MOZAMBIQUE - 2013 - BROKEN JINX ANTELOPE SAFARI REPORT

Outfitter: Roger Whittall Safaris/Matimbo Safaris Limitada

Booking Agent: None. Booked directly with Guy Whittall.

Airlines: British Airways and South African Airways

Travel Agent: Steve Turner, Travel With Guns

Location: Messalo and Nungu Concessions, Niassa Province, Northern Mozambique

Duration: 10 days

Professional Hunter: Guy Whittall

Rifle: Custom Pre-64 Winchester Model 70, Caliber .375 H&H Mag.

Game Taken: Roosevelt's sable and Livingstone's eland

Game Sought But Not Taken: Spotted hyena

My wife, Lindy, and I returned at the end of September from a 10 day safari in Mozambique with Guy Whittall. I called it our Broken Jinx Antelope Safari, as we were focused primarily on sable and eland, which I have hunted before (sable in Tanzania, and eland in Tanzania and Namibia), in each case for many days, but never as my primary quarry and always without success. I hoped to break the jinx in Mozambique.

We were also interested in the possibility of taking a spotted hyena as a kicker.

This was our first trip to Mozambique, and we greatly enjoyed it, so I thought I would share it with my AR friends. I hope you enjoy the report.

AIRLINES

We suffered through a 15 hour flight delay at the outset of our trip. Owing to mechanical problems that plagued our would-be Boeing 777, our first British Airways flight from Boston to London ended up being canceled.

Because of relatively tight connections from London to Johannesburg and from there to Pemba, in Mozambique, we lost a full day at the beginning of our trip. Steve Turner of Travel With Guns was terrific throughout this ordeal. He was immediately available by phone and email to sort things out and re-book our flights.

We had booked a day of SCUBA diving in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Pemba for the first full day of our trip. We ended up having to cancel that, but fortunately, we did not lose any hunting time.

We like a couple of days as a buffer, at the front end of a safari, for just this kind of contingency. Also, we find that the down time at the beginning helps us to recover from 24 hours (or in this case, 48 hours) of travel.

Apart from this initial delay, however, we had no problems with BA or SAA. All of our luggage, including my rifle and ammunition, made it through to Pemba with no difficulties.

One word of advice: If you will be flying with SAA for any leg of your trip, be sure that your ammunition is packed in a separate, lockable piece of luggage (in our case, a small, converted Swarovski binocular case), since SAA requires it. And as we found, because SAA requires it, BA required it as well.

Many thanks to Steve Turner for covering all of the bases with the airlines (including advising us about separately packing our ammo) and for helping us through the delay and re-booking process. As I watched an entire plane load of passengers scrambling, many with limited success, to re-book their flights from Boston to London, I was very glad we had Steve in our corner!

PEMBA BEACH LODGE

We stayed just outside of Pemba, in Cabo Delgado province, at the Pemba Beach Lodge. The lodge is right on the Indian Ocean, and is operated by Jumbo Moore of Kambako Safaris. The lodge is well appointed, the food is hearty and the hospitality is second to none.















We spent our first night at the lodge, listening to the surf and enjoying the sea breeze, before driving to our hunting camp on the Messalo River the next day.

GETTING TO AND FROM CAMP

We decided to travel by truck to and from camp. It is a long, 6-7 hour, drive, over what can often only charitably be called "roads," but we highly recommend it.

If we had taken a charter flight, we would not have seen or experienced so much of what ended up making our trip as interesting and memorable as it was. These photos, almost all of which were taken by Lindy, capture some of what I mean.










































PROFESSIONAL HUNTER

Our PH on this trip would be Guy Whittall.



Guy, together with his partner and fellow PH, Sebastian Wicker, are co-owners of Matimbo Safaris Lda., which owns the rights to the Nungu and Messalo safari areas.

Guy is the scion of a great family of hunters and conservationists. Guy's family own the Humani ranch in the Save Valley Conservancy in the southeastern lowveld of Zimbabwe. His father, Roger, is a very well-known and highly regarded figure in the hunting community, not only in Zimbabwe, but throughout the big game hunting world. Roger Whittall Safaris, begun in 1977, continues to this day as a premier hunting outfitter in Zimbabwe, and also more recently in Mozambique.

I learned, as we got to know Guy over the course of our safari, that he is a dedicated, hard-working and excellent hunter and conservationist. In addition, he is a great host and hunting companion. The more we got to know Guy, the more we liked him. He is a true professional, in the best sense of the word.



I must add that Guy, although he is modest about it, is a former member of the Zimbabwean national cricket team. He was, for many years, a full time, professional athlete. Not that long ago, either.

So, as Lindy and I were to learn, when Guy stops the hunting truck, and suggests that we should all "stretch our legs a bit," one had better be prepared for a trek over hill and dale that might last, if need be, and without respite, until the close of the day.

Lindy and I were fairly (emphasis on fairly) fit for this trip. Guy saw that, and paced us. He never quite let us know that he was pacing us, but he was, and Lindy and I appreciated it. Guy seemed to realize, after a while, that we would be able to bowl and bat as well as might be required, and there was no more pacing!

Our muscles are still sore, but it's a good kind of sore.

HUNTING TEAM

Our trackers were Taru, a Zimbabwean tracker and hunter who lives with his family on the Humani ranch in the Save Valley; Manuel, a local Macua, former meat hunter for FRELIMO and erstwhile and able poacher; and Paulino, also a local Macua, who seemed ready, willing and able to tackle anything that might come along.

Taru



Taru was always in a positive mood, worked hard and was the leader of our team of fine trackers. I enjoyed many a "full and frank discussion" (as the diplomats say) with Taru on the back of the truck, as did Lindy. Taru, and the other Zimbabweans in Guy's camp, led by example, and did so to good effect.

Manuel



Manuel kept us laughing the entire trip. He wore the leaves in his ears from time to time as a mopane bee preventive. When asked how they worked, he replied, "No entrada!" Manuel had the sauce and the spice, and the savoir faire. I'd hunt with Manuel anywhere and any time.

Paulino



Paulino had better teeth than I did, and without the benefit of dental insurance. Great guy. Very positive, hard-working and possessed of a refreshing, can-do attitude. Believe me, this is rare in a place, such as Mozambique, where the Calvinist (or any other) work ethic is not generally encountered. Some folks get it; and some don't. Paulino gets it. And he and his family benefit. God bless capitalism.

MESSALO CAMP, NIASSA PROVINCE

The Messalo Camp is located on the banks of the Messalo River. Our tent was quite large and comfortable, and included full, en suite, plumbing facilities. A suitable camp requires a stout tent, a hot shower and good food. We certainly had these. Lindy found our tent, and especially the en suite plumbing, very accommodating.






Guy's cook, Lucia, who is also from Zimbabwe, was excellent in every way. The food was very good.



The showers were well put together and hot. All in all, the best shower we have seen anywhere in truly wild Africa.















After we arrived, we checked the zero on my Winchester, and it was right on target - two inches high at about 80 yards.

But Guy suggested that, given the shorter ranges at which I would likely be shooting, I should lower the point of impact at 80 yards to one inch high. A few downward clicks of elevation and two shots later - one from a rest and one off the sticks - and we were ready to go.

A brief word about Guy's shooting sticks. They are the best on earth. The bad-assed BEST. Bar none. We christened them the "Whittall Sticks" ©®™, but for more, you will need to wait for comment from Guy, or his patent application. More solid and useful sticks you will never encounter, not nowhere and not no how.

CONCESSIONS - NUNGU AND MESSALO

We saw a beautiful, old sable bull on the first morning of our hunt. He was very calm, as he walked along a game trail about 60 yards away, in full view of our truck. He strolled along until he finally ducked out of sight in the thick brush. He seemed to have good horn length, and very big bases. I could not believe it. I confess that I wanted to jump down off the truck and stalk him right then and there. The first morning of the first day! Guy suggested that this bull was definitely a shooter, but not on the first day. He was sure that we could do better.

I soon realized that sable were everywhere in these concessions. Herds, bulls in bachelor groups and lone bulls. Not a day went by that we did not see sable. The Messalo area, and the adjoining Nungu area to the south, where we hunted for one full day, are home to a huge number of these majestic antelope.

And these concessions are immense - over 1,250,000 acres, or 500,000 hectares, of brachystegia woodland and vleis - and in the case of many areas within the concessions, largely unexplored. The reality and the potential here are both fantastic, in my opinion, and getting a good sable here is as sure a thing as exists in all of wild Africa.

For those who care about such things, there are thorns, tsetse flies, mopane bees and plenty of fire ants. But very few ticks. Bring a head net. It can come in handy at times. You will leave some blood behind, but that's how it goes, right?

A notable feature of these concessions are the many inselbergs, which are volcanic rock formations that shoot up abruptly out of the woodlands like isolated towers. They can be as high as 1,000+ meters above sea level. We climbed three of them. The views are spectacular.



























We also saw good numbers of Niassa wildebeest, Lichtenstein's hartebeest, warthogs, greater kudu, waterbuck, yellow baboon, common duikers and other game, including bushpig. All of these species are huntable here. I had killed multiples of all I wanted on previous safaris, so did not hunt any of them this time around.

In addition, we saw a great deal of elephant spoor, and lion spoor as well. We actually saw only one bull elephant - as we did not spend time in the areas of the concession where we would have, had we been hunting them. Guy reported that he and Sebastian, and their other professional hunters, had experienced great luck with elephant, lion, and leopard as well.

We did not take a lot of photos, as we were hunting for sable and eland very intensively, but here are some examples.





















And one of our favorites.



A challenge that Guy and Sebastian face, both at Nungu and Messalo, is poaching. Subsistence poaching by locals, for fish and game, and also commercial elephant poaching by Chinese backed poaching syndicates.

With some cooperation from the government, Guy and Sebastian are training, funding and fielding anti-poaching teams. They are having the desired effect. Here are some photos of snares and fish traps that have been confiscated from poachers apprehended on Matimbo's concessions.






The steel wire snares started appearing at the same time as the Chinese.



While we were hunting, subsistence poachers were arrested by each of two anti-poaching teams fielded by Guy and Sebastian. Their illegal catch of fish was confiscated, as were their fish traps, snares, a spear used for killing snared game, and perhaps most significantly, their bicycles. Without these, the poachers are unable to ply their trade. In addition, we came upon and burned a fish poachers' camp, which included a thatched hut and lion fence.



Guy reported that there has been some, limited commercial poaching activity in the Nungu and Messalo concessions, but that most of such poaching has been focused on the Niassa Reserve and other concessions located to the north and east. The Chinese, who are engaged in building a new, tarred road from Lichinga to Pemba, are thought to be behind this.

For me, it was encouraging to see the time and money that Guy and Sebastian have invested in anti-poaching efforts, and that their investment is paying off. I can tell you that they are dead serious about it, and in my view, they are to be commended for their efforts.

We did not see any snares in the field while we were hunting, and that, to me, tells the tale, and bodes well for the future. The hunting here, which is already very good, can only get better as Guy and Sebastian's stewardship takes hold and bears fruit.

ELAND

Given the abundance of sable, Guy's strategy was to focus on eland in the early going, and on sable if an opportunity arose. Guy seemed confident that we would be able to score on sable, so the early focus on eland, as our main quarry, was fine with me.

I should say that, by this time in my years of African hunting, eland had become an obsession with me. I can still remember each of the several times that I have seen and then spooked big, shaggy faced bull eland in two different African nations and then watched those eland run out of sight in that maddening, hoof clicking, slow-looking gait of theirs that covers more ground than a hyped-up sports car in fifth gear, and then walked untold miles through thickets, thorns, across rivers, over mountainous kopjies, through gullies, across dry river beds where the sand sucks your boots down and it takes two trackers to pull you out, constantly and without let up for hours and hours until all of the water was gone, I was soaked with sweat and my left knee was about to explode only to come up empty handed time and time and time and time again . . . and then had to walk all the bloody way back to the truck before dark carrying a twenty pound rifle that only weighed ten when all of this started . . . .

So, I wanted an eland badly, and I knew that much hard work, and certainly some disappointment, awaited. But the possibility of finally tracking one down was what had brought me to Mozambique, and I was far more than ready to go.

During the first few days of hunting, we found and followed many eland tracks. One afternoon, we spotted a big eland bull from the truck. But as luck would have it, he spotted us at the same time, and took off at that ground-eating, man-grinding gait they have. We went after him anyway - he was good, so how could we not - but he had a big head start, and we never caught him. I told Guy that not catching up with an eland was becoming the story of my life!

We continued to hunt eland. We tracked them. We would walk through a likely area, usually a burned vlei where the browse had begun to re-grow, and the tender shoots that eland so love to eat were sprouting anew from the scorched earth.

When we found a good track, we would follow it up. For the first five days, we had no luck. We would find a big track and follow it, often for many hours, only to have the eland see us first, or get our wind, and take off, seemingly never to stop again! At least not where we could find them.

One bull we were chasing (and did chase, as it turned out, for over ten hours) must have gotten our wind. He stopped behind a tree (as we later learned from his tracks), where he stood patiently, or so it seemed, and looked steadily back toward us, his pursuers, until he finally spotted us. He then sprinted away (as we could tell from his deeply imprinted and ploughed up tracks), at a hard gallop, far off into the distance.

Lest you think we are quitters, be assured that we continued to follow this bull anyway, for about a mile or two, until to my surprise he again slowed to a walk. But by then, the sun had begun its decline. So, we were forced once again to break off the chase, turn around, and retrace our many and hard steps, back to the truck, and take the long and thoughtful drive back to camp.

I was greatly impressed by the ability of Guy and our trackers to find and follow eland and other tracks on, over and through every kind of ground. I have been fortunate to hunt behind skilled Maasai and San trackers, and I would put Guy and his team in that category - they possess truly amazing tracking abilities.

On the morning of our sixth day of hunting, at about six thirty, after we had been walking for about an hour, Manuel first came across the track of a big bull eland. As we followed the spoor, we saw the tracks of other eland mixed in. It seemed that this big bull had joined up with his herd of cows and calves, and that all of them were now feeding along through the forest, not too far ahead of us.

Then Manuel stepped across our paths and stopped us. He asserted himself. He informed Guy that we had not been doing this in the correct way. That there was a process to this, that there was some important mojo that had not been, but that now must be, performed and followed, in order to insure our success. Manuel then showed us the way.

He pointed to a spread of fresh eland dung. Small, round pellets, about as big as marbles, perhaps thirty in number, still soft and warm, right in our path. Manuel then picked up a twig. He pulled his knife from its sheath, and sharpened the twig to a point. He then picked up, and stuck the point of the twig through, a pellet of the eland dung.

Two inches of twig extended from the pellet of impaled dung. Manuel then slowly walked to the imprint of the front hoof of the big bull eland. Into this hoofprint, Manuel stuck the impaled pellet of dung.

There followed an encore performance with another twig, another pellet of dung and the imprint of a rear hoof of the eland.

Manuel then explained his actions in a brief speech in Portuguese. The gist of this speech was apparently that, by virtue of the dung-on-the-stick-in-the-track routine then, thusly and twicely enacted by himself, the eland's fate had been well and truly sealed. We were going to find and kill him. Success was assured.

My reaction to Manuel's performance was to give him a sincere "Obregado!" for his efforts, and to say to Guy and Lindy that I would be grateful at this point for any mojo that worked!

After an hour or so of further tracking, very carefully, through some fairly thick brush, Manuel saw a tail flick about 175-200 yards ahead of us. (Don't ask me how he did that?! Maybe it was the dung ritual?! No one else saw anything.) Guy confirmed the sighting, with the assistance of optics manufactured by Carl Zeiss, and then he and I moved forward alone. Lindy, Taru and the other trackers stayed behind.

We advanced slowly. The wind was good. Steady, from our right to our left. Dry leaves made the stalking difficult, but we managed to close in on the eland, without being detected, to within 75 yards of the small herd.

Guy stopped, and put up the shooting sticks, just behind a small tree. I put up my rifle. Then began the waiting game. We knew the bull was there, somewhere, but we could not yet see him through the thick trees and brush.

We could see some calves. And two young bulls. We watched for several minutes, as the young bulls sparred. They pushed and shoved each other, and banged their horns together in a mock fight. Then three of the cows began to double back and feed slowly toward us to our left. Not good. If they kept up their course, they would soon get our wind and all would be lost.

Again.

But then, finally, the bull stepped out. I watched as he grabbed a low tree branch in his teeth, and shook it violently back and forth. He was showing the herd who was the big, breeding boss. The branch broke and crashed. The bull then stood quartering toward us, straight up and strong. Through the bush, I could see his big head, with its dark brown ruff, and dark, spiraled horns, and also and more importantly, his left shoulder. Guy saw all of this too, through his binocular. Guy whispered, "He's a good bull, Mike. Take him if you want him."

If I wanted him!

A second later, I put the crosshairs of my scope low on the point of the bull's shoulder and sent a 272 grain Hirtenberger ABC bullet through his heart. He lurched as the bullet hit him, staggered several steps to his left, fell and died.







I did not appreciate how huge an eland bull is until we walked up on this one. Huge. And beautiful, too, with its long, spiral horns, white chevroned nose, dewlap and striped hide. It is a solemn thing to take the life of such an animal. But we would dine on delicious eland steaks for the next few days, and all of the remainder of the meat from this bull would be distributed to the camp and the local people.



We recovered my ABC bullet under the skin on the bull's off side. As they always have for me, this one performed perfectly.






These bullets kill very quickly and cleanly, and are the best expanding bullets I have ever used; but they are unfortunately no longer made. I do, however, still have my private supply. When I fire my last one, I may break down and cry.

SABLE

The very next day, late in the day, as we were driving down a two-track through the bush, Guy spotted sable ahead of us. They seemed to be in a wide vlei just ahead and to our left. And importantly, they had not seen us or sensed our presence.

Guy, Lindy and I quickly began our stalk. The wind was in our faces. The sable were about a quarter mile ahead of us. Our stalk would take us through thick brush up to the edge of the vlei.

Using cover, and moving very slowly, we ended up behind a small tree. We saw our bull and a cow besides. They had their heads down, and were feeding. The bull looked good to me. His black hide showed red highlights in the fading light.

We had no more cover, as the remaining ground between us and the sable was wide open. Guy put up the sticks (those very special sticks), and told me that the bull was indeed a good one, and that I should take him if I wanted him.

I settled my rifle in the Whittall Sticks, and took the shot. The bull hunched up, then staggered forward several yards before he fell dead. My Hirtenberger ABC bullet had penetrated his heart and passed entirely through him. I later measured the range at 175 yards.






There is some doubt as to whether the sable in northern Mozambique are Roosevelt's or common sable. Note the reddish hue to my sable's coat. Also, Guy and I have corresponded with a prominent South African veterinary scientist who has conducted genetic testing on these Niassa sable and has concluded that they are, in fact, Roosevelt's sable. He has surmised that farther south, and perhaps as far south as the Zambezi, they begin to cross-breed with the common sable to produce hybrids.



Good enough for me. So, I am calling this one a Roosevelt's sable! As with our eland, we feasted on sable over the next few days as well. Sable meat is delicious, perhaps not as good as eland, but really good. What we and the rest of our camp did not eat, we gave to the local people.

After succeeding on eland and sable in 7 days, we tried very hard for a couple of days to bait a hyena. Although we arose faithfully at 11:00 PM, and again at 3:00 AM, each night and day, and hiked sleepily to the blind, amid the crashing of elephant and the slinking of other beasts, we were not successful. We did have a big hyena on bait for a while, but we simply could not manage to coordinate our schedule with his.

In the end, we decided to declare victory, and leave camp a day early. We still had a chance, if we could make the bookings, to get in some SCUBA diving off the coast of Pemba, which we had missed at the front end of our trip, because of our initial, lengthy delay in getting out of Boston.



We did that, and enjoyed it very much.



We had a great time on this safari, and on this trip in general.

It took some Mozambican mojo, but we finally broke my big antelope jinx!

Awesome hunt and a great write up.

Moz just made the to-do list (again). Thank you!

Beautiful pictures and great animals.

Thanks for posting.

Congrats on a fine hunt!

Me thinks a prolonged Eland tracking session might scratch my Africa itch.

Michael,

Excellent report, great photos and a story that took us there with you. Thanks for posting. That sable is spectacular, heavy bases and an beautiful curl. Your report just bumped sable up on my list.

Paul

Great stuff there Mike. Congratulations and thanks for sharing. This is a hunt I'd love to do.

quote:

Originally posted by Thunder Head:
Congrats on a fine hunt!

Me thinks a prolonged Eland tracking session might scratch my Africa itch.

It's definately something one should try. I did a 10-day eland hunt in northern Namibia and we followed up track just about every day and it took every bit of 7 of my 10 days. Great hunt.

George

Well done! You finally got your Sable and Eland!

quote:

Game Sought But Not Taken: Spotted hyena

Hyena has eluded me more than any other animal that I have hunted. Not to worry, you need something to go back for.

Great report, nice trophies. Sounds like a proper hunt.

Mrlexama,
Super report and great eland and sable. Hats off to you.
Ross

Nice report - great trophies. AIU

Congratulations! Fine trophies, exciting hunting, first-rate report, well done to the whole team. Great photos too - Lindy has a good eye. Messalo is so spectacular - true wilderness. Well executed Michael - that is the eland, sable and report!

Thought you'd like this photo of Manuel, what a character.

Classic. Tremendous report and great trophies all round.

I find in Zambia that even old dark bulls still retain some red in their coats. Some more than others.

Very well done indeed.

Fantastic report and photos. Thanks for taking the time to post. As DG hunts keep getting more and more expensive, the type of hunt you did looks like a more economical way to scratch the African itch.

Great hunt and report, well done; an example of what the best on AR have to offer

Has reinforced my desire to visit Northern Mozambique

Always enjoy your posts and reports, thanks for sharing

Excellent, congratulations. Glad that the muti finally came right for you.

Congratulations on taking your Eland and Sable!

Well done!

Outstanding report!
Big congrats on the fine trophies.

I am heading there in 10 long months. This report is going to make it longer.

Great write up and two great animals. A good trip. I love the grain in your stock too.

Cheers

DK

Well Done on yall's Safari!!!

Excellent post and fantastic pics to go with it....

Thanks for an excellent report and the great pictures and congratulations on your great trophies!

Mike,
Well done old friend. An excellent report and absolutely wonderful pictures... have to ask what camera you used. Your composition was superb.

And congrats on two well deserved trophies, I think eland, sable together with kudu are the holy grail of African antelope for most hunters. I concur with you on the Roosevelt designation... I am calling my sable from Moz a Roosie as well regardless of what the species splitters contend.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a great safari

Outstanding Mike!

Impressive.

great story, beautiful animals,
Thanks for sharing,
George

Great report, stunning photos !! Thank you for sharing !!

One of the best reports I have read in quite a while. Well done on a superb hunt.

Great report and congratulations. Thanks for posting. I will be there next August.

Really enjoyed reading this report.
Great trophies.Congratulations.
Thanks for posting.

Mike,

I really enjoyed reading your report. Well done on breaking the jinx with fantastic trophies and thanks for sharing your story and photos.

David

Great write-up! Thanks!

Thank you for an excellent report and the great pictures and congratulations on your great trophies.

The photos and story go hand in hand. fine shooting.

Mike

Outstanding report!

That Sable is just great.


.

Great report and photos.

Fantastic eland and sable, both two of my faves.

Nicely done!

Great report and fantastic trophies! Thanks for sharing. I'm seriously considering a hunt for sable as my next trip to Africa and hadn't thought about Mozambique. That's changed!

Well done Mike...great report and photos!
That's quite a photo journal
Congrats to the both of you

Roland

Thanks for all of the kind words. This report was fun to write. I re-lived the whole trip while doing it.

These concessions can be as good as Selous hunting blocks. The potential is there. A fun place to hunt for sure.

Wendell - You're right. Now I'll have to go back. Darn.

David - That's a great photo of Manuel. I only wish I spoke Portuguese so that I could have understood more of his jokes and wisecracks.

fairgame - Interesting about the Zambian sable having red in their coats. I have to wonder if any are truly all black? Beautiful animals in any case.

DK1 - I bought the blank for that stock from Steven Dodd Hughes, who told me he got it from Earl Milliron. It does have terrific color and figure and is my favorite.

bwanamrm - Lindy used a Nikon D7100 for most of the photos. And Nikon f2.8 zoom lenses. Glad you liked them.

Now I have to figure out where to go and what to hunt next. There are worse problems!

Congratulations on a great hunt and beautiful trophies, Mike. This was a wonderful report, great fun to read and spiced with your usual excellent photography. Thanks for posting it.

John

Great report..thanks Mike!