Report by: PH Alistair James
Location: Lake Natron South, Maasailand
Date: 27 July 2006 - 30 July 2006
Clients : Father and Daughter, Ragnar and Christina Lyng
27 July 06
Today was an adventure. It was our first proper day of hunting in Maasailand, and we decided that we wanted to drive across the concession to get an idea of the game movement. We wanted to shoot wildebeest so we went first to the open plains west of Kitumbeine Mountain. We found the herds here had moved off, so we decided to drive down to Lake Natron where we were confident that we would find wildebeest. It took a while to get down to the lake, and it was after lunch before we were approaching the shore line. We were still a kilometer away when the car became stuck in a mud hole. Ragnar, a chemical engineer by education, informed me that this was a trixotopic soil formation in which we were stuck.
All I know is that it was a seemingly bottomless mud pit from which it was almost impossible to extract the cruiser. As the trackers kept working on the car, we decided to walk down to the lake shore were we could see the wildebeest herds milling around about a kilometer from our position. We used Maasai cattle herds to maneuver in amongst the wildebeest, and Ragnar and Christina shot respective old bulls. After the wildebeest were down, a big Thompson’s gazelle was seen, and Ragnar shot it. It took another hour to get the car unstuck, and then we headed back to camp and had a late but well deserved dinner.
28 July 06
Today was an overcast and windy day. The game was lying down and the hunting was difficult. Finally at about 10:00 am we spotted a bachelor herd of Grant's gazelle. There were two nice bulls in the group, so Christina and I decided to stalk them. They were very wary and ran off the first time we tried to approach. After this we found a herd of Maasai goats feeding in the same direction as the gazelle, and hid in amongst them until we came to within 80 meters of the bachelor group. Christina took a solid rest on a termite mound until the best animal in the group presented a good shot.
After this we went to the plains on the east side of Kitumbeine Mountain to look for zebra. A large herd was seen and we stalked up to within 100 meters of the animals. As I was looking carefully for the stallion in the herd, Christina shouted, “That one! The one on the left is a male!” I looked over in disbelief at how my client could sex the zebra better than myself, when she said again “I can see it.” Sure enough there was a zebra with his package hanging outside. The shooting sticks went up and Ragnar shot.
After this we decided to go back to the hills around camp in order to look for gerenuk. As we drove up a sand river, we spotted a pair of dik dik. Christina shot the male of the pair. Despite all of my convincing, my clients refused to believe that this was a big trophy dik dik.
29 July 06
Today we started out looking for gerenuk. The weather was overcast, windy and cold. It seemed as though the gerenuk were lying down in the thicker parts of the bush as a result, and the animals were not easily seen.
We first spotted a herd of impala today. The herd ram was a good specimen of the east African species. He had horns about 24” and his body size was immense. Ragnar decided that he wanted to take it, and did so with a perfect shot.
In the next open plain we came to, Christina shot an ostrich. We stalked some zebra as well, but unfortunately had them run off. A half an hour later and we were looking at a larger herd of zebra. Christina and myself stalked up to the herd and glassed until a stallion clearly showed himself. Christina made another perfect shot with her 7mm Remington.
On our way back towards the camp we stopped a rocky ridge where Andy, the camp manager, had seen some klipspringer the previous week. We walked slowly alongside the ridge and were about to give up when a pair was spotted. Ragnar shot the male at about 80 meters.
After a good morning, we returned to camp so that the skinner could get to work. We left immediately after eating lunch with the intention of looking for a good gerenuk. 
As the animals still appeared to be lying down, we elected to walk along some thickets where the gerenuk like to spend the daylight hours. We saw eight females and two young bulls before we finally spotted a very nice male. Ragnar made a perfect shot to finish a fantastic day.
30 July 06
We left camp early this morning with the intention of going to the open plains between Kitumbeine and Lengai Mountains to find a fringe-eared oryx. It was a long drive but by late morning we were glassing the vast open space for game.Before we saw any other game, we spotted a fantastic Grant’s gazelle with exceptionally heavy horns.We took this animal and were very impressed with the trophy. 
After some more glassing we spotted a herd of oryx in a line of acacia trees about a kilometer and a half away. These animals are extremely spooky so we wore Maasai blankets and started walking in the direction of the herd. Because the herd was amongst the acacia trees, we were able to get within 150 meters of the herd before a cow spooked and alerted the other animals. As the herd started looking our way, a good bull showed himself off to the left side, and Ragnar shot the animal well.