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Taking advantage of the 4 day holiday weekend with the Id el Kabir being declared in Nigeria for the Friday and Monday, I flew to RSA for a short weekend hunt. And here is the 'short report' ....

Landing in Johannesburg from Lagos Friday at 05h00, Adrian Salter of Adroda Safaris met me in Bryanston at 10h30 and we set off north towards Louis Trichardt and the African Trophy Pursuits concession about 2 kms outside the town. I have hunted with Adrian before and we regularly exchange mails and WhatsApps.

Being the weekend plus month end the road that leads to Musina and the Beitbridge border crossing into Zim was busy but even after stopping for a bite and a coffee, we were unpacking and off on a game drive by 15h00.

Adrian has a concession in KZN near Nottingham Road but had chosen this farm as I wanted to target tsessebe and steenbuck.

We saw a lot of game that first evening including good nyala, kudu, plenty of tsessebe, eland, giraffe, zebra, blue wildi, oryx, waterbuck, hartebeest, impala, blesbok and more. It promised to be a good weekend! One of the impala looked particularly good and we decided to try for him over the weekend if we saw him again.

Saturday we were up and out at the very civilised hour of 07h00. Thirty minutes later we had our tsessebe - following a short stalk and a .30-06 shot at 240m or thereabouts.

We saw a solid solo bull pretty much straight away as we drove out and although Adrian commented that it would be a very easy stalk / hunt, I am a believer in taking what you are given in the bush and if its an early and straight forward tsessebe bull then take it! Low hanging fruit and all that! I put in a decent lung shot off the sticks plus another to be 100% and we had our tsessebe.

A great animal with beautiful markings and a decent head on him. I was more than happy.

That afternoon we spotted the impala ram that we had seen the evening before and after a merry foot chase across the farm and back (quite the opposite of the a.m. tsessebe) the ram had just enough neck sticking out from behind a thorn bush for me to squeeze in a shot, adding a great impala to the tally for the day.

That evening we sat in a large blind on a gut pile for some 4 hours hoping for bushpig but without any success. It turned very cold and we called it around 21h30. Interestingly and the first time I have seen it, the farm has some twenty video cameras located at water pans and other key spots all linked to a large flat screen in the lodge so that you can see real time game coming to water or crossing game paths. That evening over drinks at the lodge we saw lots of game on the screens including bushpig, a very large warthog (!), lots of jackal, a civit, a genet and other interesting night creatures!

Sunday we hunted wildebeest in the morning but they ran us into a huge thicket of naboom (Euphorbia ingens), which are native to the drier areas of southern Africa. The guineas, which were feeding on the naboom fruit high up in the cactus like branches, betrayed us and we called off the stalk. Walking back to the Cruiser, we came across a small herd of impala and with the rut having just started the ram was chasing ewes. The ram literally chased one ewe to less than 10 meters from where we stood watching and when Adrian barked at him he stopped and looked straight at us at 10 meters. I could not resist and dropped him with a shot to the shoulder. Impala number two in the salt!

That afternoon we sat in a blind for a few hours hoping that the large warty from yesterday would come in but without luck. We did however see giraffe, dozens of waterbuck, a troop of vervet monkeys (which fed right next to us for an hour) and many more animals. So it was an good afternoon.

That evening, with it being a totally full moon, we went out to see what was out and about and managed to take a good steenbok ram and a porcupine off of a ploughed mealie field. Had I been quicker it could have been two porcupine but it was not to be. We called for jackal but without any luck and so we called it a night again around 21h30.

Monday morning we awoke to grey skies and strong winds and the animals did not want to be a part of our plans and stayed hidden in the thickest bush and brush on the farm.

We walked and stalked and I was on the sticks for wildis and zebra a few times but without firing a shot.

So after a tasty brunch, joined by the owners and farm manager Freddy and his wife, we packed, settled up and returned to Joburg to end my Eid weekend holiday safari!

Thanks to Adrian and all at African Trophy Pursuits for a great weekend in the Limpopo bushveld with some good trophies and more fond memories inc a tessebe for the wall ! And thanks to the AR readers for coming along too.

Here some photos to add colour to the text ......





























(First time using a new pic app post Photobucketofsh1t - will have work on sizing. Sorry. But you get the idea)


Charlie

Ps The porcupine is destined for a full mount!

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Thanks for the report, Charlie, that looks like a Rowland Ward porcupine!

Charlie;

You definitely know how to spend a holiday!!!!

Well done!

Hugs, Darin

Great report!

I hunted at Soetveld a few days ago.

Did they have the US Flag at the entrance? Were you accompanied by Freddie's tracker Simon? Simon was a great fellow.

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Yes the Stars and Stripes was flying next to the SA flag. Freddie is a good guy and the team too. A great farm.

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Thank you Charlie ,i enjoyed all your posts .