Report by: PH Alistair James
Location: Rungwa Ikili
Date: 16 July 2006 - 26 July 2006
Client : Bill Sims
16 - 19 July 2006
Bill met up with Jack for the first few days of his safari while I spent these days baiting and watching leopard.
20 August 2006
Today we sat on the leopard bait in the morning. The cat was in the tree at 6:20 AM just before light and feeding loudly. Everything looked as though it was going to go as planned, when the leopard jumped out of the tree and never returned. Later we found out that the cat had managed to rip the bait off of the rope and drag it away from the tree just before shooting time.
We saw roan and zebra after leaving the blind. We went looking for buffalo at some water holes in the east of the concession, and ended up shooting a bush pig on the way there. This gave us the extra meat we needed to hang the leopard bait back up in the tree.
After this we went and sat on the leopard bait again for an evening session. The cat came in at the very last minute, and was barely visible in the low light.
21 August 2006
Today we sat again on the leopard bait. Although the bait was hit overnight, the leopard did not show after we entered the blind at 5:00 AM. A large male lion track at the bottom of the bait tree gave us the conclusive explanation to the leopard’s disappearance; he had been too scared to come back that morning.
We drove to the Ikili Hills after leaving the blind to look for buffalo in the area. We hiked and found some scattered sign, but didn’t see any buffalo. The hunting vehicle circled around the hills and met us on the other side. Upon meeting up with the driver, he told us that he had just seen a small group of buffalo about a kilometer back on the road. We got in the truck to go and have a look. We found a bachelor group of eight animals. Surprisingly every bull in the group was young, and not suitable to shoot.
Later in the afternoon we spotted a herd of zebra, and after a good stalk Bill made a great shot on a stallion in the group. We went to sit on the leopard again after this. The cat came in, but was just slightly late. Once again we couldn’t shoot.
22 August 2006
Once again we were up at 4:00 AM and on our way to sit in the leopard blind. Early, while it was still dark, we heard the leopard up in the tree feeding. Unfortunately it left before shooting light and again left us frustrated and tired.
We left the blind and went to check other baits that we had hung in the area. None were active. I was starting to worry about the likelihood of us getting a shot at this particular leopard. We drove most of the day today looking for fresh buffalo sign but couldn’t find any. We also decided not to sit on the leopard this afternoon, and gave the cat a rest instead.
23 August 2006
This morning we decided to leave the leopard again, and only sit in the afternoon. We drove to the north-west section of the hunting area to look for a very large herd of buffalo which frequent the area. We found the tracks of the herd and saw that they had crossed over the boundary river into the adjacent concession.
After this we searched for sign in the Ikili Hills, but couldn’t find any fresh enough tracks to follow.
This afternoon we sat for the leopard, hoping that the rest and lack of human activity around the bait would give him the confidence to feed slightly earlier this afternoon. We waited for two hours in the blind before the leopard quietly showed up in the bait tree. As he stood on the bait branch, he stretched and stood perfectly broadside to us. Bill dropped the cat dead out of the tree, bringing much joy and relief to a hunting crew that had been worn down by over twenty hours of sitting in the leopard blind.
24 August 2006
Today we decided to concentrate on buffalo. We drove towards the Ikili Hills where we had seen a lot of buffalo sign the previous week. On our way we saw three different sable bulls, but decided to pass on all of them as Bill only wanted an exceptionally large trophy, having shot good sable on previous safaris.
We cut tracks of a large herd of buffalo at 10:30. After following for not more than half an hour, we had the herd in sight. The shifting wind and the burnt out miombo terrain made it extremely difficult to approach them. Initially the herd winded us slightly and started to run in our direction. They came within 25 yards of us before one of the lead animals spotted us. Unfortunately they were grouped tightly together and we could not risk a shot into the herd at this point.
The herd ran off and started milling around again. After 30 minutes the animals started to bed down. Instead of trying to push the animals, we decided to take a nap downwind of the buffalo and wait until they started moving again to approach. After a few hours, the herd split, and some of the animals went to a close-by water hole to drink. We started following this part of the herd, but had trouble approaching the animals as they were very alert and the area was burnt, leaving us little cover to work with. We almost blew the stalk when the wind shifted slightly and some of the lead animals in the group winded us. The animals then grouped into a tight knot and stood quietly while trying to discern what was following them. The sun was about to dip into the horizon and the change in light gave us the advantage that we needed. We were able to approach the group and Bill made a great frontal shot on the best bull in the herd. This ended what turned out to be a stalk lasting more than seven hours.
25 August 2006
Today we went looking for hartebeest and sable, and maybe another buffalo as we still had one on license. Early on we spotted a group of hartebeest with a good bull. We were able to stalk the group and Bill made a perfect shot on the bull from the top of a termite mound. After this, we saw two groups of sable and one mature bull, but not the trophy size we were looking for.
In the afternoon, we went in search of a large herd of buffalo which had been spotted by James and Peter in the morning. We climbed a hill in the area so that we could get a clear angle in the tall grass and miombo, and spotted the group feeding below us. We moved into the herd and positioned ourselves on top of an anthill. As the animals fed around us we were able to get a good look at a number of animals in the group, but we didn’t see any decent bulls to shoot. We were able to get some good video footage of a cow buffalo feeding to within eight yards of us.
26 August 2006
We went in search of sable again this morning, but instead found tracks of a small group of bull buffalo from the previous night. We decided to follow these to see if we could shoot another buffalo. After an hour of tracking, the now bedded buffalo winded us and took off with the wind. I decided that we should just try to keep following the group as it was now late in the morning, and our chances of seeing anything else were small. The group winded us twice more when they turned cross ways to the wind, but we were able to catch up and spot the group for the first time standing alert in some dry grass miombo. We belly crawled up to within 60 yards of the group which was now bedded down, save for one bull that was alertly looking straight at us. We decided that this was the buffalo we wanted to shoot, and Bill took the animal with one shot. This was the last animal on the last day of a great hunt for Bill.