I have finally returned from an exciting hunt with Sarge, a PH with Peter Chipman's Kwalata Safaris in the lower Lupande area in Zambia.
Conditions; hot and dry. Temps in the high 90's to low 100's. Some windy days but still hot. Had to take a shower before naps and at night to get cool enough to sleep.
Game; extremely plentiful. The concession is very large, a huge drawing area that concentrates the game along the river. We were on a 10 day hunt and were essentially finished in 4 days. We could have taken a lot longer to look for a really big buff. The one I shot is in the 37-38" range. There were many herds there but we concentrated on the batchelor herds and the normal size range was not overly plentiful at that time. The populations of Impala, Puku, and Waterbuck were very good. The Hippo pods were large and two fine bulls were shot by our group. We saw at least 6 Elephant bulls carrying at least 60 lbs a side ivory. One bull had 70+one side and 60+ the other. We saw a bull that very well could go 80lbs per side once. All in all there were 10 shootable bulls in the area most of the time. We had one large bull feeding in our camp the last day. You have seen the pictures of the one set of tusks taken earlier this year at 70lbs a side. I have pictures of two other sets that will go 60-70 a side. The one shot by Ralph had a broken tusk and a steel rod muzzleloader bullet that broke the tusk. All in all an exciting and most enjoyable hunt to this time. We are booked for elephant in 2007.
Accommodations: Peter is using a photo safari camp for his base camp at this time. He also has a bush camp some miles away. Both are in exellent condition and well staffed. The entire camp is well laid out with an overlook of the river. The food was exellent and really amazing considering that everything has to be flown in from Lusaka. We really felt at home there. I can not adequately express my appreciation to all of the staff that made our visit so enjoyable.
Logistics: These could use some improvement. Be sure you know when the flights to Mfuwe run or better yet take an air charter in and out. It isn't much more than the commercial flight and less hassels especially if you share the ride as we did. Africa is Africa as they say. As long as they are paying the bill that is OK with me but when it hits on my tab it better be a lot more professional than that. Poor planing on their part shouldn't show up on my tab!!!
Lusaka: We stayed at the TAJ Pamodzie(sp) Hotel and it was fine. We had to stay there 7 days looking for a Ph for the Kafu flats part of the hunt and it never happened. We should have gone on to Joburg but stayed with high hopes. No luck on that score.
Cape Town; Just as beautiful as ever and 4X more expensive than two years ago and the rand is about the same. Did a wine tour and this time didn't by wine as it was about $10.00 a bottle to ship it home. You can buy it cheaper here and no hassels. The better wines were already sold out for the year. We usually only get the more mundane wines here anyway.
All in all a truely great tip. Looking forward to next year and especially 2007 with Peter and a big elephant.

Thanks for the report. Logistical problems aside, it sounds like you had a pretty good trip.

Hopefully you will post some pictures for us.

lb404,
Sounds like you had a great trip, please post some photos of your adventure.

Who did you book your hunt through?

sounde like you had a nice hunt, I hunted this area in 97.
Bill

If anyone else is concerned about the Lusaka to Mfuwe flight on Zambian Airways, here is their website with the schedule they fly.

http://www.zambianairways.co.zm/

I almost forgot, here is another firm that flies lusaka to Mfwue. Bigger planes also, Beechcraft 1900 C....

http://www.airwaves.co.zm/index.htm

The rate is the same I believe as Zambian , About $300 r/t

Sounds like you had some problems with the charter companys.

WOULD YOU HUNT WITH KWALATA AGAIN? PM me if you need to.

We will hunt with Kwalata and Peter or Ron or Sarge again and happily do so. We are booked for a 14 day elephant safari in 07. Some suggestions I have are the following. The flights in Zambia can be booked up in advance and you not know it.The travel agents stateside did not have access to the flight schedules in Zambia and we did everything humanly possible to nail everything down before we went. We will always take a charter in Zambia as the commercial flights are over $400.00 each and there were three of us so the charter cost us less than $150.00 extra each and was worth it. Nail down your animals before you go. We did and still did not get a croc. I also am going to make it clear again about the kind and quality of game I want. No quality or kind=no tip at all for the PH. That might not be totally fair but it isn't right to not get a crack at the game you came to hunt.

lb404, Any chance of you posting some pics in the near future?

I noticed you said you would suggest nailing down your animals before you get there. I presume you mean you didnt put in your contract what animals you wanted.... can you clarify please.

Did you use an agent to book your hunt? IF so, who did you use?

Thanks

Lb404.

Come on 18 days! When do we ever get to see some pics??????!!!!!

We are being deprived! Hugh