Mozambique Tales Of Boomslang Snakes, Man-eating Crocodiles & Angry Buffalo 2013-2014

[PARA45]

Wow, that is one big lizard.

 

[PARA45]

@Scott CWO, what type of mount did you do with the Crock? I shot a big gator in FL, he measured 10'9", and I did a shoulder mount, and looks awesome on the wall. Looks like if the gator is coming out of the wall. LOL!!!!

 

[Scott CWO]

@Scott CWO, what type of mount did you do with the Crock? I shot a big gator in FL, he measured 10'9", and I did a shoulder mount, and looks awesome on the wall. Looks like if the gator is coming out of the wall. LOL!!!!

Wow, I bet that looks great! I just did a flat skin on the wall.

 

[alby]

Big lizard! Great back story too well done! A large population of crocs by the looks of your photos! Enjoying this post!

 

[PARA45]

Any pictures of the flat skin?

 

[Scott CWO]

After the croc, I was back on the prowl for a nice sable and if a big buffalo or kudu presented itself, it might be in jeopardy. Not having to check the lake and drainages for crocs during the warmer hours would give us a lot of time to do some tracking.

After tracking a group of sable and bumping them again, I suggested to Brin that we slow down a bit more when the sign and spoor got real fresh. It seemed to me that the trackers were moving a bit too fast. Sometimes this happens in areas with lots of game because there’s always more animals later in the day to go after again so each tracking job isn’t taken as seriously as it could be. I’m used to spot/stalk archery mule deer hunting on the Eastern Plains of Colorado where you need to go slow on the final approach. Brin agreed and we made some adjustments to our tactics.

A while later, some buffalo crossed the road in front of us so we waited for a while and then went after them. This time after the sign showed signs of a slowing herd, we slowed down as well. Once we spotted them, just Brin and I crawled up for a better look. We found a really nice bull that had hard boss, dropped low and was right at about 40”. I could have shot him but his boss wasn’t as bulbous or big as I was hoping. To me, he just wasn’t different enough from the bull I had shot with Jamie the year before. If the bull had been 42”+ or had bigger boss, I would have shot him. I think Brin thought I was a bit crazy (and some of you might as well) but I was looking for something different, so we backed out.

Once back at the Cruiser in the late afternoon, Brin suggested that we work our way back towards camp through some likely looking sable habitats to see if we got lucky and could spot a feeding or moving herd before dark. That sounded good to me.

We hadn’t gone more than a few miles in the Cruiser when we spotted a new group of sable with a good bull. They ran off but didn’t seem terribly spooked so we gave them a few minutes to calm down and went after them on foot. After 10-15 minutes, we spotted the sable cows in front of us but where was the bull? We had definitely seen a bull with them! Had he left temporarily to chase off another bull? Had he snuck off with a lone cow? We were glassing all around but he seemed to have disappeared. Suddenly, Brin hissed, “There he is!” He was pointing ahead but to the right side of the cow herd and was walking quartering away from us. I was already standing behind the sticks while glassing so it didn’t take me too long to get my rifle up and on him. The bull was walking through scattered trees so I found a gap he was passing through and shot. We could tell he was hit but didn’t drop. We ran forward and saw him slowly moving away and I shot again and he went down! I finally had my sable after three safaris and this one didn’t get away! He was a good, 39” bull. Not the biggest we had seen but darn nice!

 

[Scott CWO]

Since I was successful for my priority species on this leg of my time in Mozambique, I decided to hang it up and just look for game for Craig the last few days. I also still had the second leg of my trip left to get more plains game in C9 with Mokore Safaris and I didn’t want to double up on the same species.

Craig was able to get a nice croc, just about the size of mine, and connected on a great leopard with only a couple days to go. As I mentioned earlier, he also got a grysbok, warthog and 12 impala to supply all the leopard baits.

At the end of the safari, we all chartered to Tete, where I said my goodbyes to Craig, Janet and Wendy. I was sorry to separate from Wendy but excited to see Coutada 9.

 

[Scott CWO]

Mokore Safaris Coutada 9

Upon landing in Tete, I was met by Fabian Felner, the PH for my safari in C9. Fabian would be my PH because the Duckworth brothers, Gary and Neil, were busy guiding in Zimbabwe with Mokore’s operations there.

After a bit of rifle permit verification, we left the airport driving south from Tete on the highway. After quite a drive, we turned east and then wound our way on a few different roads to Mokore’s beautiful Tandikwe Camp. The camp overlooks a waterhole and a small savanna, teaming with game. The camp itself is quite nice and meticulously maintained. For sleeping, it has a few chalets as well as some covered safari tents. Meals are served in a beautiful dining structure with a kitchen building next door.

I was lucky and blessed with the presence at Tandikwe camp of Barrie and Bertie Duckworth, the patriarch and matriarch of the Duckworth family, as well as Bertie’s brother and his family, whom were visiting Africa on holiday from the Netherlands. Being in camp with Barrie was a godsend as his stories of the good ole days of working for Rhodesian National Parks and Wildlife doing elephant control work and other great PH adventures kept me on the edge of my seat at every meal. I will also always cherish our fireside chats. We had a lot of good chats about the hunting industry and conservation, since I was a Colorado outfitter.

It is amazing what the Duckworth family and staff has done with their part of C9 for wildlife. Game numbers are very high and rival those on the finest high-fenced ranches in South Africa but there are no fences here. If you want to hunt wild Africa at some of the most reasonable free-range prices, look no further!

 

[Scott CWO]

The number one species on my list for this safari was a nyala. To me, they are in a virtual tie with sable as the second most beautiful antelope in Africa after the bongo. If successful, I hoped to do a full-body nyala mount, so the pressure was on! While available in decent numbers there at the time of my 2014 safari, nyala were not as numerous as kudu, impala, hartebeest, etc… when I was there. Now, in 2023, there are a lot more nyala but there are a lot more of everything else as well, according to recent surveys. I hope to go back again to witness the increases!

My second priority was a 50”+ kudu and with high kudu numbers in C9, I was fairly confident. Other species I was interested in were reedbuck, warthog and eland. C9 is known for giant warthogs. During my safari in 2014, sable, buffalo, waterbuck and lion populations were building as well but I was not hunting those species, although now, they are very plentiful.

 

[Scott CWO]

The first few days, the plan was for Fabian and I, along with a tracker, to do a lot of slow hiking and tracking looking for nyala in the thick cover that bordered the riverbeds. That is the typical nyala habitat, similar to that of the bushbuck. This is slow, challenging hunting in tight quarters.

Early on, we found a few small bulls and several cows, as well as one big bull that bumped and got away. Along the way, we saw a lot of duiker as well.

One day, while slowly sneaking through the thick cover near a dry riverbed looking for nyala, a male suni came dashing through the forest while chasing a female. We froze as they approached and they ran right up on us and stopped just five yards away. Earlier, I had told Fabian that I really wasn’t interested in the “Tiny 10” antelopes but he was looking right at me and silently mouthing to me, “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” He was very emphatic.

So, like any good hunter, I listened to my PH and shot the male suni at very close range. Fabian and the tracker immediately began cheering and jumping up and down, very excited! I didn’t quite get it. Why was this little suni such a big deal? Fabian, and later Barrie, said it was probably the biggest suni that they had ever taken there. Barrie told me that lots of wealthy “collector” hunters have spent lots of money trying to get a suni. I had no idea it was such a big deal to so many people. I guess it’s better to be lucky than good!

 

[Scott CWO]

Although younger than the other PHs that I have hunted with, Fabian was one of the best and quietest stalkers/walkers I have hunted with anywhere. We got along really well and I liked how sneaky that he and his tracker were in the forest. I would hunt with him again without hesitation.

Another tactic we employed to hunt nyala was to use a machan up in a tree that overlooked a straight, long stretch of open, dry riverbed that was just over a small ridge from a flowing riverbed. A good number of nyala would bed in the thick cover along this dry riverbed but they would get up in the late afternoon to cross the dry riverbed on their way to drink in the flowing water in the next riverbed. We would also see a lot of other species cross the dry riverbed in front of the machan on their way to the next drainage to drink. About every other day, we would take some blankets up into the machan and sit there until dark.

Although we had seen a lot of kudu while driving between hunting areas, we hadn’t shot one yet. We would also see a fair amount of kudu from the machan. One day, a nice kudu crossed the dry river bed and I shot him at about 200 yards. He bucked and ran into the forest. We got down from the machan and tracked the kudu and found him still alive so I finished him before he could away. It was a beautiful kudu bull of 53” in length! The background of the picture makes it a bit hard to see but he had ivory tips and I really liked him.

 

[Scott CWO]

Nyala were being a challenge but a couple days after getting the kudu and while slipping along quietly through heavy cover along another watercourse where we had seen nyala headed to water, we came upon a fine nyala bull. He was quartered away and I squeezed the trigger. At the shot, he took off like a rocket! It was one of those crazy death runs that an animal sometimes does. The bull ran straight towards the water and barreled in and promptly disappeared and never resurfaced! Crazy! I teased Fabian and had a good chuckle at his expense as he waded out into the water to feel around and retrieve the nyala. He showed his youth here because I think most older PHs would have made the trackers do it! He hadn’t ever seen any crocs or hippos in this area but I stood guard with the rifle just in case but mostly used my camera - haha.

We loaded the nyala in the Cruiser and took him to camp to hang and spray off with clean water. After he dried, we took some pictures nearby.

 

[Scott CWO]

A day or two later after tracking eland to no avail, we were hiking back to the Cruiser when this nice warthog came running by us. He hadn’t seen us yet. He stopped and I shot him at 40 yards. We had seen a couple bigger warthogs earlier but they ran off before we could shoot. I couldn’t hold back and drilled this one! If you wanted to dedicate some time to getting a really big warthog here, you could for sure. I got a bit hasty. You will see what I mean if you look at the Moz warthog pictures on the Mokore website. Huge!

 

[Scott CWO]

The second to last day after some more eland got away from us, we were driving in the Cruiser when a big reedbuck was spotted. After a stalk, we couldn’t get any closer than 300 yards. I sat down and took a knee and dropped it - my best shot of the safari!

 

[Scott CWO]

The C9 outfitters have also done a marvelous job bringing lions back to the area. Lions had been largely shot-out during the Moz civil war many years ago. Fabian and I saw the same three young male lions several times that we figured were brothers. They were staying pretty close to the camp and started causing some trouble around camp at night. As soon as the generator went off each night, they would start roaring and come into camp looking for food. When a lion roars, it’s one of the loudest noises known in nature. It makes your chest vibrate just like you’re at a drag race with loud drag cars with straight pipe exhaust going by you. The male lions would start roaring about a mile from camp and roar continuously until they reached camp. These 3 year-old males stole the camp braii grill one night and a tire another night. We never found those items and certainly didn’t go looking for them in the high grass outside the camp. I took this picture with my flashlight one night outside my chalet. If you’ve ever been around lions much, you know they don’t show much fear.

My chalet had only screen windows without glass or bars. I did have thick drapes. The other chalets had bars but mine didn’t?? I closed the drapes every night to make it appear to be a wall, or at least that’s what I hoped the lions would think! About every other night, the lions would come into camp and circle my chalet while grunting, growling and making a nuisance of themselves. Fabian gave me a radio and said to call him if something happened! I could literally hear the lions walking in the leaves while circling my chalet! This would go on for a couple hours until they finally left. I slept with my Surefire flashlight and my .458 Lott loaded and on the queen bed next to me. I wasn’t taking any chances! In the morning, there were lion tracks around my chalet. They could smell me inside, I’m sure. Fabian and Barrie got a good chuckle out of it! Wendy wouldn’t have slept a wink! The anti-poaching patrol rangers sleep on elevated machans every night when staying overnight in the bush in C9.

 

[Scott CWO]

The last afternoon of the safari, Fabian, Barrie and I drove out to a huge rock overlooking the area and had a few sundowners as we chatted and enjoyed the sundown and the sounds of the African bush. Barrie had taken a liking to me and asked if I might want to become a PH in Africa during my off-seasons in the USA. He said there was a part of C9 bordering their block that was available for another outfitter and that a camp would have to be built. I was so honored to have been asked that question by a man of his experience and stature. I will never forget it. I had to decline because with four kids at home and our business in the USA, Wendy and I had our hands full already. But boy oh boy, something to dream about…

Thus ends my Mozambique adventures. I hope you all enjoyed reading a bit about them. I hope to return someday but not sure I will. There’s lots of great places yet to see.

 

[BourbonTrail]

Bravo, Scott. Great stories! This stuff is why Moz is very high on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing

 

[rinehart0050]

Wonderful stories! Thanks so much for sharing them!

 

[DLSJR]

Scott, thanks for an absolutely excellent report! I was especially interested in the Coutada 9 part, as I’m booked to hunt there in late October of ‘24, with Fabian as my PH. Might PM you with some questions.

 

[PARA45]

What a wonderful adventure, and some great animals taken.

I am so glad you posted this comment: “If you want to hunt wild Africa at some of the most reasonable free-range prices, look no further”. This is very promising and gives me hope to one day be able to hunt “wild” Africa. I’ll reach to you Scott for more info on this outfitter.

Thank you for taking us along.