Muchinga Safaris has the Tondwa GMA in the far north of Zambia and has maintained a 98% success there on sitatunga. There have been 3 failures in 14 seasons. One hunter left after 3 days and two wounded and lost their sitatunga. They have 3 sitatunga still available for '16 with any 10 days open 1-31 Oct or 11-30 Nov. These late season dates are ideal for sitatunga when the swamps have dried up making the hunting much easier. Also there are dark of the moon periods available that can make the hunt even easier as the sitatunga will come out of the papyrus earlier in the evening to feed and stay out longer in the morning. The more animals you see the more selective you can be.

Price for sitatunga special:

1x1 10 days $8,950 WAS $17,950

Included:

Daily fees
Concession fee
trophy fee ($2,000 refunded if unsuccessful)

Not included:

Additional trophy fees
Dip/pack $1,500
Transfer to Tondwa
Shipping of trophies
All insurances
International travel
Ammo tax $5 per round
Visa $100
Airport departure tax $25

UPGRADE TO INCL ROAN, SABLE, ELAND $11,950 PLUS ROAN, SABLE AND ELAND TROPHY FEES. WAS $21,250. ONLY ONE OF EACH AVAILABLE

Trophy fees:

Roan $6,975
Sable $6,000
Eland $4,000
Blue duiker $950
Common duiker $530
Puku $850
Common reedbuck $750
Bushpig $850

Contact me on this one anytime.

Mark

Darn it... I've always wanted a sitatunga, unfortunately I am out of vacation. Oh to be Mike Jines!

tonwa was one of my more enjoyable hunts. the area is quite different that other parts of africa. in fact the only drawback is the road going in and there is no avoiding that

Butch,

Bitch, bitch, bitch! The road is bad but your driver was a maniac behind the wheel if I remember.

I tried to find your pix the other day from Tondwa and I can't. I did loose some stuff when I bought the new computer. Could you send me those again? I also remember that monster Crawshay's you shot there.

Mark

The road has improved significantly.
I usually do a return trip on this road once a month.
There have been a couple of graders working on the gravel road in the last couple of months.

Pete,

Thanks! That great to hear.

Mark

well with terry driving the road into tondwa was more interesting as an airstrip rather than a road at least the wheels hit the ground on occasion i'll see if i can find a few pictures again. have plenty of spare time coming up next week. getting a new knee

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
well with terry driving the road into tondwa was more interesting as an airstrip rather than a road at least the wheels hit the ground on occasion i'll see if i can find a few pictures again. have plenty of spare time coming up next week. getting a new knee

I can believe it with the state the road was in last year.
I almost used the word "pleasant" to describe the drive in 10days ago... almost!

What is drive time from Lusaka?

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
What is drive time from Lusaka?

I do Ndola-Nsumbu in about 12 hours. Not pushing it like i used to when the dirt road was bad.
The turnoff to Tondwa is just over an hour before you reach Nsumbu.
Kasama to Tondwa turnoff would be about 5 hours if i was driving a client or a visitor, would be 4hours normal driving without anyone.
Thats with a mildly loaded vehicle.

If I remember correctly I had a client and it might have been butchloc that drove from Lusaka and it required an overnight along the way to get to Tondwa.

With scheduled Proflight Zambia flight to Kasama the butt pounding road trip from Lusaka doesn't seem practical time or expense wise to me.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
If I remember correctly I had a client and it might have been butchloc that drove from Lusaka and it required an overnight along the way to get to Tondwa.

With scheduled Proflight Zambia flight to Kasama the butt pounding road trip from Lusaka doesn't seem practical time or expense wise to me.

Mark

Good option. Like you said if someone wants a Sitatunga then this is the premier option. You could also hunt Black Lechwe en route?

Bangweulu has proved to been very disappointing.

quote:

posted 13 September 2016 00:14 Hide Post

quote:
Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
If I remember correctly I had a client and it might have been butchloc that drove from Lusaka and it required an overnight along the way to get to Tondwa.

With scheduled Proflight Zambia flight to Kasama the butt pounding road trip from Lusaka doesn't seem practical time or expense wise to me.

Mark



Good option. Like you said if someone wants a Sitatunga then this is the premier option. You could also hunt Black Lechwe en route?

Bangweulu has proved to been very disappointing.

quote:

Good option. Like you said if someone wants a Sitatunga then this is the premier option. You could also hunt Black Lechwe en route?

yup that just what we did.

quote:

Bangweulu has proved to been very disappointing.

This is disappointing to hear, I assume you are referring to sitatunga?

Last year I flew in via Kasame and then took the road to Tondwa.

It's not a great trip, but it's not horrid either, and they were in the process of fixing the road then.

Personally, if you have the dough, charter in, but if it's the difference in adding an animal, the drive is not intolerable. You will see sitatunga, and there are good numbers of smaller plains game species. I expect you will get a roan there, but the sable will be iffy.

I did put up a hunt report last year on this hunt. This is a good deal for someone who has the ability to take it. I took a 24" sitatunga, and there are bigger pulled out each year.

Johnny and Laura run a great operation, very seamless. The hunt itself is different from most African hunting, in that it is boat based for the sitatunga, although one can do some walking in the lake.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
Last year I flew in via Kasame and then took the road to Tondwa.

It's not a great trip, but it's not horrid either, and they were in the process of fixing the road then.

Personally, if you have the dough, charter in, but if it's the difference in adding an animal, the drive is not intolerable. You will see sitatunga, and there are good numbers of smaller plains game species. I expect you will get a roan there, but the sable will be iffy.

I did put up a hunt report last year on this hunt. This is a good deal for someone who has the ability to take it. I took a 24" sitatunga, and there are bigger pulled out each year.

Johnny and Laura run a great operation, very seamless. The hunt itself is different from most African hunting, in that it is boat based for the sitatunga, although one can do some walking in the lake.

I've been there twice. First was 2005. I killed a Sitatunga, Roan, Blue Duiker and a good Puku. I hunted with Terry. I drove in from Lusaka and drove out to Kasame then chartered into the Luangwa and did 21 days with Alister for Lion, Leopard, and all the other goodies available there in Nyaminga. The road in was terrible. I remember it taking like 10 hours from Kasame?

We broke a rear spring on the little blue Rover and had to remove it, turn it over and continue on.

Returned in I think 2009, again with Terry, drove both ways. The road was better and Terry had just bought a new(er) cruiser. I shot a 44.5 inch Sable, which I think was the largest one they had shot at that point there. Also killed a nice Livingstone Eland.

Terry did a fantastic job of tracking on that Eland bull, he was leading both George and Luquesa. Probably one of the finest non-indigenous tracking jobs I've seen.

I shot my Sitatunga out of a volcanic crater, turned swamp up in the mountains. We climbed a great big tree on the rim on the crater and spotted the bull. We then stalked to the single machan, climbed up and I shot him.

The drive back to Lusaka was, "interesting." The paved road was so chocked full of potholes, we drove on the dirt shoulder most of the way. Terry, as some will attest to, is a relatively "aggressive" driver.

To Andrew's point about Bangweulu, I hunted there for Black Lechwe and Sitatunga with Andrew in 2004!!! We had a fun hunt.

We carried a fly camp on our shoulders and heads into the swamp. We fly camped like 7-8 days. Back in those days, the poaching was rampant. From what Andrew told me more recently, the poaching got under control, the Sitatunga population recovered. It seems maybe to have gone back to bad again?

That was a great hunt in good country with good people. All my Zambian safaris have exceeded my expectations.

Agree with crbutler, The duPlooy's run a first class operation.

Do you have any Eland pictures from that area?

AR MAN,

I don't have any recent eland pix from Tondwa as I actually don't remember any of my clients hunting them there. Would you like me to ask the Du Plooy's if they have some eland pix?

Mark

Mark- only bother if this is an area that has a great oportunity to harvest a good bull? If so it would be nice to see what a good bull for the area is?

Thanks

I'll try to dig one up. Might have to go find the camera card those pictures were on.

Mine wasn't a toad, just representative.

Long day of quality tracking, as any Eland hunt should be.

All I lack is an East African Eland (Patterson's) to have collected all 4 Eland species.

Steve,

That'd a perfect example of an old Livingstone's eland bull.

Mark

Funny thing. EVERY Eland bull I've killed has been covered in mud. My LDE was a joke, you couldn't see his beautiful black mane it was so covered up with mud.

Good times

quote:

Originally posted by PeteG:

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
What is drive time from Lusaka?

I do Ndola-Nsumbu in about 12 hours. Not pushing it like i used to when the dirt road was bad.
The turnoff to Tondwa is just over an hour before you reach Nsumbu.
Kasama to Tondwa turnoff would be about 5 hours if i was driving a client or a visitor, would be 4hours normal driving without anyone.
Thats with a mildly loaded vehicle.

yeah right!........talking about maniac drivers.........

quote:

Originally posted by spike.t:

quote:

Originally posted by PeteG:

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
What is drive time from Lusaka?

I do Ndola-Nsumbu in about 12 hours. Not pushing it like i used to when the dirt road was bad.
The turnoff to Tondwa is just over an hour before you reach Nsumbu.
Kasama to Tondwa turnoff would be about 5 hours if i was driving a client or a visitor, would be 4hours normal driving without anyone.
Thats with a mildly loaded vehicle.

yeah right!........talking about maniac drivers.........

Oi, nothing wrong with my casual, relaxed appropriately paced driving!
Hoping to head into tondwa for a resident hunt in the next couple of weeks. will post some pics up in a new thread if i do.