Well, I just returned from Zim after 15 days with Gordon Duncan in the Doma area. His lodge is located on the north side of a small lake which is alive with tilapia, what the locals call bream, and a handful of crocodiles. the camp area consists of several chalets, resembling local rondels, situated around the lake shore with the main lodge with the cook building and various ancillary structures located towards the center of the cantonment area.

Gordon and I established the critera for the hunt by me suggesting that since I had read John Osborn's "A Guiding Son" that I really did not want a "representative of the species" but would expect a 75" kudu and a 50" buff, well, as you can expect we saw agreat many more animals than we shot! when we saw a great sable, he was with a crowd of cows and as we did not want to shoot the herd bull he was safe. Then we saw herds of female waterbuck but no male; the same with impala and bushbuck-makes you wonder if the concept of THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION also occcured in the Doma area with the wildlife.

Anyway, eventually, we located a lone bushbuck male and managed to shoot him: at last leopard bait and a pretty good trophy in its own right. This was followed by a zebra stallion who also contributed to our leopard baiting, in addition to furnishing cooka with liver and backstraps for our consuption.

All along we had been stumblig over all sorts of elephant sign, large droppings, trees pushed over, tracks and bark peeled off trees. i got pretty exicited and after some whimpering and whining presuaded Gordon to make me a pretty good deal on an elephant, whereupon I called my wife back on St. Thomas, explained the deal and humbled myself once more until she agreed that my continuing health depended upon harvesting aforesaid elephant. Of course, the bush telegraph alerted the elephants and they decamped to God alone knows where: if I hear one more time how thick an animal species was on the last hunt I will shoot my PH. No elephant.

Our leopard was similar. One bait had a good hit so a good blind was constructed and we sat; and we sat; and we sat! One night hyenas prowled around the bait-no leopard; another night a lion lay claim to the site-no leopard; the next poachers came through the area which gave us some excitment with the PH taking of after them and me trying to apply my night sighting trainng with the Green Machine with a scope sighted rifle in pitch blackness-don't work- in order to shoot their dogs- no leopard.

We did manage to kill a croc and a baboon in addition to the other two. However, all in all I enjoyed the living hell out of myself and I have booked for next May

Thanks for the report, no pictures?