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Originally posted by crbutler:
Area: Bale Mountains and Omo Province Ethiopia

PH:Brian Van Blerk and Sisay (local PH)

Sisay:



Dates: March 1-16 2020

Operator: Northern Operations Africa

Rifles: .416 Rigby Dakota 76 (handload 400gr TSX)

.300 RUM Winchester M70 (Pre 64) custom by Jim Kobe (handload 180gr Swift A Frame and 220 grain Woodleigh FMJ)



I booked this hunt about 4 years ago. Moutain Nyala being what it is, you pretty much have to book this several years out and then wait your turn. I wanted to hunt as much as I could while there, but Dave Rademeyer convinced me that I really should not try and do it all at one time, stating that you can end up sitting on bad weather for the Nyala for a week or more, and then you are constantly wanting to jump around. So I just made the plan to hunt Nyala and Menelik's Bushbuck (both in the Bale Mountains) and then move to hunt Colobus Monkey, Buffalo, and Giant Forest Hog in Omo.

With the Coronavirus stuff going on, I was lucky to get back when I did. This was the last of the major spiral horn antelope for me, and the cumulation of one of my hunting goals. I had some concerns about the altitude, which ended up being rightly concerns. Unfortunately, the assurances of "Don't worry, take it slow and it will work out!" along with a bunch of pressures at work in the preceding 4 months interfered with my attempts to get into shape for this. I was in no way near "sheep shape" and actually have been in better workout shape with my Elephant hunts. The winter combined with work just interfered. As I was successful, that was more the team working together (and my not giving up) that anything else. I would strongly recommend that folks approach this like a Lord Derby or Sheep hunt more than the way I did... it will make your days a lot more pleasant!

I also had a lot more photos than I have here. Unfortunately the new IPhone with its pick up to log in with face ID took each step I took up the mountain as a log in attempt and since in the second half I was not riding, essentially I kept failing log in over several hours. It locked the phone up permanently, and they only recourse is to boot it up again and restore from your last cloud save. I lost several hundred photos and some voice commentary that I made on the phone. Apple is unable (or maybe unwilling) to recover your photos if they are not on the cloud, and cloud backup isn't going to happen in Africa... Part of the delay in this has been I have been so utterly mad every time I look at these about all the lost photos. Fortunately, Brian took a bunch that he shared, and the bigger items I would take out the DSLR Camera for the better quality photos, so I didn't lose everything.

I flew out from Minneapolis on the 28th to Dulles, and then on the 29th, left for Addis Ababa. The flight arrives pretty early in the day at Addis, and the plan was we would drive to near the mountain, and then the next day go to Nyala camp.

Ethiopia is a federal system with self governing regions, and some special districts (Addis Ababa being one of them.) It was originally a Empire, with its last emperor, Haile Selassie being removed from power in the 70's, and then having the government become communist. They eventually returned to a more open society with banishment of the communists, and now have a rather open political system. It is majority christian, and its major church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church dates from the time of Christ, and is contemporary with the Catholic Church. It uses its own calendar (I think its 2012 by their reckoning) and major religious holidays are dated differently.

Ethiopia is also unique in Africa in that (other than a brief interlude with one Mussolini) it has never been colonized by European powers.

They have a very interesting history and culture and I was lucky to have Sisay willing to share so much of it with me.

Some of the photos I took driving to the Bale Mountains:

This is typical forest/trees on the road near the Bale Mountains. There were a lot more evergreens near Addis.



You don't only see dust devils in the desert



First wild animal I saw in Ethiopia- near the city.



This was the first sight I had of the Bale Mountains in the distance



The regional government has been adding to the road network. When we got to the end of the line, we checked the rifle, and my .300 was on.



It used to be a 4-5 hour hike to camp, but now its more like 1-2 hours (once you get going). We got out of the truck at about 12,000 feet, but we had to go to camp at about 13,000. Of course, as the crow flies it was maybe 4-5km, as you walk with up and down, it was more like 10-12. Pretty quickly, I discovered as a lowlander I had no wind up here, and thus got to play cowboy and ride a horse. They had little trust of my ability on a horse, and had one of the trackers lead the animal. I feel sorry for the poor things having to haul me up and down, but it did make things doable.

Camp!



We then got settled in and tried to acclimate a bit. The plan was to get out early the next day and start looking for Nyala. The shower is basically a bucket system, so they heated water the old fashioned way:



Afterwards, a first day sundowner. St. George's beer is a local brew.



Hunting:

We got up early and had our morning meal. I really cannot eat in the morning, so it made the cook's job easier, but they can make whatever you like- except they do not have any pork products. The country is mostly Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, who still follow the old biblical rules about clean vs. unclean, and the next biggest religion (Islam) also doesn't eat pork. That's roughly 80-90% of the population. While Ethiopians are remarkably tolerant people from a religious standpoint, there just isn't a market for it. Brian and Sisay ate porridge every morning- I made do with a bottle of soda, which is my usual.

Typical view of the mountains you are in:



This is Ericha , which is the predominant fodder in the area. Mountain Nyala live on it, and cattle and horses eat it as well.



It can grow into sizable bushes, and is also the wood you burn for cooking and campfires here.

Our faithful steeds



Essentially, you go off into the mountains and find a high spot and glass. They have a large number of trackers out looking as well, so you go to a spot, and then once you have exhausted it, you move to the next peak and talk with the guys there. The altitude we were at hunting was roughly 14,000 feet.

Within the first hour, I had seen my first mountain nyala. There were lots of cows and young bulls, and on the first day, I had made 3 stalks that had not resulted in a shooter, but we were seeing lots. I was told that the area I was in was not known for having the genetics to produce the classic hourglass form of nyala horns, which was a bit of a disappointment. We were targeting bulls that were at least 8 years old, and they don't get big by being dumb.

I did see lots of monkey, including Colobus- but they are not on quota in this area. I did see one hyena, and the big prize was to see an Ethiopian Wolf (damn phone...) in the wild. They are critically endangered, mainly due to the exposure to domestic dogs and thus getting rabies. The main pressure on the Mountain Nyala is not poaching, but rather, while they do tolerate some human presence, once it gets too high they move elsewhere. This has resulted in gradual diminishment of the amount of available habitat.

The second day started out badly with the horse being lead under a tree and I got knocked off of it, and rolled maybe 30 yards down the side of the mountain. Fortunately, no big rocks, and other than a fist sized bruise on my leg and being scared spitless by it, no real harm done.

We also had multiple stalks this day, but on the third one (depending on how you count them) of the day, I got my chance at the Mountain Nyala.





This was a very big bodied bull that Sisay said was a good one for the area. He looked to be 9-10 years old per one of the trackers.

That evening we planned to go look for bushbuck in the morning. Sisay stated that while the quota for Nyala was higher than bushbuck, the bushbuck would actually be the easier animal to find. Apparently, quota is done by counts, with roughly 1 quota animal per 50 or so seen on the counts. Bushbuck being more secretive and living in thicker bush just don't get as thoroughly seen and counted.

The Bushbuck hunt was mostly done on foot. I had some issues with the height but was doing a lot better than I did on arrival day. I eventually found a beauty of a buck.



That evening we made plans to go to the Omo area. The next morning, we had a bit of time organizing as we were bringing most of the camp stuff with us for Omo.

Apparently I am a bit better with horses that BVB!



The steeper part of the mountains still have to be transited on foot!



I have to admit that I was damn glad I brought along a pair of trekking poles. They really helped with balancing on the steeper inclines.

We were planning on overnighting in Addis, and then would go on to Omo. Unfortunately, half way through the drive, Sisay's phone started lighting up. It appeared that one of the more fringe groups had been involved in killing some soldiers in the area we were going to.

This caused quite some concern. The hunting in Ethiopia is different than in other African countries. You have to get a licence to the exact spot, and then you have to buy the license in advance and pay the trophy fees in advance for each animal you plan to hunt; and they are nonrefundable. Pretty much it was the Omo camp or I was done. The plan was made to spend an extra day in Addis, and then use that to get more information and then go to the regional capitol and talk with the folks in charge on the ground there.

In Addis, we did some of the usual tourist stuff.

I visited the National Cathedral:







The natural history museum- I was told that it might not be as impressive as some back here...

This was a Hyena mount there, I would definitely consider a donation to improve the taxidermy!



A giant hog skull. This was about hippo sized!



The anthropological museum was much more modern. They had the bones of "Lucy" the earliest known hominid there. Unfortunately, my pis of that are not worth reproducing.

They also had a good collection of Imperial artifacts-

This is the Lion of Judah, which was an Imperial title



We also sampled the Ethiopian night and street life.

I also began to get some information about how COVID was starting to become an issue back home.

We then made the drive to Omo.

We had a visit with the regional Administrator, the Chief of Police, The chief of the Wildlife Authority and the regional Military commander. They felt that they could control things and that we could continue the hunt, with some conditions. They noted that safety was their primary concern and they also noted that this had never happened before. They were going to be sending in the regional special forces command battalion, which was an Israeli trained outfit. They were also going to send a platoon of troops from the National Army with us for escort- although NOA had to provide the transportation.

Our Escort (part of it, anyhow)



We had at least 8 soldiers with us at all times in the bush. They were friendly, helpful, and competent.

However, as anyone here knows, hunting with a party of 15 is not very conducive to stealth.

Typical "lowland" terrain:



In the end, despite much effort, while we did see some animals (Bushpig, Waterbuck, lots of Monkey and Baboon) I did not see a buffalo, and had only a brief glimpse of a Giant Forest Hog. There was plenty of sign, so they are there; we just did not come up with anything except the Colobus.



The lowland is a bit of a misnomer to me, as well. The area we were hunting in was quite mountainous (or "hilly" to the locals) at was at 6000 feet.

I hope to get back to Ethiopia some day and try my hand at the desert species in the Danakil as well as a rematch with the pig and buffalo.