Folks,

As quite a few members know the duPlooys/Muchinga Adventures in Zambia had an area called Tondwa that was excellent for sitatunga. At the end of duPlooy's 15 year lease On Tondwa they put their energy into their Chifunda GMA on the North Luangwa. Chifunda has no sitatunga but is very conveniently located a short charter flight from Bangweulu where a new and excellent area is open for sitatunga.

Africa Parks is managing the Bangweulu Lake ecosystem on a 25 year contract which is presently about half over. They've done a great job in bringing the tsessebe back from almost being wiped out to huntable numbers and they've introduced 200 Luangwa buffalo among other things. The resident Bangweulu herd has some very big bulls. I personally saw some big boys there in the past.

As far as sitatunga are concerned they've opened an area at Bangweulu called Coppa that has only ever been lightly hunted. There are no black lechwe there so it never made an easy combo hunt and that might explain why it was never hunted much. Lechwe, tsessebe, buffalo and some common game are available but in another section of Bangweulu which is about 6 hours drive away.

Aerial surveys by Africa Parks have shown good numbers of sitatunga in Coppa and they conducted 2 safaris there in 2020 with 1 successful and 1 wounded and lost.

I hunted Bangweulu twice in the past. Once being in July and once in Sept. Believe me Sept onward is when you want to be there and on the dark of the moon.

Bangweulu is not just a place to take a sitatunga and other specialty animals but a completely unique ecosystem that you must see. Bangweulu has deep papyrus swamps to dusty short grass plains running as far as you can see. The bird life is also amazing and something that avid bird watchers come to Bangweulu for. A recent client there identified 50 species of birds in his short stay there.

A few days in Bangweulu can easily be combined with a long or short safari in Chifunda for buffalo, big cats and specialty animals such as roan, Cookson's wildebeest, puku etc.


PRICING:

1X1 5 DAYS/6 NIGHTS $15,950 EXTRA DAYS 1,950 EA.
OBSERVER $500 PER DAY
DIP/PACK $1,850
ROAD TRANSFER LUSAKA-BANGWEULU $800 EA. WAY

TROPHY FEES:

SITATUNGA $6,000
BLACK LECHWE $6,000 (2 ALLOWED)
TSESSEBE $4,950
BUFFALO $8,000
BUSHPIG $950
DUIKER $950
ORIBI $1,250
REEDBUCK $1,250

This is spendy but a completely unique experience. This may be the best opportunity to take a Zambezi sitatunga and the genetics are very good there. I personally took 29.5" sitatunga there. It also is the only place the black lechwe occurs in the wild and they are there by the thousands.

Quota is limited so give me a call.

Mark

Mark, perhaps for 2022. This year is all committed already. I’ll call you soon to discuss.