.


I think that after hunting South Africa for close to 25 years, I may have found my ‘plains game Holy Grail’ being the Eastern Cape. But, I already am getting ahead of myself, so let me back up to the main target of this hunt being my wish to hunt an old blue duiker.

For the readers that don’t know the Blue Duiker or perhaps those that have one on their bucket list, let me here, at the start of this report, copy from „Animals of East Africa“ by C T Astley Maberly, first printed in 1965, a great old book that belonged to my father when he lived and hunted in Kenya in the 1960‘s. And yes I know the Wild Coast is South and not East Africa, but this reads well -





Quote BLUE DUIKER - Cephalophus monticola masculinises (Heller) (Kiswahili Paa), a minute antelope - hardly larger than a hare. Greyish-brown (mousy), rather more rufous tinged along the back legs. Middle line of ventral surface, throat, chest and underparts of legs white. Horns (males only) very small and short. Inhabits only dense forest or woodland country, never seen in the open.

The Blue Forest Duiker represent the third group of duikers and are the smallest member of the group, dwelling always in forested and thickly wooded areas - especially in coastal areas from the Cape northwards. The Southern African species differ from the East African relatives in that horns are present in both sexes in the former and only in the males in the latter. The females are usually slightly heavier than the males. They are more or less greyish-brown, browner above and greyer on the flanks with rufous tinged legs and more or less white underparts. Shoulder height about 13 inches.

Horns - In the Kenya race only present in the males, normally. They are set in a slight angle to the plane of the face and are extremely small, ringed at the base and rarely exceed 2 inches in length. The record is 2 1/2 inches. Spread 1 3/4 inches.

Distribution - So far, apparently, only recorded from Mara National Reserve, though it may well yet to be found in suitable locations in some other National Parks and Reserves.

Habits - I have no personal experience at all of this most attractive little creature so must draw on the records of others. A H Garnet Blamey (South Africa) remarks that its rotund body appears rather heavyweight compared with its slender legs and tiny hooves and that the skin is of an extremely tensile toughness : strips of it being useable for sewing with a needle and can make excellent ‚boot laces‘! Although normally a dweller in the very dense places, the same authority states that Piti (Zulu) frequently emerges on to the open beaches bordering their dune-forests in Natal and even swim out to sea when hunted. It feeds on a variety of vegetation, shoots and nettles of the forest and greedily devours wild figs and other delicacies dropped and scattered by feeding monkeys. After veld fires, it will come out to feed on tender young grasses sprouting from the burnt areas, but is intensely alert and quick to dive back to cover at the first alarm.

Like all duikers, the Blue Duiker has a jerky, zigzag gait as it darts through the bush, and being so small it can move freely below the level of the undergrowth. The ears are very short and rounded at the tips. The short hairy tail is brown above and white below and would be invisible except that its constantly flicking, as the little creature moves about, exposing the white in tiny flashes.

Unfortunately these little forest duikers leave well marked trails or paths, so that the native snarer finds them an easy prey. A snared or otherwise caught Blue Duiker gives utterance to pitiful, loud, strange cat-like miaulings. Their small cleft hoof-prints are too small for one‘s finger-tips to fit. The Great Crowned Eagle preys on adults and young Blue Duiker, and python, wild cats of various sorts, leopards and so on, in addition to man and his dogs and snares, complete the tally of enemies. Unquote

On top of the above, I would mention that they are listed on CITES II and also listed as LC (Least Concern) in the IUCN Conservation listings.

Sport and trophy hunting pressure is minimal but it is numbers taken for bushmeat that is astounding! In Central and West Africa bushmeat is estimated at 1.5 m tons per year (2021). That’s a lot of small game animals!

Initially, I had planned this hunt together with my wife for May of this year and put down a small deposit to hold the main animal of the hunt - being the blue duiker.

Now before anyone goes off on a tangent about deposits to hold tags, Marius of KMG Safaris, whom I was booking / hunting with, did not specify that a ‘deposit equals animal booking‘ or anything like that but rather, I offered to send a modest deposit to hold the booking and also as they do not get many blue duiker tags, my main target on this trip.

But moving on, I had seen and read about KMG Safaris based on the Wild Coast Near East London, here on AR plus Marius Goosen, the owner, was suggested for blue duiker by Dieter Prinsloo, with whom we hunted red duiker last year. It all seemed good, so I reached out to Marius and we fixed up details. A simple 5 day hunt, with my wife as an observer, a blue duiker and maybe an old, old blue wildi and an old, old bushbuck and whatever else we should bump into that we decide to try for. We have hunted in RSA many dozen times but interestingly this would be the first hunt on the Wild Coast.

The May hunt had to be postponed due to a house rebuild that we are undertaking in Germany, with the then 3 week trip to RSA, getting cut short by a week - the hunt week! Marius agreed to shift the date and so I rebooked - traveling alone this time - for October.





Flights were easy - KLM via Amsterdam as a day flight, landing at O RTambo in time to watch the second half of the England vs RSA Rugby World Cup semi-finals and see England throw the win away 3 minutes from full time! It was an England loss and not a Boks win in my book but hey ho! I did not travel with a rifle as it being a short hunt, I opted to use camp rifles. In fact I only had hand-luggage and sailed through Joburg airport in 12 minutes from the gate to the waiting car door! I have been using the same driver in Joburg for 20 years and he was there to meet me. He has never let me down once! Good guy.

A couple of days in Sandton, to sort out and get the Defender serviced at Overland Worx, call in at André van Rooyen Taxidermy, check-out Safari Outdoor, enjoy a Braai and other stuff and then it was FlySafair from Tambo to East London, and Marius Goosen waiting for me at the arrivals. A short 50 km drive inland and I was unpacking in my chalet early afternoon. All very easy.








The lodge was large and comfortable with an inside fireplace that we lit on the Saturday to take the chill off. A large viewing deck overlooking a deep rocky valley completed the lodge. The rooms were simple and comfortable with en-suite toilet and shower. All good.

Turning the page to ‚camp rifles‘, Marius and I exchanged some WhatApps before the hunt. The plains game rifle would be a suppressed .300 Win Mag - no flies on that caliber and more than the job for bushbuck, blue wildi and the likes, even if more a savanna caliber than a jesse caliber. And for the main target, being the Blue Duiker, Marius had a .22 Hornet (5.6x36). My worry with the Hornet was the ‚exit hole‘. A Hornet is a flat shooting round somewhere between 2.500 and 3.100 ft/s and at distances of 12 - 15 meters (the expected shooting distance in the forest) we would likely be looking at a large blow out hole. Hoping to do a pedestal mount the ideal shot would be back and soft and let the taxidermist do the work. We would see what happens.

Marius, Nick and Temba -











The .300 Win Mag was a Ruger M77 action with a custom suppressed barrel, a custom stock, a Timney trigger and topped with a Nightforce scope in 2,5-20x50 which was dialled into Marius’s Leica binocs for distance and elevation. A great set up with the ranger in the binocs giving you the number of clicks for any distance over the zeroed 100 m. Sierra Game King handloads in 180 grain complete the outfit. The .300 was a pleasure to shoot at the range and more so in the veld! Everything I pulled the trigger on dropped to one shot!





At the range I handled and shot both rifles, the .300 WM at 100 and 200 m and the .22 at 12-15 m. Both were shooting fine and so was I, so we ticked the box on the camp rifles and went for a game drive.

Now the plan was to hunt plains game on the Wednesday and then blue duiker on the Thursday and if needs be the Friday. Otherwise the Friday and Saturday were there for more plains game hunting.

The following day, starting at 06:15, I would be hunting with Nick Neuper, an enthusiastic young PH, mad keen on bushbuck hunting and as hard working as they come. A cooler box and a packed lunch were loaded and with Temba the tracker / skinner and Nick’s wire haired terrier ‘Boots’ riding shotgun we drove to the neighbouring game reserve where we would be hunting.

The reserve is fenced on one side and bordered by the Kei River on the other. 25.000 hectares of deep valleys, hills and mountains and thick bush interspersed with a number of open vleis. Just to comment on the size of the reserve, the 25.000 h is calculated based on a flat topography reading, therefore to get the true size of the property add 50 % on top to account for the valley slopes and sides, hence we would be hunting on a reserve of some 35.000 h plus minus. There are parts of this game reserve that are so wild and inaccessible that they have never been hunted! It is a big game reserve by any standards.














We collected the reserve manager at the lodge and were hunting by 07:30, with the initial focus on an old blue wildi bull but flexible in that we would see what we came across as we went.









Blue Wildebeest





We spotted a solo bull early on, grazing in the early morning sun with a small group of zebra. Mature, hard but not old old, so we passed on him and hunted on. We found another solo bull, super old but with very small bosses. Basically a good cull bull but Nick thought we could do better. And we did. We spotted another blue wildi bull, albeit with a small group of cows and we stalked in from about 800 m through the bush and up the hillside. Not the widest bull I have hunted but he appeared to be older. The wind swirled and the bull became nervous, stretching his neck to try and see down the hillside.

Up went the sticks, I sighted onto his chest, with him standing straight on, and squeezed the trigger. We all heard the hard hit and the bull bucked and disappeared from sight over the brow of the hill.

After a short wait we slowly walked to the spot where the bull had been standing and some 30m away, at the end of a thick blood trail, lay the bull. A solid old bull.





Pictures, gutted, loaded and by 10:30 we had blood on the truck!



Impala





I never tire of hunting impala and there were plenty on the game reserve. We could afford to be picky. And we were.

We found a large ram in a small bachelor herd. He looked old and solid, so we put in a stalk but he spied us and broke away on his own from the group. We followed slowly from downwind and caught him at the edge of a thicket, where I shot him from about 150 m, shooting through some brush. He dropped on the spot. A spectacular old ram with magnificent horns. A true trophy impala ram! The hunting gods were smiling on us.



Nyala




I was not after a nyala bull. Anja, my wife, shot one years ago and we have him mounted in the study in Sandton. But this game reserve had lots of big and old nyala.

We were down in a valley floor, a small stream running through the valley and thick green forest vegetation. It was pleasant walking in the lush green shade in the midday heat.

We spotted a number of nyala bulls, plenty of impala and zebra and we bumped a young bushbuck. Thinking there must be a mature bushbuck ram around and we went on.

Temba spotted him first. Not 15 meters from us when we came up on him. A magnificent solo nyala bull, carrying perfectly shaped horns with flared tips and solid mass.

When Nick took out his phone to photograph this old bull, I knew I needed to shoot him and I whispered to Nick that we should take him.

Up went the sticks, I dialled the scope down to 2,5 and pushed the safety off. The bull was now walking slowly through the bush not 20 meters from us and still totally unaware of our presence.

Nick ‘barked’ at the bull and the nyala turned broadside looking back at the noise. At the shot he buckled hard, ran 10 meters and collapsed.

And what a super, super old bull he was. His teeth were worn almost to the gums and parts of his neck were bare leather. A lifetime nyala bull!





I was thrilled and we will now have two nyala mounts in our study in Sandton!

We retuned to the lodge and the guys skinned out the three animals and got everything in the salt. Three great animals on day 1! The hunting gods were smiling on us.



Blue Duiker





The following day, Marius drove us along the coast towards Port Alfred, where we were to hunt blue duiker on a working pineapple farm. The manager had been baiting a spot in a thicket with mealie pips (read maize seeds) and blue duiker were coming in regularly. Marius had been getting the trail cam pictures for a few days.








With permits in hand, the farm owner drove ahead of us to the forest thicket where the blind was set up, stopping on the way to pluck a couple of ripe pineapples for us.





At 14:00 we stepped into the blind and set the rifle firmly in the rifle rest, sighted across a small stream bed, at the maize bait 15 meters away from us.

Marius had run me through his ‘blind speak’ on the drive down.

A tap on my thigh - duiker coming in.

Squeeze my thigh - freeze.

Pointing at his chest - a female.

Hand waived palm flat - not a shooter.

Thumbs up - well this one needs no explaining.








As it transpired when the ram we took came in, we spotted him together and Marius whispered that he was a mature representative ram and I whispered back that I would shoot him. No hand signals were needed.





The blind was humid and dark. My chair started sinking into the soft earth and after an hour Marius questioned if I could still get an eye to the scope - that’s how low I was! I was sitting on an angle of 30 degrees and my leg was cramping up.








At 15:30 a blue duiker ewe crossed the bait site followed by a trailing ram, they never stopped. Shortly after, a young ewe / lamb came in and feed for a few moments before darting away into the forest undergrowth. 3 duiker in an hour! This was looking promising!

An hour later, a single ram stepped out of the greenery from right to left into the cleared bait site and started feeding.

Marius glassed him and whispered that he was a solid mature ram and I opted to take him. Sighting a bit back, the rifle spat and the ram almost slo-mo sprang into the air only to hit the soft earth and slide down bank into the stream below us. I had my blue duiker ram! A solid, representative ram. I was thrilled!!

Marius called his tracker and we climbed down to the stream bed to claim our prize. A superb, tiny blue duiker ram! Wonderful!











We dried the wet ram in the sun and with the help of a towel and then, after admiring the miniature antelope for some minutes and taking pictures, Mr T, the tracker, carefully gutted the ram, wrapped him in the wet towel and placed him in the cold box for the drive back to the farm where we were staying, west of East London.





I was super happy! The plan had worked to perfection. I had my blue duiker ram! Thank you Marius!


The following day, Friday, I hunted again with Nick and Temba, hoping for an old bushbuck and a warty.


Warthog




Nick spotted him first. A large bodied boar, feeding at the edge of a clearing, with his back end in the bush. In the spotting scope you could see pretty good tusks. I declared him as a shooter and bullied Nick into action. Nick however was saying we could maybe do better. But to me any pig in the hand is worth two in the bush and this one was already half out of the bush so I started walking across the slope in the direction of the pig.

„We can shoot him from here“ Nick announced, flicking up the sticks. „243 meters.“

With the rifle solid on the sticks, I dialled up the scope to 20 and Nick clicked up 11 elevation for the distance and I waited for a broadside shot. The pig obliged.

At the shot, I saw the warty fold in the scope picture. He did not move a meter.





As we approached him, we realised that the shot was high spine and the boar was still alive. A double tap 9 mill from Nick‘s offered Glock in the crease of the front leg and the warty was still.





An old boar and in my opinion an absolute worthy trophy pig!





Zebra





Basically a chip shot. After glassing the valley sides for an hour or so for bushbuck, we drove to an area where we had seen zebra the other day we hunted.

We spotted a herd of some 30 plus buff bedded down with some very small calves and a couple of large, solid bulls in the group. Standing 30 meters to their right of the buff stood our zebra stallion.

Off the bakkie, walk 20 meters away from the buff and towards the grazing zebra, sticks up, rifle on sticks, sight onto the zebras ‘magic shoulder triangle target’ and fire the shot. And then - with an eye on the now standing up and milling buffalo - it was back to the truck and wait for the buff to move off. Which they duly did, whereupon we could safely claim our zebra. My third zebra, cleanly shot shoulder to shoulder taking off the top of his large heart. A big hide with some scars and bites. Character.









Bushbuck





We then drove the middle track back to the other side of the farm. A 90 minute drive, stopping and scanning and glassing for bushbuck as we went. We stopped at a number of likely spots and glassed and glassed but we failed to pick up a bushbuck ram.





Driving back towards the farm and the butchery / skinning shed to drop off the zebra, we spotted a number of large bodied warthog grazing in the afternoon sun. One appeared bigger than the rest.

I was keen to shoot him - I always am with pigs - but Nick held off believing him to be smaller than the one I had taken earlier. We drove on and spotting more pigs, climbed off the truck to put the spotting scope on them.

And then suddenly everything happened very fast!

Temba spied a bushbuck ram across the other side of the valley and putting the scope on him it was clear he was a shooter.

Nick urged me to quickly follow him and we ran some 40 meters down the slope on our side, whereupon he shortened the sticks for a seated shot and we sat down, me bedding the rifle into the now short sticks.

„372 meters“, Nick announced, „54 clicks“, and he dialled the scope up.





I adjusted the magnification to max 20 and found the ram in the sight. Standing, sunning himself at the edge of a clearing some 5 meters from the tree line on the far valley slope !

372 meters and a solid right to left cross wind! To say that I was not totally comfortable would be an understatement. I quickly asked Temba to sit back to back to me, so I could lean back into him getting myself more stable in the sitting position.

I took the safety off, sighted a foot to the right of the ram’s shoulder to allow for the wind, held my breath, pulled the stock in hard and thinking to myself „Here goes!“, told the guys I was shooting and took a breath, exhaled half and squeezed the trigger.

The shot broke and a split second later we saw the ram take the hit, haunch up and spin around. I reloaded only to hear Nick call out „He’s down! He’s down!“ I could see the ram on the ground through the scope and realised I had just taken a superb old ram, valley side to valley side at 372m!

And what a ram he was or is! His horns were chipped, worn and scarred, he was covered from head to rump in ticks and had hardly a hair on his skull but rather that grey dandruff that old, old rams have. And a beautiful chocolate cape that the Cape Bushbuck have. What an animal to end the hunt! Superb! I was and still am elated.











We did put a tape on him at the skinning shed and measured him at 15 3/4 inches. A spectacular, solid, old, old Cape bushbuck ram! This ram was the icing on an already well made cake! I was thrilled and also to have made the 370 m shot. Not every day that presents itself and works out fine!

The guys skinned the zebra and the warthog and caped the bushbuck for a mount and thanking the land owner, we headed back to the lodge, high on a day‘s wonderful plains game hunting and excellent old trophies!






Trophies in the Salt





Marius purchased new salt before the hunt. Minor detail but good to know the trophies are in good clean salt and not bloody dirty old salt. All the animals were caped, skinned and salted flawlessly and Marius dropped all bar the blue duiker off at a taxidermy near Port Elisabeth. I took the duiker to Andre van Rooyen in Roodepoort near Sandton as he has done most of my minis and knows exactly what I want. The skinners did great work!

I know the above is basic, but I have been on a few hunts over the years where old salt was used and one or two animals would have been skinned the next day had I not opened my mouth.



Bass Fishing





The last day it was overcast and drizzled, but nevertheless, I opted to fish one of the reserve dams which they said held large mouth bass. With an Orvis 5 weight rod and an Orvis Battenkill reel and floating line in hand, Marius dropped me at the dam and we agreed that he would come back in a couple of hours to collect me.

I happily fished the water, retrieving small nymphs and managed to catch and release 3 small bass to 1/2 lb each and I dropped a larger fish that likely would have gone 2 lbs.

I was not thinking of dams and bass when I packed my gear, rather the Kei River and smallmouth yellowfish so I had no streamers or damsels in my fly box. They would have worked a treat. Note to self, if / when I return there think ‚bass‘ and pack the other fly boxes!

It was great fun all the same and a wonderful way to round off the week. That evening I dried my boots by the fire!


After an enjoyable braai and a few beers, we watched to Rugby World Cup final to see the Springboks lift the cup. Back to back world champions and where better to watch it than in RSA!

And then it was pack up, settle bills, load skins and heads and a short drive to East London for my return flight to Johannesburg and a steak dinner in the Hogs Head in Douglasdale and a day to sort things out before a KLM night flight back to Europe.

What was set up as a blue duiker trip with maybe a wildi and a warthog resulted in a solid blue duiker and 6 other trophies including a stonker of a nyala and a superb Cape bushbuck all taken cleanly with 1 shot (bar a couple of 9 mill finishers on the pig)!

Sometimes it swings in your favour and this was one of those times!

A big thanks to Marius and Nick from KMG Safaris and to their guys plus a thanks to all AR readers for coming along on this hunt report with me.

Would I do this hunt again? In the blink of an eye, yes! Looking back, I could not / would not fault any aspect of this hunt. On the contrary it was more than I had planned and expected! Plenty of game, a massive piece of Wild Coast bush, a mix of demanding hunting and easier hunting, good punctual organisation and comfortable lodgings!

Yes, I will hunt there again!


Cheers!







Post Script

1/ I had no issues whatsoever with clearing through ORT or East London and on the final flight out I went and said hi to the SAPs team, most of whom I know from over the years.

2/ My luggage on the way out was not tampered with at all.

3/ I purchased a SIM card at the MTN store for less than a dollar and added USD 15,- in data and airtime. Came right for the whole week on that.

4/ Driving around Sandton there were one or two police checks over the rugby weekend checking for drinking and driving - had no issues here either.

5/ I did a braai for myself one evening in Bryanston - lamb chops, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, a couple of beers and a glass of good red. Total cost under USD 20,-. Not too bad for a failing third world economy in my opinion! And yes I know I have EUR and USD to spend but you get my drift!

6/ The study / trophy room in the town house in Sandton has gotten pretty full!






.

Mighty fine pictures and report Charlie.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

George

Fantastic report and some very fine trophies. Always enjoyed your reports and thanks for posting your memories!

Charlie - Well done! Thanks for the entertaining report and congratulations on the fine trophies. I take it the exit wound on the duiker wasn't overly large.

What a great report! Thank you for taking so much trouble. Lovely old animals,

GREAT hunt report! Some very fine trophies taken. Congratulations!

Great report! Thanks for taking the time to take us along on your hunt. It took me back to my hunt with Marius & Nick in June. Botth are very good hunters targeting mature animals.

Well done mate and some great animals you took their

Excellent report and looked like an enjoyable hunt! Love the Nyala and bushbuck trophies. Would make a lovely pedestal mount paired together! And the Duiker and Wartie were nice as well... I've always thought the Eastern Cape to be one of the prettiest areas of Africa.

Nice animals. Also some really pretty country side photos. Beautiful place.

GREAT hunt report! Some very fine trophies taken. Congratulations!

Outstanding report!
Well done.
One of the best I have read!
Thanks

Your reports are always excellent!
Thank you for taking the time to share.

JCHB

Charlie,
What a great report and photography!! Well done and reminds me of my great times on the East Cape with now late Cam Greig, and my little driven Blue Duiker!! That pineapple is really deeeelicious while waiting for these little beasties!!
I shot my driven Blue with a 20ga O/U with light Buck... over in Namibia my Dik Dik and Common Duiker with 22LR...one shot all!!

CheerZ,

Outstanding report and what a great hunt! Thanks for sharing

Thank you for all of the great pics. What an outstanding safari! Well done Sir!

Weidmannsheil Charlie!

Nice report and pics!

Very well written and a great hunt!

That bushbuck, along with the other animals you took, are amazing!

Great hunt and report Charlie, just outstanding country and animals!

Great report, thanks for writing a detailed report with lots of pictures
Brings back great memories from hunting with Marius and KMG, Eastern Cape is beautiful no doubt
That bushbuck is a dandy!

.

Gents, Thank you all for the positive comments and feedback! Makes it all the more worthwhile to write up reports when you get good feedback and comments! And as you know I am always happy to write up reports on good hunting experiences and this was one of them!

Cheers and time to start planning 2024 and 2025 !!

And ps the exit hole on the duiker was minimal so all good there.
.

The Blue Duiker is much more than representitive!

quote:

The Blue Duiker is much more than representitive!

Indeed, Blue Duiker - Dagga Boy Category.

Congrats, that looks like a very cool hunt. Love those pics.

Congratulation a fine hunt. Thank you for sharing your adventure. I also harvested my blue diker with Marius in 2021. KMG is a great outfit.

Congratulations on what looks like a fine hunt! I really enjoyed your landscape photos...it looks like a gorgeous property. Also, that Nyala is outstanding!

Charlie,

You took some great trophies. The bushbuck is a dandy and the blue duiker really nice!

Was lucky enough to take blue duiker, suni and red duiker all in Mozambique. Under rated trophies all.

Well done!

Mark

Wonderful hunt and report!

I am envious of that bushbuck.

I also agree the small animals can be really demanding to hunt, but sometimes things just work out right.

Thanks for sharing it!

Great report! My favorite is that grand old bushbuck.

I herd much good about Eastern Cape
Thank you for excellent report
It must have been pretty hot this time a year

.

quote:

It must have been pretty hot this time a year

No, it was mild and pleasant - low 20s Celcius and light rain on the last day.

.

Super Safari and Report


Was the Nyala hunted in a low fenced Area ?

Charlie,
Nice report. Thank you for sharing.
I hunted my blue diker, Oribi, and cape grysbok with Marius in 2 different safari's. He runs a fantastic company and knows about everyone in the eastern cape.

As above

quote:

The reserve is fenced on one side and bordered by the Kei River on the other. 25.000 hectares of deep valleys, hills and mountains and thick bush interspersed with a number of open vleis. Just to comment on the size of the reserve, the 25.000 h is calculated based on a flat topography reading, therefore to get the true size of the property add 50 % on top to account for the valley slopes and sides, hence we would be hunting on a reserve of some 35.000 h plus minus. There are parts of this game reserve that are so wild and inaccessible that they have never been hunted! It is a big game reserve by any standards.

Hope that answers the question. I would imagine that the bull had never been out of the valley where we found him!

.

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
As above

quote:

The reserve is fenced on one side and bordered by the Kei River on the other. 25.000 hectares of deep valleys, hills and mountains and thick bush interspersed with a number of open vleis. Just to comment on the size of the reserve, the 25.000 h is calculated based on a flat topography reading, therefore to get the true size of the property add 50 % on top to account for the valley slopes and sides, hence we would be hunting on a reserve of some 35.000 h plus minus. There are parts of this game reserve that are so wild and inaccessible that they have never been hunted! It is a big game reserve by any standards.

Hope that answers the question. I would imagine that the bull had never been out of the valley where we found him!

.

Thanks for the Info

Great report Charlie thanks for sharing

What a cool safari!

Great write up and excellent pics.

I cannot wait to go back!