Joel McKinney
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- South Africa
My first safari to Africa
I scheduled my first trip to Africa through Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures. I worked with Frank Cole as my Cabela’s consultant. I wanted to hunt Plains Game for my first trip. I selected Chamanzi Zulu Safaris for my adventure. Johann Muller and his wife run a 30,000-acre private game ranch in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa. The Mkuze River runs through the property. I chose a seven-day package hunt. It included: Kudu, Blue Wildebeest, Impala, Bushbuck and Warthog. Any other animals would be individual trophy fees. I was looking at adding a Nyala as an additional trophy.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Left Corpus Christi on a flight to Houston, then an overnight flight to London, then an overnight flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. It rained everywhere but JSA. My flight from London was canceled and I was switched to an earlier flight. It had mechanical trouble and left London late, almost at the time of the original flight.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Arrived in Johannesburg. Johann Muller (Outfitter and Professional Hunter) picked me up just past the baggage claim area. His wife and 3-year-old daughter were with him. They had spent a couple of days in Johannesburg shopping after dropping off a previous client. We traveled in a double cab truck with camper shell over the bed. I had to get used to the steering wheel being on the “wrong side” as well as driving on that “wrong side” of the road. We traveled for about 6 hours to get to the ranch. This included a lunch stop.
Lunch was at a Spur Steak Ranch. It has a Native American theme (tipis, totems, Indian Chief images). I was not expecting this in South Africa.
Arrived at the ranch in late afternoon. After entering through a locked gate, we travel down a dirt road to the ranch headquarters. I had looked at website pictures ahead of the trip and knew what to expect. The headquarters is in a valley with mountains on all sides. Highveld grasslands on top of the mountains, and lowveld brush/trees thick in the lower slopes and down into the valleys. I am staying in a thatched-roof rondavel with a connected rondavel serving as my bathroom/shower. The main lodge is where we have our meals. For the first few days I will be the only client on the ranch. There are game guards living at the front gate. My Zulu tracker lives near the headquarters. There is a skinner and several people taking care of the property. Two women cook the meals and provide daily laundry service. All of the cooking and laundry duties are overseen by Johann’s wife, Lorisca.
Johann said the gun range faces the setting sun, so we will wait until the morning to sight-in the rifle I am renting from him. A bolt action Brno in 30.06 caliber. Johann takes me on a drive through part of the ranch before dark. I saw kudu, warthog, nyala, zebra and impala just on that short drive. I saw several monkeys along the creek below the lodge. The word “Chamanzi” refers to disappearing water, as the water in the creek often disappears in late summer, only flowing underground. We then had dinner and I went to bed early exhausted from the travel.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Had toast, cereal and coffee at 6:00am. Beautiful morning. Went to the range behind the lodge and sighted in the rifle to be dead on at 100 yards. Most shots should be at fairly close range. I ride in the back of a Toyota Hilux pickup with Johann driving. My Zulu tracker “Frisco” stands behind my seat in the pickup bed. He doesn’t speak much English, other that the names of the animals. As we travel the dirt roads of the ranch, Frisco and I point out animals to each other and he verifies the names of what I am seeing. We are doing “spot and stalk” hunting. In a single morning we viewed: kudu, nyala, blue wildebeest, cape buffalo, mountain reedbuck, steenbok, common duiker, impala, giraffe, common reedbuck. I took close up pictures of the small herd of cape buffalo from the “safety” of the pickup. We crossed the Mkuze river and worked some of the dirt roads on that side of the ranch. Saw one old Dugga Boy (buffalo bull) out by himself on the side of one of the mountains.
Tried two stalks on Kudu. First one in the Highveld grasslands near the front gate of the ranch. Got on the sticks, but not comfortable with the angle of the shot, quartering toward me and several kudu females around the bull. One of the females finally saw us and they spooked out. Second stalk on a lone kudu bull on the north side of the river. He ghosted out of the area before we could get close to him. Tried several stalks on small groups of blue wildebeest. Only got on the sticks once. The bull was facing me at long distance and a good crosswind. Passed on the shot. They are supposed to be tough to bring down, so I didn’t want to take a chance on a bad shot.
Found a puff adder on the road. Took a few pictures before Johann killed it. He wants to kill all venomous snakes encountered on the ranch.
Spotted a bushpig running up the side of a hill at 11:00am. Not normal, they are supposed to be nocturnal. Johann told me to take the shot at the running bushpig from the truck. I missed, shooting over his back.
Went back to the lodge for brunch. They serve this midday meal of egg, sausages, fruits, etc. then we take a break for the middle of the day when the animal activity slows. We then resume hunting at 2:00pm and hunt until sundown, followed by a nice dinner.
Just before sunset, Johann and Frisco spot a good Nyala bull across the river. He tells me to shoot. I put it down with the first shot. It gets up and I anchor it with a second shot. Johann turns to me and says “now you can swim over and get it”. He is teasing me. He says they swam across the river last week to retrieve a client’s bushbuck in this same area. I stay on the bank to mark the location and watch the river for crocodiles, while Johann, Frisco and one of the game guards wade across the river to get the nyala. We took pictures of me with my first African animal on the dirt road just before dark. What a beautiful animal! I am thrilled with it. We return to the lodge and take the nyala to the skinning shed. Johann is cooking our dinner on the firepit that evening. What a great first day of hunting.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Wake up to rain. Not heavy, just a steady rain. On the dirt road up to the Highveld, we spot an injured porcupine. Johann asks me to shoot it. We find out later that a vehicle driven by an employee the night before had hit it.
Up in the Highveld (high grasses and acacia trees), we stalk the same kudu from the day before. The herd is walking to my right. I make a shot and hear the solid “thump” of the hit, and all of the kudu run off. We move upslope to the location where the bull had been. No blood sign at all in the rain. Frisco follows a set of tracks towards one of the canyons, but again no blood. Johann, Frisco and I keep searching for the kudu in the rain. At one point, Johann says be on alert, he has spotted oxpecker birds in a tree, meaning that buffalo are close. I have the only rifle in case there is trouble.
We return to the lodge for brunch without the kudu. Johann says to leave it until morning then we will search the canyon.
We spend the afternoon on the north side of the Mkuze River. The rain has stopped. Partly cloudy the rest of the day. Lots of game seen: kudu, nyala, impala, zebra, giraffe, duiker, warthog, etc. Just nothing mature enough to shoot. We glass the valley of the Mkuze River from one of the mountains. Such beautiful country!
Talked to the PH (Ian) from the adjoining ranch. He and Johann have pooled their properties and received a leopard permit. This PH is working the baits on both ranches. He shows us pictures of a male/female pair of leopards at one of the baits. The leopard hunter is arriving later in the week. At dinner, a new hunter (Rick) and his wife arrive from California. A second PH and tracker will work with them.
Monday, May 18, 2015
We head out to look for my missing kudu. Johann and I glass the canyon from the opposite side, while Frisco and two game guards hike the canyon starting from where they think the wounded kudu entered. No body found, no kudu flushed out, just a small herd of nyala are driven out. We travel to meet the men back in the Highveld above the canyon. We all walk the area looking for my kudu. One of the men almost steps on a big Black Mamba. It flees into a burrow without biting the man.
At midmorning, we leave the two game guards to continue the search for the kudu. Johann, Frisco and I go back to hunting. We work a highveld area finding a small herd of giraffes and scattered groups of warthogs. We spot and stalk a herd of blue wildebeest in a bowl on top of a mountain. There are two cape buffalo bulls nearby. They spook the wildebeest, so no shot. We are walking around the bowl to get at the wildebeest from a different angle. I hear a loud crashing of branches and a bull buffalo runs out of the brush at 30 yards. Fortunately he is running away from us, not at us. Again, I am carrying the only rifle. Johann is please to know about these three bulls as they hadn’t been seen previously. We finally get repositioned. I get on the sticks for a long shot at a wildebeest, but the buffalo run through the wildebeest herd scattering them down the hill.
For the evening hunt, we see lots of game but again no mature animals. We finally run into a group of warthogs in high grass in a valley. One looks good. Johann has me try a shot from the top of the truck. The warthog is facing me in the grass. I try to shoot left of his tusks, hoping for a body hit. I fire and all three animals run off. We search until dark, tracking the warthog for a mile? We follow occasional tiny drops of blood, no bigger that this letter “O”. We will resume looking for him in the morning.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
We resume the warthog search, but no more blood found in the first couple of hours. Johann gets a call from the game guards. They’ve seen a lone kudu bull walking around in the area of my missing kudu. Could he still be alive? We go and spend the rest of the morning glassing a mountainside hoping to spot the animal. No luck.
For the evening hunt, both game guards have joined Frisco in the back of the truck. We head out for the hunt. We spot a herd of impala near the dirt road with a decent ram. It is breeding season and his mind is preoccupied as we drive by. Johann decides we should try for this ram, but the wind is wrong. So we drive past the herd a second time to get to where we could get the wind in our faces. We then stalk the herd on foot. After a short stalk, success! We take the impala ram to the skinning shed. We are back on the road in about an hour. We see that same herd of impala. A new ram has arrived and taken over the herd. That didn’t take long. We drive back up to the area of my lost kudu and spend the rest of the evening hunt searching the area again. As we head back to the lodge I see a red duiker running away from us. They are small and quick.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
The other hunter (Rick) and his PH are headed up to the Highveld, so we are going to go across the Mkuze River for our morning hunt. We are approaching the river when Frisco taps my shoulder and points at the rifle rack, he tells Johann to park the truck down at the river. We walk back up the dirt road to some of the thick brush and trees on a slope above the river. Frisco had seen a bushbuck. I get on the sticks but can only see a part of the body. The bushbuck figures that something is up and starts moving down toward the river. We relocate the sticks to a different position. I spot the bushbuck and pick an opening in the trees ahead of him. When he reaches that opening I shoot, dropping him in his tracks. We carefully approach him, but he is done. We take the bushbuck back to the skinning shed. Johann wants Frisco to do the caping on this animal, so we are going to wait around for a little while. Johann then gets a call from the other PH that they are having a problem getting their truck to start. We leave Frisco to finish caping my bushbuck and go to find the other truck on the side of a mountain not far from where we were glassing for my lost kudu. After an hour of work, the other vehicle is working again.
Johann and I then head up to the Highveld. We pick up one of the game guards to serve as a tracker. We spot a lone blue wildebeest bull a long way off from us across the high grass. We have seen him before and he always runs off from the vehicle even when it is over a mile away. Johann asks me if I want to try a long walk, I say sure. The three of us leave the truck and walk single file through the long grass. This time Johann takes his .416 with him. We work our way from acacia tree to acacia tree getting closer to that far away bull. We travel forward when his head is down and stand still when he lifts his head. We stay on alert because there are cape buffalo in this part of the ranch and we don’t want to walk up on one that is laying down in the grass. We continue the slow approach for over an hour. Eventually, the wildebeest starts running toward a herd of wildebeest that is closer to us. We change direction and slowly approach this herd. There are a couple of good bulls in this group. I finally get to a position to take a shot at one of the bulls. He drops in his tracks. We approach and I add a finishing shot. What a successful morning! This was definitely my favorite stalk of the trip. We take the bull to the skinning shed and head for brunch at the lodge.
After lunch, I tell Johann that I really want to take home a kudu and we haven’t found mine from Sunday. I asked to pay for an opportunity to take a second kudu. For the evening hunt we head across the Mkuze River and drive up the mountains on the north side. We see the usual mix of animals along the way. Including a very confused impala ram herding a group of nyala ewes. We see one female bushbuck. We drive down the side of a mountain and spot a herd of kudu. The male looks mature. We park further down the mountain out of sight. Then climb back up the side of the mountain to reach a point overlooking the meadow with the kudu. I have to ask for a timeout at the top of the mountain to get my breathing back in control after that hike. We then get in position. The bull is broadside at about 150 yards. I shoot and down he goes. Then he gets back up and falls down again, so I get back on the sticks. He gets up and starts running down the mountainside. I fire just as he turns to the right due to a boulder, and I hear my shot go on down the mountain. A miss! I work the bolt for the next shot. He is now further down the mountain, maybe 200-250 yards. All I can see of him is the head and neck above the grass and brush. I’m not going to lose this kudu! I aim for his neck and fire. I hit the spinal column in his neck and down he goes. I am thrilled to have this kudu. Johann brings the truck down the mountainside and four of us and the winch finally get him loaded. We drive back up the mountain to get to the dirt road. As we are driving back to the lodge Johann gets a call from the other PH (Andre) that is guiding Rick. They talk in Africaans and he ends the call. Johann turns to me and says you have two! Two what?? He says the other group found my missing kudu in the tall grass of the Highveld not very far from where I shot it days ago. I’m sad at the loss of this animal. No meat or hide, but I will salvage the horns.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
We start the morning by going to look at my “found” kudu. We have to wait for the cape buffalo herd to move away from the dead kudu. Covered in fly larvae and down on its left side. I can see the entrance hole of my bullet, right behind the front shoulder. Don’t know if there is an exit hole on the other side. No blood showing at the entrance hole. Maybe the bullet hit a rib and went back to the gut? Anyway the body is in a location we definitely had walked through several times. He must have been hiding in the brush before walking back out into the long grass and dying. We will come back for the skull on Friday.
Later we meet up with the other PH and client. They mention seeing a large warthog back down the road a ways. So we go looking for it. We are looking up on the side of the hill and see a smaller warthog, then we finally spot the larger one. We move into position and I get on the sticks. The male warthog is behind a group of trees up on the hillside. He is standing still and broadside to me. The only exposed part is his head and neck. I make a long uphill shot to his neck and he drops in his tracks. Johann and Frisco drag him down the hillside to a flat area for the pictures. Then we take him back to the skinning shed and head to the lodge for brunch.
My hunt is over. I have collected all species in the package, as well as the extra kudu and nyala. I return the rented rifle to Johann and now will concentrate on using my camera. Frisco is reassigned to other duties as I will no longer need a tracker.
During the afternoon, we take the hams from my warthog to refresh the bait at one of the leopard baiting stations. We also visit other baiting stations looking for activity.
Friday May 22, 2015
Johann and I go the retrieve the skull and horns of my “found” kudu. What a smell! We later drive up to a herd of cape buffalo to examine a sick calf. Johann uses the truck to separate the calf from the herd. While he looks out the window at the calf, I watch out my window for a response from the herd. We get only a couple of minutes to examine the calf, then “momma” decides to charge. We drive away quickly through the long grass and momma and baby are together again.
In the early afternoon, the leopard hunter (Kevin from Colorado) arrives at the lodge for his safari. I spend the rest of Friday with Johann riding around the ranch taking pictures.
I will miss this place and these people!
Saturday, May 13, 2015
Johann sets out all of my animals on the steps outside the swimming pool. We take measurements and final pictures. Nothing for the record book, but I worked hard for these animals and they are all trophies to me!
Johann is now going to work as PH with Rick, while Andre drives me back to Johannesburg to catch my flight home. After long hours on three different flights, I arrive home Sunday evening. Monday is the Memorial Day Holiday and work starts for me on Tuesday. I look forward to my trophies getting shipped from South Africa to Texas, and delivered to Conroe Taxidermy. Hopefully, some day next year I will get my trophies finally home.
So ends my first safari to Africa. Now I have to pay for the taxidermy. Then I can start saving for safari number two. There is a cape buffalo over there somewhere with my name on it. I will return to Africa in a few years.
I scheduled my first trip to Africa through Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures. I worked with Frank Cole as my Cabela’s consultant. I wanted to hunt Plains Game for my first trip. I selected Chamanzi Zulu Safaris for my adventure. Johann Muller and his wife run a 30,000-acre private game ranch in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa. The Mkuze River runs through the property. I chose a seven-day package hunt. It included: Kudu, Blue Wildebeest, Impala, Bushbuck and Warthog. Any other animals would be individual trophy fees. I was looking at adding a Nyala as an additional trophy.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Left Corpus Christi on a flight to Houston, then an overnight flight to London, then an overnight flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. It rained everywhere but JSA. My flight from London was canceled and I was switched to an earlier flight. It had mechanical trouble and left London late, almost at the time of the original flight.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Arrived in Johannesburg. Johann Muller (Outfitter and Professional Hunter) picked me up just past the baggage claim area. His wife and 3-year-old daughter were with him. They had spent a couple of days in Johannesburg shopping after dropping off a previous client. We traveled in a double cab truck with camper shell over the bed. I had to get used to the steering wheel being on the “wrong side” as well as driving on that “wrong side” of the road. We traveled for about 6 hours to get to the ranch. This included a lunch stop.
Lunch was at a Spur Steak Ranch. It has a Native American theme (tipis, totems, Indian Chief images). I was not expecting this in South Africa.
Arrived at the ranch in late afternoon. After entering through a locked gate, we travel down a dirt road to the ranch headquarters. I had looked at website pictures ahead of the trip and knew what to expect. The headquarters is in a valley with mountains on all sides. Highveld grasslands on top of the mountains, and lowveld brush/trees thick in the lower slopes and down into the valleys. I am staying in a thatched-roof rondavel with a connected rondavel serving as my bathroom/shower. The main lodge is where we have our meals. For the first few days I will be the only client on the ranch. There are game guards living at the front gate. My Zulu tracker lives near the headquarters. There is a skinner and several people taking care of the property. Two women cook the meals and provide daily laundry service. All of the cooking and laundry duties are overseen by Johann’s wife, Lorisca.
Johann said the gun range faces the setting sun, so we will wait until the morning to sight-in the rifle I am renting from him. A bolt action Brno in 30.06 caliber. Johann takes me on a drive through part of the ranch before dark. I saw kudu, warthog, nyala, zebra and impala just on that short drive. I saw several monkeys along the creek below the lodge. The word “Chamanzi” refers to disappearing water, as the water in the creek often disappears in late summer, only flowing underground. We then had dinner and I went to bed early exhausted from the travel.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Had toast, cereal and coffee at 6:00am. Beautiful morning. Went to the range behind the lodge and sighted in the rifle to be dead on at 100 yards. Most shots should be at fairly close range. I ride in the back of a Toyota Hilux pickup with Johann driving. My Zulu tracker “Frisco” stands behind my seat in the pickup bed. He doesn’t speak much English, other that the names of the animals. As we travel the dirt roads of the ranch, Frisco and I point out animals to each other and he verifies the names of what I am seeing. We are doing “spot and stalk” hunting. In a single morning we viewed: kudu, nyala, blue wildebeest, cape buffalo, mountain reedbuck, steenbok, common duiker, impala, giraffe, common reedbuck. I took close up pictures of the small herd of cape buffalo from the “safety” of the pickup. We crossed the Mkuze river and worked some of the dirt roads on that side of the ranch. Saw one old Dugga Boy (buffalo bull) out by himself on the side of one of the mountains.
Tried two stalks on Kudu. First one in the Highveld grasslands near the front gate of the ranch. Got on the sticks, but not comfortable with the angle of the shot, quartering toward me and several kudu females around the bull. One of the females finally saw us and they spooked out. Second stalk on a lone kudu bull on the north side of the river. He ghosted out of the area before we could get close to him. Tried several stalks on small groups of blue wildebeest. Only got on the sticks once. The bull was facing me at long distance and a good crosswind. Passed on the shot. They are supposed to be tough to bring down, so I didn’t want to take a chance on a bad shot.
Found a puff adder on the road. Took a few pictures before Johann killed it. He wants to kill all venomous snakes encountered on the ranch.
Spotted a bushpig running up the side of a hill at 11:00am. Not normal, they are supposed to be nocturnal. Johann told me to take the shot at the running bushpig from the truck. I missed, shooting over his back.
Went back to the lodge for brunch. They serve this midday meal of egg, sausages, fruits, etc. then we take a break for the middle of the day when the animal activity slows. We then resume hunting at 2:00pm and hunt until sundown, followed by a nice dinner.
Just before sunset, Johann and Frisco spot a good Nyala bull across the river. He tells me to shoot. I put it down with the first shot. It gets up and I anchor it with a second shot. Johann turns to me and says “now you can swim over and get it”. He is teasing me. He says they swam across the river last week to retrieve a client’s bushbuck in this same area. I stay on the bank to mark the location and watch the river for crocodiles, while Johann, Frisco and one of the game guards wade across the river to get the nyala. We took pictures of me with my first African animal on the dirt road just before dark. What a beautiful animal! I am thrilled with it. We return to the lodge and take the nyala to the skinning shed. Johann is cooking our dinner on the firepit that evening. What a great first day of hunting.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Wake up to rain. Not heavy, just a steady rain. On the dirt road up to the Highveld, we spot an injured porcupine. Johann asks me to shoot it. We find out later that a vehicle driven by an employee the night before had hit it.
Up in the Highveld (high grasses and acacia trees), we stalk the same kudu from the day before. The herd is walking to my right. I make a shot and hear the solid “thump” of the hit, and all of the kudu run off. We move upslope to the location where the bull had been. No blood sign at all in the rain. Frisco follows a set of tracks towards one of the canyons, but again no blood. Johann, Frisco and I keep searching for the kudu in the rain. At one point, Johann says be on alert, he has spotted oxpecker birds in a tree, meaning that buffalo are close. I have the only rifle in case there is trouble.
We return to the lodge for brunch without the kudu. Johann says to leave it until morning then we will search the canyon.
We spend the afternoon on the north side of the Mkuze River. The rain has stopped. Partly cloudy the rest of the day. Lots of game seen: kudu, nyala, impala, zebra, giraffe, duiker, warthog, etc. Just nothing mature enough to shoot. We glass the valley of the Mkuze River from one of the mountains. Such beautiful country!
Talked to the PH (Ian) from the adjoining ranch. He and Johann have pooled their properties and received a leopard permit. This PH is working the baits on both ranches. He shows us pictures of a male/female pair of leopards at one of the baits. The leopard hunter is arriving later in the week. At dinner, a new hunter (Rick) and his wife arrive from California. A second PH and tracker will work with them.
Monday, May 18, 2015
We head out to look for my missing kudu. Johann and I glass the canyon from the opposite side, while Frisco and two game guards hike the canyon starting from where they think the wounded kudu entered. No body found, no kudu flushed out, just a small herd of nyala are driven out. We travel to meet the men back in the Highveld above the canyon. We all walk the area looking for my kudu. One of the men almost steps on a big Black Mamba. It flees into a burrow without biting the man.
At midmorning, we leave the two game guards to continue the search for the kudu. Johann, Frisco and I go back to hunting. We work a highveld area finding a small herd of giraffes and scattered groups of warthogs. We spot and stalk a herd of blue wildebeest in a bowl on top of a mountain. There are two cape buffalo bulls nearby. They spook the wildebeest, so no shot. We are walking around the bowl to get at the wildebeest from a different angle. I hear a loud crashing of branches and a bull buffalo runs out of the brush at 30 yards. Fortunately he is running away from us, not at us. Again, I am carrying the only rifle. Johann is please to know about these three bulls as they hadn’t been seen previously. We finally get repositioned. I get on the sticks for a long shot at a wildebeest, but the buffalo run through the wildebeest herd scattering them down the hill.
For the evening hunt, we see lots of game but again no mature animals. We finally run into a group of warthogs in high grass in a valley. One looks good. Johann has me try a shot from the top of the truck. The warthog is facing me in the grass. I try to shoot left of his tusks, hoping for a body hit. I fire and all three animals run off. We search until dark, tracking the warthog for a mile? We follow occasional tiny drops of blood, no bigger that this letter “O”. We will resume looking for him in the morning.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
We resume the warthog search, but no more blood found in the first couple of hours. Johann gets a call from the game guards. They’ve seen a lone kudu bull walking around in the area of my missing kudu. Could he still be alive? We go and spend the rest of the morning glassing a mountainside hoping to spot the animal. No luck.
For the evening hunt, both game guards have joined Frisco in the back of the truck. We head out for the hunt. We spot a herd of impala near the dirt road with a decent ram. It is breeding season and his mind is preoccupied as we drive by. Johann decides we should try for this ram, but the wind is wrong. So we drive past the herd a second time to get to where we could get the wind in our faces. We then stalk the herd on foot. After a short stalk, success! We take the impala ram to the skinning shed. We are back on the road in about an hour. We see that same herd of impala. A new ram has arrived and taken over the herd. That didn’t take long. We drive back up to the area of my lost kudu and spend the rest of the evening hunt searching the area again. As we head back to the lodge I see a red duiker running away from us. They are small and quick.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
The other hunter (Rick) and his PH are headed up to the Highveld, so we are going to go across the Mkuze River for our morning hunt. We are approaching the river when Frisco taps my shoulder and points at the rifle rack, he tells Johann to park the truck down at the river. We walk back up the dirt road to some of the thick brush and trees on a slope above the river. Frisco had seen a bushbuck. I get on the sticks but can only see a part of the body. The bushbuck figures that something is up and starts moving down toward the river. We relocate the sticks to a different position. I spot the bushbuck and pick an opening in the trees ahead of him. When he reaches that opening I shoot, dropping him in his tracks. We carefully approach him, but he is done. We take the bushbuck back to the skinning shed. Johann wants Frisco to do the caping on this animal, so we are going to wait around for a little while. Johann then gets a call from the other PH that they are having a problem getting their truck to start. We leave Frisco to finish caping my bushbuck and go to find the other truck on the side of a mountain not far from where we were glassing for my lost kudu. After an hour of work, the other vehicle is working again.
Johann and I then head up to the Highveld. We pick up one of the game guards to serve as a tracker. We spot a lone blue wildebeest bull a long way off from us across the high grass. We have seen him before and he always runs off from the vehicle even when it is over a mile away. Johann asks me if I want to try a long walk, I say sure. The three of us leave the truck and walk single file through the long grass. This time Johann takes his .416 with him. We work our way from acacia tree to acacia tree getting closer to that far away bull. We travel forward when his head is down and stand still when he lifts his head. We stay on alert because there are cape buffalo in this part of the ranch and we don’t want to walk up on one that is laying down in the grass. We continue the slow approach for over an hour. Eventually, the wildebeest starts running toward a herd of wildebeest that is closer to us. We change direction and slowly approach this herd. There are a couple of good bulls in this group. I finally get to a position to take a shot at one of the bulls. He drops in his tracks. We approach and I add a finishing shot. What a successful morning! This was definitely my favorite stalk of the trip. We take the bull to the skinning shed and head for brunch at the lodge.
After lunch, I tell Johann that I really want to take home a kudu and we haven’t found mine from Sunday. I asked to pay for an opportunity to take a second kudu. For the evening hunt we head across the Mkuze River and drive up the mountains on the north side. We see the usual mix of animals along the way. Including a very confused impala ram herding a group of nyala ewes. We see one female bushbuck. We drive down the side of a mountain and spot a herd of kudu. The male looks mature. We park further down the mountain out of sight. Then climb back up the side of the mountain to reach a point overlooking the meadow with the kudu. I have to ask for a timeout at the top of the mountain to get my breathing back in control after that hike. We then get in position. The bull is broadside at about 150 yards. I shoot and down he goes. Then he gets back up and falls down again, so I get back on the sticks. He gets up and starts running down the mountainside. I fire just as he turns to the right due to a boulder, and I hear my shot go on down the mountain. A miss! I work the bolt for the next shot. He is now further down the mountain, maybe 200-250 yards. All I can see of him is the head and neck above the grass and brush. I’m not going to lose this kudu! I aim for his neck and fire. I hit the spinal column in his neck and down he goes. I am thrilled to have this kudu. Johann brings the truck down the mountainside and four of us and the winch finally get him loaded. We drive back up the mountain to get to the dirt road. As we are driving back to the lodge Johann gets a call from the other PH (Andre) that is guiding Rick. They talk in Africaans and he ends the call. Johann turns to me and says you have two! Two what?? He says the other group found my missing kudu in the tall grass of the Highveld not very far from where I shot it days ago. I’m sad at the loss of this animal. No meat or hide, but I will salvage the horns.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
We start the morning by going to look at my “found” kudu. We have to wait for the cape buffalo herd to move away from the dead kudu. Covered in fly larvae and down on its left side. I can see the entrance hole of my bullet, right behind the front shoulder. Don’t know if there is an exit hole on the other side. No blood showing at the entrance hole. Maybe the bullet hit a rib and went back to the gut? Anyway the body is in a location we definitely had walked through several times. He must have been hiding in the brush before walking back out into the long grass and dying. We will come back for the skull on Friday.
Later we meet up with the other PH and client. They mention seeing a large warthog back down the road a ways. So we go looking for it. We are looking up on the side of the hill and see a smaller warthog, then we finally spot the larger one. We move into position and I get on the sticks. The male warthog is behind a group of trees up on the hillside. He is standing still and broadside to me. The only exposed part is his head and neck. I make a long uphill shot to his neck and he drops in his tracks. Johann and Frisco drag him down the hillside to a flat area for the pictures. Then we take him back to the skinning shed and head to the lodge for brunch.
My hunt is over. I have collected all species in the package, as well as the extra kudu and nyala. I return the rented rifle to Johann and now will concentrate on using my camera. Frisco is reassigned to other duties as I will no longer need a tracker.
During the afternoon, we take the hams from my warthog to refresh the bait at one of the leopard baiting stations. We also visit other baiting stations looking for activity.
Friday May 22, 2015
Johann and I go the retrieve the skull and horns of my “found” kudu. What a smell! We later drive up to a herd of cape buffalo to examine a sick calf. Johann uses the truck to separate the calf from the herd. While he looks out the window at the calf, I watch out my window for a response from the herd. We get only a couple of minutes to examine the calf, then “momma” decides to charge. We drive away quickly through the long grass and momma and baby are together again.
In the early afternoon, the leopard hunter (Kevin from Colorado) arrives at the lodge for his safari. I spend the rest of Friday with Johann riding around the ranch taking pictures.
I will miss this place and these people!
Saturday, May 13, 2015
Johann sets out all of my animals on the steps outside the swimming pool. We take measurements and final pictures. Nothing for the record book, but I worked hard for these animals and they are all trophies to me!
Johann is now going to work as PH with Rick, while Andre drives me back to Johannesburg to catch my flight home. After long hours on three different flights, I arrive home Sunday evening. Monday is the Memorial Day Holiday and work starts for me on Tuesday. I look forward to my trophies getting shipped from South Africa to Texas, and delivered to Conroe Taxidermy. Hopefully, some day next year I will get my trophies finally home.
So ends my first safari to Africa. Now I have to pay for the taxidermy. Then I can start saving for safari number two. There is a cape buffalo over there somewhere with my name on it. I will return to Africa in a few years.
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