Location: Mozambique, Niassa province, Coutada Marangira, September 2021

Outfitter: Graham Sales Safaris

PH: Chris Van Staeden

Trackers: Alex, Lino, Isaac, Kamwana, Felizberto

Travel Agent: TWG travel, Steve and Tricia

Rifle: camp rifle Remington Model 700 .375 H&H, with Swarovski 1-6x scope

Animals taken: Liechtenstein Hartebeest, Sable, Waterbuck, Cape Buffalo, Livingstone’s Eland, Niassa Wildebeest

Animals seen: Liechtenstein Hartebeest, Sable, Waterbuck, Cape Buffalo, Livingstone’s Eland, Niassa Wildebeest, Boehm’s Zebra, Southern Greater Kudu, Johnstone’s Impala, Grey Duiker, Klipspringer, Sharpe’s Grysbok, Warthog, Common Reedbuck, Elephant, Lion, Wild Dog, Yellow Baboon, Vervet Monkey, Genet

Birds of note: Crested Guinea Fowl, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Ground Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Grey Hornbill, Lilac breasted roller, Racket Tailed Roller, Grey-headed parrot, Crested Francolin, Purple Crested Turaco, Hamerkop, Saddle-billed stork, Marabou Stork, White-Faced Duck, Marshall Eagle, Fish Eagle, and many more that I could not identify. I regretted not bringing a bird book.


I will keep it short and sweet and let the pictures do the talking. I booked the hunt just prior to Covid after meeting Graham at a local SCI show. Fast forward to Sept. 2021 and my wife and I were on our way via Qatar airlines through Doha, Johannesberg and then Pemba. Took a charter from Pemba to camp.
We stayed in both the main camp, which was tents with en-suite bathrooms covered by a thatch roof, and a fly camp on the Lureco river that was a little more rustic but a similar setup. The main focus was buffalo, which were hunted by finding the tracks of small groups of bulls and tracking them down. We did not track the herds. The area is huge and we were up and out of camp by 5, ate lunch out in the bush, and then got back to camp after dark. Buffalo were tracked every day but one, until day 8 when I killed my bull. The most difficult part was the wind, which was constantly swirling and buggered up multiple stalks when we were in close on bulls. The trackers were excellent. The area was very beautiful and mostly untouched. We did not see any trash at all and many of the hunting tracks were only recognizable due to blazes on the trees. There were no hunts conducted there in 2020 and we were the second hunt of the season. This was our first experience with Tsetse flies, of which there were many.
The most numerous game animal was Hartebeest followed by Sable for a close second.
We had a wonderful time in a truly wild piece of Africa. Communication with the outfitter was excellent. Chris was a great PH who hunted hard and really worked to get mature animals.

Greeting party on arrival



Our tent at the main camp



Chris and I at lunch



Liechtenstein Hartebeest





Sable



Waterbuck







Cape Buffalo



Eland





Niassa Wildebeest


Recovered Barnes X bullets from the Eland and Buffalo. Eland was at about 200 yards and buffalo a little under 100 yards (far right projectile).


Now for some live animals. We brought a Sony RX 10 Mark 4, which I had heard about reading posts from Saeed on the forum here. I wish I had spent more time learning how to use it before the trip, but I did okay figuring it out on the fly.



























After the safari was completed we flew back to Pemba and got our covid tests. We stayed the night at the Pemba Beach Hotel, which was very nice.



View from the balcony

Stunning hunt well done!!!!! One of the last true wilderness ares!

Love your Buff and Eland.
Congrats on your hunt success.

Gorgeous country you were in. Love that eland and buff as well.

Very nice. That country looks fantastic. The top pic reminds me a great deal of a rock formation they call Bodich in Kenya’s NFD.


Excellent stuff there.

Love the Niassa. Echo Buzz's words above.

Outstanding Report and trophies. Well played, Sir.

Excellent results!

I hunted Marangira in October 2018. It truly is an outstanding concession and I hope to be back.

I just returned from a hunt in the Reserve a couple weeks ago. 10 days we hunted for that white stripe and couldn’t put one in the salt. They are an incredible animal and I will certainly be back for one ASAP.

Congratulations on a splendid hunt and old animals.

quote:

Originally posted by Bivy:
Excellent results!

I hunted Marangira in October 2018. It truly is an outstanding concession and I hope to be back.

I just returned from a hunt in the Reserve a couple weeks ago. 10 days we hunted for that white stripe and couldn’t put one in the salt. They are an incredible animal and I will certainly be back for one ASAP.

Congratulations on a splendid hunt and old animals.

Bivy, where did you hunt? Did you have any luck on other game?

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:

Bivy, where did you hunt? Did you have any luck on other game?

Yes, not to hijack NMhunter4life’s thread; I’ll try my best to complete a report when time allows.

Hunted R3

3 buffalo (doubled on two great old polished daggas), one beautifully shaped Roosevelt sable with a couple inches of secondary, and a Chobe bushbuck.

We hunted hard for the white stripe; however, whether a function of local abundance or seasonal abundance, we couldn’t put one in the salt. We did see a good bull on two occasions but were unable to catch up to him.

While maybe not the best block for wildebeest, we found great numbers of zebra and hartebeest (equally the most common plains game), very many reedbuck, plenty of sable with old bulls observed daily, and waterbuck along the Rovuma. We also observed Johnston’s impala, Sharpe’s grysbok, and Livingstone eland sparingly. I guess I should add, based on tracks, extremely high leopard abundance; an order of magnitude higher than anywhere else I’ve been.

Sorry to hijack your thread NMhunter4life. Feel free to PM me Safari2.

-Bivy

No problem Bivy. I look forward to your report.

Thanks everyone else for responding. I enjoy the trip reports most of all on the forum and I am glad I could contribute.

Well done, thanks for posting!

Outstanding report, trophies and pics!

Great report and some excellent trophies!

Great post, great hunt, great trophies.

I want to hunt in Mozambique some day, and this sounds/looks like a great place to go.

Thanks so much for posting!

Very nice pics!

Looks like a neat area!

Well done. You did good.