28 April 2014, 08:54
bhtkevinBuffalo with a side of Hippo - Tales from Baldry's Royal Kafue
Forward: I am writing a story to publish, so this is going to be a little bit less detailed than I would normally do!
Royal Kafue Camp – Kafue River – Zambia 2013
Hunting an Africa of days-gone-by was always the way I wanted to do it. I had no interest in hunting a high fence or put-and-take operation. I had no interest in a massage after a hunt or a 5-star lodge. I didn’t want to drive up to an animal and shoot it from the car. I didn’t want to see 10 different non-indigenous species per hunt. I wanted an experience as close to “old world” as you can get in a world of cellphones and internet.
An old war horse - Hyena
After some posts on here and reading a ton of hunt stories, I ran across a “bloke” called Andrew Baldry while reading a hunt report by Frostbit. At first I contacted him about a plains-game only style hunt, and he basically said if I wanted to do that, just save my money and come when I could do something like Sable or Buffalo along with it. A few months went by and work got busy, and on a flight to Asia for a work, my buddy turned to me and said, “Why don’t we just go for Cape Buffalo?” Andrew immediately came to mind and over a series of emails and discussions we booked an early October hunt for Buffalo and a bonus of extra plains game. I also had my eye set on taking a Blue duiker, even though Andrew wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to pull it off.
The first Elephant of the trip!
The nice thing about Africa vs a trip like Kyrgyzstan is you don’t have all the gear and supplies to not only buy before the trip, but also lug around the airport with you. Since we were both working in China at the time, we arrived in Zambia with just a smile and a carry-on bag. Andrew arranged a rifle for us to use that was certified to make heart shots on Buffalo and drop plains-game in their tracks. It held up to the certificate and trust me, we pushed it.
It took a while to get through the airport customs but once on the road, we used the time to discuss the upcoming hunt, what to expect, and anything and everything hunting. By the time we arrived in the camp on the Kafue River, we had just enough time to drink a scotch then head to bed. Andrew was kind enough to tell us about the lions that had been breaking into camp the previous week, so that was a good thought while getting ready to sleep your first night in the wilds of Africa.
Verifying the zero on the “heart shot certified” 375 H&H
Carter getting on sticks with Andrew – Buff Bachelor group in the background!
I will summarize much of the rest by saying the following 10 days were some of the best I’ve spent hunting and fishing in the field. My buddy was first up and shot a magnificent old dugga boy at 30 yards. We had stalked the group on the first morning for over 4 hours! Once we got within 30 yards of them, they picked out a great old bull that Carter decided needed one 375 in the heart, and a second in the neck to ground him.
Carter on his bull!
Carter with his big 39” old buff
Carter and Andrew celebrating a great hunt!
Battle Scars
The second day we stalked a couple groups from sun up until sun down. The closest we got to a large group was literally 7 yards. We intercepted a herd and instead of going past us, they tried to go through us. It was intense!
After looking over that heard, we decided to go look for a different group. At one point we were within 40 yards of a group of 4 bulls off from another heard for over an hour. We were just waiting on the big boss bull to stand up and when he did, it was at a full run because one of the smaller bulls spooked when the wind swirled. We got on multiple other groups of Buffalo all day, but just never found one we were looking for. At one point during a stalk, we had about 30 Buffalo on the other side of the termite mound we were skirting when a black mamba decided to flash by and stop about eye level up the mound and 5 feet away. Andrew was lined up and ready to shoot, but it would have probably hurt my hearing if he been forced to shoot. Luckily the lighting bolt snake went for a hole in the ground instead of my face.
On the walk back to the car, Michael the tracker ducked and whispered, “Buffalo!” Going into instant hunt mode, Andrew grabbed his sticks and we got within 140 yards before an unseen bull saw us and alerted the 3 other big bulls we were stalking. At 140 yards on sticks, I found myself lined up on my first Cape Buffalo, and he was staring us down hard. Just as he was getting ready to bolt, I squeezed off the LOOOOONG pull of the two-stage trigger and the bull rocked at the shot. He ran about 20 yards before collapsing. Shortly after, we heard the death bellow that I’ve read about since I was a kid. Amazing!
The next few days I spent learning how to hunt Blue Duiker. Andrew had seen them before, but neither he nor his clients had ever taken one (most clients aren’t interested and its not a quick hunt). Long story short, it took me a full 3.5 days of learning to put one on the ground. I had 4 pretty good opportunities before the one I finally took, but they are fast animals and don’t stand around for you to get ready. I will be writing a story just on this hunt.
This was probably the most rewarding hunt of the trip. Andrew just turned me loose with a tracker and said “go make it happen” while Carter hunted for Bush-Pig and Hartebeest.
Carter and his Hartebeest
On the 6th day of the hunt, we decided we were going to float down the Kafue and fish all day, then spend the night at Andrew’s buddy’s camp at the end of the float.
Fishing the Kafue River
We skipped most of the Hippo heavy waters but we still spent quite a bit of time dodging overly aggressive hippos and watching for crocs. The fishing was unbelievable and it was a great time until the “incident.” About 500 meters from our pullout location, a Hippo rammed us from under the front of the boat. It nearly flipped the boat and in the process and my buddy went overboard and landed on the hippo. Another long story short, we all survived and my buddy miraculously escaped with bruises, cuts and torn clothes, but no other permanent damage (besides psychological!!!).
Can’t pick a more beautiful place to nearly get killed
This is where the Hippo’s lower teeth pierced the boat
The attack on the river happened in the triangle of his arm in this photo
Being thankful to be alive, we took the rest of the trip pretty easy. I dropped an Impala and Carter took a nice Reed Buck. I had a Bush Buck at 40 yards but passed looking for a bigger one that we knew was out there. We even saw Kudu but Andrew didn’t have a license available for 2013.
Me and my Impala – They don’t get as big here, but this one was quite old
Carter and his Reedbuck!
The last day of the hunt we were loaded up in the truck looking for Hartebeest when the game scout whispered “wounded buffalo” which I relayed to Andrew as “DON’T STOP, wounded buffalo 20 yards away.”
The wounded Buff before it limped away from the area
Driving a safe distance away, we stopped and observed the bull was young, but extremely thin and sickly. We finally got a cell signal and called the game department, who gave us the thumbs up to take it out. During the time it took to get permission the bull got up and covered some ground, so we had to stalk it on foot. While not a trophy hunt, it was still an intense experience I was glad to be a part of!
Wounded Carter with the wounded Buffalo
So to summarize… We encountered a black mamba at 5 feet and eye level, we got mock charged by an elephant on foot at 30 yards while hunting blue duiker, a hippo on the water attacked us, and we hunted down and killed a cape buffalo injured by poachers. OH… and Andrew’s guys actually caught a poacher too. Going to be hard to top that on future hunts but Andrew said if we want to try fist fighting lions he could probably make that happen.
Me with some Guinea Fowl – They were delicious
One of the many grass fires!
Bottom line… we got everything we could ask for in a trip to Africa, plus some. I can see how these truly wild parts of Africa can be addicting.
After the hunt we had a day to kill and Andrew was kind enough to let us crash at his beautiful home and even run us for souvenirs before our flight. You seriously can’t ask for a better PH and “proper” Africa hunt.
I want to say a big thank you to Andrew for being an excellent host and keeping us both alive. You have an amazing hunting operation and a great family.
