Dates : June 1st to 21st 2016
PH : Andrew Baldry
Location : Nyakolwe Concession : South Luangwa
Concession Operator : Ebony Safaris. Zaeed Patel.

After overnighting at Afton House I arrived in Lusaka at midday after the short flight.
Andrew was waiting and after quickly clearing guns etc we hit the road for our ~6 hour drive to Nyakolwe.
It was great to be back in the Company of Mr Baldry after we had last hunted together at his Royal Kafue concession in 2013. To make things even better we were joined by Andrews son, Tom, on this safari.
We had planned this particular safari after it was confirmed that Zambia was again opening its hunting.
Despite it being very early in the season , we wanted to hunt at this time and were both excited to see what the area may produce.

The drive was very smooth , with the Nissan Patrol purring along and without any glitches. We had plenty of time to catch up and were soon settled around the campfire with a fine whisky about 8pm.
The camp sits on the banks of the Luangwa and I fell asleep to the familiar and welcome sounds of the African bush ....although dominated by the pod of Hippos near camp.

Our standard mode of operation for the weeks to come was to get up at 4.45am and get out of camp in the dark. Lunch was usually in the field and back to camp on dark.

First order on day 1 was to shoot something large that would get our baiting started.
A hippo at about 10am satisfied that need.

Some summary comments :
Camp was completely adequate. Not super fancy but had everything we needed.
Food was excellent although we did enjoy making a heap of our own Biltong and supplementing the fare.
Buffalo hunting was fantastic. Long grass , matete and up close and personal. Many times we were in the thick of Buffalo and on quite a few occasions less than 5 yards from animals but the grass was so thick we had no clue as to what sex or size it was. We did not end up taking a Buffalo Bull but man did we have fun looking. Sensational stuff with our 500NE Doubles.
I was a little disappointed in the quantity of plains game seen. Granted it was very early in the season and everything was still green etc but for prime Kudu , Bushbuck and Roan habitat I did expect to see more.
It seemed to me that the past 3 years of non hunting had a bad impact on the game but maybe I am wrong.
Spending safari time with Andrew and Tom was a pure pleasure.
I did not have an Elephant tag....but wish I did have as we saw a very nice bull on day 14.
We hunted hard , took some great trophies , but most importantly we had lots of laughs and came away better people for our experiences.

A real treat was stopping at Munyamadzi for a night on the way out. Thor had another AR member hunting with him and they had taken a great old Leopard.

My sincere thanks to Andrew and Zaeed for allowing me to continue to live the dream.

Pictures tell a thousand words but as you can see we accomplished all we intended to do.

Feel free to PM me with any questions.

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Luangwa River at dawn.

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Michael : Andrews Ace Tracker

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Lion track with 500NE round.

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Andrew and Tom and our old Stallion

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Wow great pics! Well done Steve

Well done. That sable would be hard to pass up...

I love Zambia, my favorite African hunting destination. Great photos, great lions.

Wow! Great photos.

Looks like a great time! That Lion was impressive.

The Sable looked great too, but you already have a 50"er with Andrew, so I guess you passed...

Great to meet you in person and share a few celebratory beverages. A brute of a trophy for sure but then you have knack for selecting good PH's with access to good country and getting the job done right.
Again, congratulations to you, Andrew, Tom and the team.
Good luck with the ongoing Sambar pursuit.

Thanks John. A pleasure to meet you in person too. Drop me an email.
Those Sambar are driving me crazy!!

quote:

Originally posted by surefire7:
Looks like a great time! That Lion was impressive.

The Sable looked great too, but you already have a 50"er with Andrew, so I guess you passed...

Brute of a Lion. They think he is 10 years old.

Yep....passed on that Sable!!

Old lion and well done on that!! I noticed the fishing rods anything biting??

Steve;

Well done!!! Great report and pictures! You have set the bar HIGH!!!!!

(What is that drill looking thing?)

Best regards, D. Nelson

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Darin, Its an old Zambian guineafowl whirly magnet. Like a pigeon magnet but you stick two dead guineas on it and turn the post and they flock in. If you can put two live guineas on it works better but tricky to get them on properly !!



Sorry - just kidding, couldn't resist it. Not good to jump on someone else's post. Apologies

.

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
.

Darin, Its an old guineafowl whirly magnet. Like a pigeon magnet but you stick two guineas on it and turn the post and they flock in!



Sorry - just kidding, couldn't resist it. Not good to jump on someone else's post. Apologies

.

I believed you too, Charlie!!!!

Now, I'll wait to hear from Steve!

Best regards, Darin

Steve,
It was a pleasure meeting you in camp and congratulations again to you and Andrew for a very fine lion. Those pictures you posted of the lion are nice but really don't do that cat justice. He was very impressive. I guess I'm going to have to do my hunt report this weekend.

Regards,

Don

Congrats on another first-rate safari!

Those are some very fine pictures of what looks like a beautiful area

However Im confused, did you shoot a buffalo?, a leopard? I am guessing you did not shot a lion, were are the rest of the pictures!

Steve,
Beautiful pics and looked to be a great hunt! The kudu pix were well timed and the sable and lion were both magnificent animals! Thanks for the report.

Like the busted up teeth

Huge congrats to you all, great job!!!

Congratulations on a successful hunt!

Very nice Congrats!!!

Great photos

quote:

Originally posted by AR MAN:
Old lion and well done on that!! I noticed the fishing rods anything biting??

Yes. Vundu.

quote:

Originally posted by D. Nelson:

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
.

Darin, Its an old guineafowl whirly magnet. Like a pigeon magnet but you stick two guineas on it and turn the post and they flock in!



Sorry - just kidding, couldn't resist it. Not good to jump on someone else's post. Apologies

.

I believed you too, Charlie!!!!

Now, I'll wait to hear from Steve!

Best regards, Darin

Hi Darin,
I believe it is an old manual press probably used to press bales of cotton. In Australia we have some similar that are used for wool but I am not sure that is the use in Zambia.

Not long till you go!!

quote:

Originally posted by DonW28:
Steve,
It was a pleasure meeting you in camp and congratulations again to you and Andrew for a very fine lion. Those pictures you posted of the lion are nice but really don't do that cat justice. He was very impressive. I guess I'm going to have to do my hunt report this weekend.

Regards,

Don

Hey Don. Likewise mate.
Yes....no excuses now ....I want to see pictures of that big Leopard.

quote:

Originally posted by ManuelM:
Those are some very fine pictures of what looks like a beautiful area

However Im confused, did you shoot a buffalo?, a leopard? I am guessing you did not shot a lion, were are the rest of the pictures!

Manual,
I did not shoot Leopard and although we hunted them hard also did not pull the trigger on a Buffalo.
Yes on the Lion.
Best
Steve

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Can you bring all your trophies home into Oz without issues ?

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quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
.

Can you bring all your trophies home into Oz without issues ?

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Short answer is yes.
Long answer is not so easy for the Lion. Will take allot of work and paperwork.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve416:

quote:

Originally posted by D. Nelson:

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
.

Darin, Its an old guineafowl whirly magnet. Like a pigeon magnet but you stick two guineas on it and turn the post and they flock in!



Sorry - just kidding, couldn't resist it. Not good to jump on someone else's post. Apologies

.

I believed you too, Charlie!!!!

Now, I'll wait to hear from Steve!

Best regards, Darin

Hi Darin,
I believe it is an old manual press probably used to press bales of cotton. In Australia we have some similar that are used for wool but I am not sure that is the use in Zambia.

Not long till you go!!

Steve;

17 days!!!!!!

My bags are packed and my rifle is sighted in!!!

Again, congratulations on a magnificent trophy!!

Best to you, Darin

quote:

My sincere thanks to Andrew and Zaeed for allowing me to continue to live the dream.

Steve,

At times I think we do not realize how lucky we are to be able to enjoy Africa like we do.

Great photos!!

Wonderful pictures Steve, and great memories to go along with them I'm sure. Beautiful cats, the lion is something else! Congrats on a great hunt and thanks for sharing your report. I love Zambia!