I just returned from a wonderful hunt with Central African Wildlife Adventures (CAWA) in Southeast CAR. I booked the hunt through Duckworth Safaris International at the 2010 Reno SCI show and took the plunge to CAR 16 Feb thru 3 Mar 2011. Everything that Duckworth and CAWA promised beforehand was delivered with exacting standards and lots of little extras were thrown in.

After an uneventful but long flight through Paris to Bangui, we spent the night at the Oubangui Hotel. It is the “nicest” hotel in Bangui but certainly wasn’t up to Motel 6 standards. It did serve the purpose though as I was able to take a cold shower and get a little rest before our charter flight to “Kocho Camp” the next morning. Arriving at “Kocho Camp”, where there was hot water and a seat on the toilet made me feel a lot better. Here’s a picture of my bungalow at Kocho Camp.


My Bungalow at Kocho Camp


The primary goal of this trip was to take the Central African Savannah Buffalo and to expand my duiker collection. Here is a pic of the Red Flanked Duiker I took less than 20 min after leaving the makeshift shooting range on Day 1.



Due to jet lag, just finishing up an Aoudad hunt with wonderful folks from Wisconsin, Connecticut and Illinois, and working our SE NM SCI fundraiser on Fri and Sat night before departing on Monday morning, the first couple of days were kind of slow at my request. By the fourth day of the hunt, I was rested up and raring to go. We fell into a hunt schedule suggested by my PH, Philippe Clero, of wakeup at 4am, in the truck by 5, lunch in the bush, and sundowners at 7 followed by dinner.

The hunting was tough. Lots of trees and brush everywhere and it got even thicker down in the “Bakos”. Very difficult to spot animals from the truck so we spent our days checking the numerous salt licks in the hunting area for fresh spoor and then tracking the buffalo. Be prepared to walk if you’re going to catch up to the Buffalo that inhabit this area. I was fortunate to take a good Western Bush Duiker and an Oribi that we spotted from the truck while driving and looking for buffalo spoor.


Western Bush Duiker


Oribi

And one evening on our way back to camp, we were fortunate to spot some Wild Dogs in the road and get a couple of photos. I apologize for the quality of this photo but maybe you can make them out.


African Wild Dogs

After tracking and stalking several herds of buffalo, I’d learned several things. They travel as longer into the heat of the day than the Cape Buffalo I’ve hunted, and they don’t lie about in the heat of the day as long. Otherwise, they are a slightly smaller version of the Cape Buffalo I hunted in Zim a few years ago. Finally, on day 6, we found what I was looking for. An old bull with lots of character and I was fortunate to connect on him at a later measured 87 yards.



Central African Savannah Buffalo

On the very next day, we tracked two solitary bulls and caught up with them at about 9 am. I made a BIG mistake and rushed my shot with resulted in a wounded buffalo. Trust me when I say you do not want to track a wounded buffalo into the Bako but I pulled the trigger and my PH was willing to try so we did. Several hours later, after crawling on hands and knees and ever low crawling in a place or two, we were forced to give it up. My hat is off to the trackers and Philippe Clero for their valiant efforts in recovering this buffalo. Alas, it was all for naught. I can now hang my head in shame for I've wounded and lost a beautiful animal.

On the very next day, we tracked two solitary bulls and caught up with them at about 9 am. I made a BIG mistake and rushed my shot with resulted in a wounded buffalo. Trust me when I say you do not want to track a wounded buffalo into the Bako but I pulled the trigger and my PH was willing to try so we did. Several hours later, after crawling on hands and knees and ever low crawling in a place or two, we were forced to give it up. My hat is off to the trackers and Philippe Clero for their valiant efforts in recovering this buffalo. Alas, it was all for naught.

Later that afternoon, we were pleased to see a small herd of Roan cross the road in front of us. We immediately left the truck and began a slow stalk coming up on them in less than 30 min. Here is where lady luck again turned up her nose. All we could see in the thick forest was females and young. I did notice an animal that was larger but thinking Philippe had already dismissed it, I continued to scan the herd. Suddenly, the one I’d noticed earlier moved and Philippe was saying to shoot it but now I couldn’t see it. It was very close but had a bush perfectly positioned so that I could see no part of the animal. Reflecting back on the situation, I now realize that when I could see the Roan, Philippe could not. When it moved so that he could see, I couldn’t. Guess that’s why they call it Hunting instead of Shooting. Next time, I’ll know what a male Roan looks like and won’t hesitate.

The next day, we slept in. Didn’t get up until almost 0430 and after a quick breakfast, we loaded up to spend a few days in one of the “forest camps” for Yellow Back Duiker, Wayne’s Duiker, and Blue Duiker. By my we drove 50 miles as the crow flies arriving at “Mbombo Camp” about 1300. There we had a nice lunch and rested until 1500 when we left to try our hand at calling duikers. This first evening, only a couple of Blue Duikers came and I never saw them even though Philippe and the trackers were doing their best to point them out.


My Tent at Mbombo Camp

Experiencing this type of hunting was also all new for me. The tracker’s ability to call was truly amazing. That evening it rained most of the night. Although it was only a light shower, the next mornings hunting was fantastic. Every place we sat, duikers came and I was fortunate to connect with this Wayne’s Duiker.


Wayne’s Duiker

We also saw more Blue Duikers but I never could get one of the little midgets to stand still long enough to get a shot with either a shotgun or my rifle. Oh well, sigh. That afternoon and the following days, the forest dried out and the duikers quit cooperating. We called but very few duikers came to the call. We did spend some great moments exploring the forest in mid-day and looking for Bongo tracks on the salt licks. Nobody ever saw a Yellow Back Duiker but I’m sure there are some there as the trackers spoke of seeing them.

All too soon, my 2 weeks were over and it was back to reality. Here Ladyluck and Delta’s baggage handlers struck again. When we arrived in Atlanta, our luggage had been left behind somewhere. It was over a week before everything finally arrived but dealing with 1-800 Delta was a very frustrating experience.

Things I was glad I took with me were:
My Bushnell Backtrack GPS was great. Easy to carry and use.
Susie, my old Winchester in 375 H&H. I used handloads with 300gr TBBC and 300gr Hdy solids. Both loads worked great.
Of course, my 8x42 binocs and compact camera saw lots of use and performed flawlessly.
Bug stuff; There were very few mosquitos but we encountered swarms of Honey Bees, Sweat Bees and loads of Tsetse Fllies. What seemed to work the best was Repel brand Mosquito Wipes with 30% DEET. We had the spray kind as well but I hate that stuff as I'm always getting it in my eyes somehow. Never had that problem with the wipes. And the headnet I took was indespensible. Even the 100% DEET stuff we took wouldn't hold the Honey Bees and Sweat Bees off for long.

What I wished I'd taken but didn't:
A bigger GPS that would map the roads. The Backtrack worked great but knowing where the road network was leading would have been nice.

As I said earlier, everything the DSI and CAWA said they would do was done. They were very well organized and deserve my recommendation to anyone that wants to hunt in this area. Of note was the fact that 3 Bongo and 4 LD Eland were taken by hunters in the 2 weeks I was there. That was 100% for the hunters seeking those species. Had I been able to see my Roan, they would have had an ever better record.

Congrats on a great adventure. Nice pics too.

Thanks for the report. Every time I look at this hunt, I want to do it.

Great adventure, sorry about your second buffalo. In CAR due to difficult hunting conditions it is very easy to loose an animal. It is also very dangerous to go in thick stuff after that buffalo, I am glad that everyone involved was safe in the end.

Great hunt and report! Thanks for highlighting an area many of us want to hunt in the future! I like the fact you focused on buffalo and duikers! One doesn't have to commit the dollars to hunt LDE or bongo to experience the CAR or Cameroun!

Great report Pancho, thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Great hunt and report! Thanks for highlighting an area many of us want to hunt in the future! I like the fact you focused on buffalo and duikers! One doesn't have to commit the dollars to hunt LDE or bongo to experience the CAR or Cameroun!

I totally agree with that Bwanamrm's comment about not requiring to hunt Bongo and LD Eland. Of course those species are the great prizes but the cost of a buffalo hunt and hunt for these other antelope is not that expensive. Renaud (Seladang) with whom I offer our West African and Asian hunts tells me that CAR is a much more difficult hunt when compared to Cameroun. It is also more expensive due to the cost of charter flights and you dont see as much game as you do in Cameroun. But there are lots of buffalo in CAR and you can take 2 on a buff and antelope safari in our area.

Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com

The folks at CAWA are great people and do treat you well. It's amazing how they are able to put together such nice camps out in the middle of jungle nowhere.
Congrats on your animals. Your Oribi looks really nice.
Did you get to visit much with Erik? For a young guy he sure runs a great camp.
Too bad about the roan. Those guys are tough to get! I had a similar experience in that we could get close but they always slipped out at the last moment.

On another note - I just got my eland back from the taxidermy. Man is that thing HUGE!!

Great and interesting report. I'll admit it, the words "expand my duiker collection" certainly struck a chord with me and I think an expensive addiction may be starting up with me.

Congratulations on your trophies and I'm certain you will return to claim your roan.

Great stuff -- especially the duikers. Thanks for sharing.

This is my dream hunt!

Pancho,

Congratulations on as great hunt! Hey I've been there on the wounded buff. It's a tough thing but it happens.

Very nice.

A big Oribi for Central Africa!

Well done.

Pancho, good report and brings back great memories for me. I can assure you there are plenty of yellow Back Duiker at that camp. I was in the same two camps you were in as well. Saw at least 3 Yellow Back Duiker at the forest camp in 3 days. Great areas and great operation.

Have a client of mine there right now as well.

Thanks for the report! I enjoyed it a lot. Nice duikers!

great report and photos.

Wow, I must have missed this report. Beautiful duikers! congrats.