and the lay flat beds really helped us arrive rested and ready to go.
The Munyamadzi is a privately owned property (not fenced) and is the wild Africa I had hoped for. It is extremely remote with no villages anywhere close to the property. My son and I had the entire camp to ourselves with a staff of 25 attending to us. It was amazing that we were in the middle of what seemed like nowhere and had incredible service and great food. The Chalets were very comfortable and there was always plenty of hot running water.
Thor Kirchner was my PH and he was excellent. At only 25 years old he was a perfect fit for us. He is a quiet reserved PH which suited my personality very well. He apprenticed under Richard Bell Cross and Andrew Baldry (fairgame). He was an extremely hard worker and hunter and got us up early in the mornings and had us hunting hard all day.
This hunt was booked as a lion/leopard/buffalo hunt with a $1,000 per day discount if I did not kill a lion. I did not kill a lion on this hunt. We had one male lion come in to bait one evening on day 8. He was a large old lion but had very little mane. Thor thought we should pass on him and that we could do better since it was early in the hunt and I agreed. We did not have another lion hit bait until the 18th day of the hunt but he did not stick around. I’m disappointed that I didn’t kill a lion but that’s why they call it hunting. It was still a fantastic hunt that I would do again in a heartbeat. I know the “trip of a lifetime” is used quite heavily - but to be able to spend 3 weeks with my son in the bush creating memories like this……..it really was priceless.
We had no issues with Delta and flying business class was great. We flew from Harrisburg to Atlanta and then on to Johannesburg where we spent the night. We had a few issues with our rifles because the company we hired for the meet and greet wasn’t expecting us until the following day. We were fortunate that they were there to meet another group so we eventually got it all sorted out.
The following morning we flew to Lusaka and were met by our PH Thor Kirchner. He helped us sort through all of the paperwork for the rifles and ammunition and we were on our way. It was a quick one hour charter to camp. The airstrip at camp was incredible for a grass strip in the middle of the bush.
Here are some pictures of camp. It was very comfortable. You can see what my son called my tree house chalet.
They had one of these for each chalet and always had the fire burning so that we had hot water at all times.
This is what they called “The Garden of Eden”. We ate something from this garden almost every night. There was a battery operated electric fence around the grass fence to keep the elephant out of it.
Head tracker – Illiam
Assistant head tracker Miti – This guy was a lot of fun.
Tracker in training and an expert with the axe – Patrick.
Game scout – Ben – He always pitched in and helped with whatever was needed.
The cook and his kitchen – Comrade. It was amazing that with such a primitive kitchen he could make so many amazing foods.
Camp manager – Justin
The Hunt – One of my goals on this safari was to have a true African hunting experience for myself and my son. The trip wasn’t about shooting as many animals as we could or taking only the biggest animals. Don’t get me wrong – I love it when the record book game comes my way and I do like to know the measurements - but it’s not the most important thing to me. Between the two of us we took 13 different species of animals and the quality was outstanding.
Leopard – I think this was the most exciting hunting day for me. The intensity in the blind when the leopard came in was incredible. The celebration was exciting too.
Buffalo – This hunt was the most exhausting of the all the hunts we did. To make a long story very short we spent over 12 GPS miles chasing this old guy around between an evening when I hit him and the next day when we finally caught up with him. There were some very intense moments while we were tracking him. The trackers were incredible and blew me away that with their skill on this hunt.
Roan – This is an animal that I am thrilled to have taken. The Munyamadzi has loads of roan. They are a tough animal to stalk and we put a lot of miles in chasing them until we finally caught up with this big guy.
I was also very happy with my hippo, croc and grysbok.
These are the animals that my son Andrew took. He is a great shot and took some really terrific trophies.
I just had to take this picture. The scout’s AK 47 had seen better days. It had a safety that didn’t work and carried only 3 shells in it.
This is a picture of the hippo hide and a snack of fresh hippo heart made over a fire by our great PH. It was delicious!!
Note the black socks, flip flops and big knife sticking out of the back pocket.
The tsetse flies were active but didn’t bother me quite as much as I expected. They did make a habit of biting right through my pants.
These are the remains of an elephant that was found on the property last year. They believe it was killed by poachers some distance away and made it to the Munyamadzi and died. The ivory weighed over 60 lbs per side and was turned over to the authorities.
Note: We saw no signs of poaching on the property. In fact they had scouts that were out on a regular basis patrolling the property.
Here are some miscellaneous pics.
So here is a little teaser for those of you looking for a leopard. (Andrew and Thor – I hope to get a commission for posting this when you sell the hunt) I took a game camera along with me because I enjoy using them. A few days after I killed my leopard we had some hyena poking around one of our lion baits. We set the camera up one evening to see if there were any big hyena coming in and what time they were coming in. This is what we got pictures of. We hunted that bait for Hyena the next two evenings and this guy came in early both nights. It was a blast to sit there with my son and Thor and be able to watch this awesome animal!! This was almost as much of a thrill as killing my leopard.
This guy also came into the same bait but we never had him or any hyena come in during shooting light.
Conclusion – This was a fantastic hunt!! My son and I made memories that will last a lifetime. I can’t say enough good things about my PH Thor Kirchner and the staff at the Munyamadzi. I am reliving this hunt everyday and just can’t stop thinking about it.
Doug
Video added 8/16/11
We were driving back with the leopard and as we got about a half mile from camp the trackers started singing this song from the truck. As we approached camp we could see all of the staff running down the road with their head torches bobbing up and down. By the time we reached camp everyone was there to join in the celebration. You can hear in the clip that they called me Bwana Dougie. (or Duggy)
This is a video that was taken by an englishman who was visiting our camp for a few days. He recorded it on his digital camera and sent it to me. I am thrilled to have this clip because I can relive this moment over and over again.
)
