Report by: PH John Greeff
Location: Lake Natron
Date: 22 September 2006
Clients: Tom Waller
Greetings from Lake Natron Camp.
Day One
After yesterday’s nightmare trip from the Selous, I finally made it to camp at 11pm. Tom Waller, my good friend who’s now on his third trip to Africa with me, had been waiting for me since lunch time. Tom had been with me earlier in the year and is now here in Natron to collect some East African species and have some fun on another S.K.I (Spend Kids Inheritance) safari. This morning we set off to look for lesser kudu, Tom’s main trophy.
We had a great morning seeing six lesser kudu bulls. Some were young, but three of them were very respectable, but as it’s early in the hunt, we are still being picky. We saw some impala too but also wanted a decent one. We came in for an early lunch and then set off again at 2:30 after a short siesta (we had both had a few cold ones the night before and needed to catch up on some sleep.)
This afternoon we saw another four lesser kudu but still no shooter. At 5:00 I went to an area I had seen some good impala before and we went for a walk. After five minutes we spotted five impala females and a good ram. They ran off and we followed. When we caught up with them we saw a Maasai boy herding some cattle past the impala, so we walked behind the cows and got to 70 yards and let the cattle pass. I set up the sticks and the impala ram walked into an opening and Tom shot. Unfortunately, the shot went high as Tom forgot he had zeroed the 7mm he is using 3" high at 100 yards. We trailed the impala but did not get another chance. On the way back to the truck we saw five more rams. One looked good, but they ran off and it was too late to follow. We will be back there tomorrow.
Day Two
First thing this morning we went and walked through the impala area. We saw four rams but none were big enough. We continued down to an area were we had seen some lesser kudu and we walked through there and saw two bulls, but again nothing really good. I then decided we should drive to another area as we may get lucky on lesser kudu or dik dik. 
The area has a river (dry) which we drove down for about 15 km. We did see some dik dik, but no good ones. When we came out of the river, we saw plenty of giraffe, Grant’s gazelle, Thomson’s gazelle and ostriches.
We had lunch and a siesta in the river bed under some acacia trees. We set of again at 3pm and drove slowly back up the river spotting a lesser kudu crossing the river and several more dik dik. We came around a bend and in the distance, 200 yards we could see a lone dik dik standing in the shade of a small tree. We stalked to 50 yards of him and could see he was really big. I set the sticks and Tom shot him. It was a good shot, but seeing as Tom had loaded solids he ran off. We followed him into some thick brush but he was dead long ago. Tom was really happy as he has a thing for the small antelope and spiral horned animals. The dik dik was huge measuring 3", so he was well worth waiting for.
Day Three
Today we decided we would get serious on trying to shoot a lesser kudu. We started concentrating our efforts in an area where we had seen the most activity. We saw nine bulls in the morning from 10am to noon, and at 12:20 saw a good bull we thought was over 27". We stalked him but he saw us. I set up the sticks as he was no more than 70 yards, and told Tom to shoot. Tom came up and could see him with his eyes but when he looked through the scope he lost him as at some point it had been turned to 9-power. 
After a bit, the kudu ran off and we chased him for a while seeing him walking. We did not get another chance as the wind was bad, so we went in for lunch.
This afternoon we tried to find the big one again with no luck. We saw two more, but they were not big enough. At 6pm I told Tom we would try and drive the road again. We drove 500 yards when we spotted a bull about 300 yards feeding in an open area. As we got close I glassed him and could not believe the size of him. I said to Tom this is the one. We stalked to 80 yards and set up the sticks and the kudu saw us and turned to face us. Tom shot him a good quartering shot and he ran 50 yards and fell dead. We walked up and I could not believe the size of him as he was really old and really wide. I estimate he will go over 32" which is a monster. Tom is over the moon, as we looked at 29 lesser kudu bulls in three days turning down some very respectable ones in the process.
Today was one of those days that just click and we got lucky.
Day Four
Well, talk about luck and today we decided to try get an impala and did a fair amount of walking without even seeing one. Our driver Macharasa suggested we try another area, so we drove an hour and were looking over a nice open area when we saw a Coke’s hartebeest bull. I had never seen one and they only pass through our area occasionally, so we stalked him. He saw us and we chased him for an hour with no luck.
After lunch we went back to the same area and saw the hartebeest bull with two cows. We again stalked him but they kept running. Finally, we got a 150 yard shot on him and Tom shot him, but the shot was a bit back. He ran off and we tracked him for awhile. Tom shot again killing him. What a great trophy as they are really rare here.
We had a great day and tomorrow we are going to climb to the top of Kitumbeine Mountain at 8500 feet to hunt bushbuck. We will then move our fly camp to the shores of Lake Natron to hunt Grant’s gazelle, Thomson’s gazelle and white bearded wildebeest.
Well we have been gone 5 days fly camping, so now I’m catching up on my journal.
Day Five
We left camp to go climb Kitumbeine Mountain to shoot bush buck. We managed to get the land cruiser up to 8000 feet, then rode horses the last 1200 feet. We arrived at our fly camp at 2pm. Ali, the fly camp manager, had set up that morning using donkeys to pack everything in. Not a bad camp as we were at 9200 feet! Tom and I both had our own tents plus a mess tent where we would eat.
That afternoon at 4pm we walked about 500 yards (the altitude was hard to deal with and soon Tom and I were puffing like we had run a mile) to a lookout over an open area. When we got there we saw a huge bushbuck going back in the thick brush. We sat all afternoon and saw two more but they were too far off and went into the thick stuff before we had a chance to approach.
Day Six
We got up and walked back to the same area and sat on the hillside but only saw young bushbuck and some females. We saw an old 36" buffalo bull and about 12 cows. At 12pm we saw five eland bulls come into a clearing about 500 yards away. 
Tom and I stalked to a hill above them. When we got there they were 250 yards below us. I set up the sticks and Tom got his breathing normal as I saw a really good bull walking a little closer. From a sitting position Tom used the side of the sticks and when the bull stopped broadside Tom shot him. It was a really good shot as he ran 30 yards and died. He was a really nice old bull and Tom was very happy. As Davey my tracker got to where we shot the eland, he told me on the way he had seen a bushbuck laying in the thick brush. We made our way back as quick as the altitude would allow. When we got on a small hillside we could see a small dark patch about 100 yards off. We got set up and called out to the bush buck several times and he stood up but as he did I saw one horn was broken. I told Tom and we decided not to take him.
That afternoon after packing the eland skin and horns 600 meters back to camp, we made our way back to sit for bushbuck but only saw females. On the way back to camp we saw about 15 buffalo which ran from our wind.
Day Seven
We had decided the night before to move camp today to the area we would be hunting wildebeest and Grant’s and Tommy gazelle near Lake Natron. We were going to only hunt till midday. In the morning when we woke, it was all misted in and we could only see a few feet. We ate breakfast and the mist cleared a bit so we made our way to our spot to sit and wait. After ten minutes we saw two bushbuck males but one was the broken horn one and the other was small. They went back into the brush. I said to Tom that if we saw the broken horn one again we should probably shoot him as I estimated his good horn to be 19" and the broken one 16". 
Tom said “definitely” as we were due to move that day. We then saw a really good buffalo bull with about a 40"spread and very heavy bosses about 15". He walked up a small gully not 80 yards from us. After about an hour, Davey spotted a bushbuck in the thick brush and from what I could see he was a good old 16". He was 300 yards away and in thick brush. We stalked to 200 yards and as he was going further into the thick brush we decided to not try get closer. Tom got set up sitting down and leaned on the side of the sticks. The bush buck moved into a small clearing and I saw he was the broken horned one. I told Tom and he said fine and shot. The bushbuck disappeared into the brush. I ran as fast as I could to where he had been and found him dead in his tracks. Tom had done another great shot. He was a monster as his horns measured out at 20" and 16" with 8" bases scoring an amazing 52" SCI. Tom was tickled pink as he really likes bushbuck.
We skinned him out and got to the horses and rode down the mountain and only made it halfway to Natron when we decided to camp for the night. Ali and his team put up camp for the night and we were treated with eland steaks and red wine. Amazing how comfortable you can be with an organized camp staff!
Day Eight
We left early to hunt and Ali broke camp to move to the Lake Natron site. We found the wildebeest near the lake were where they like to drink from springs close to the lakeshore as the lake itself is salty. 
As we were driving in, the zebra and wildebeest ran from the truck. We estimated throughout the whole valley around the lake we could see over 1000 animals. We saw a group of 25 wildebeest bulls near a river bed so we put on shukas (Maasai traditional red clothes) and walked up the river bed. We got to about 200 yards when they started to get nervous. We sat down and set up the sticks. Tom leaned on the side of them and just then the biggest bull of the lot stepped out to the right and Tom shot. He dropped in his tracks with a neck shot (we think due to wind drift as it was howling through the valley.) He was dead and Tom had another great trophy as his bases measured 15 ½” and 27" spread.
On the way in to the valley we had seen a group of Grant’s gazelle with what at a distance looked like three good bulls. 
After skinning the wildebeest and eating some lunch we drove the hour back to where we had seen them. We found them behind one of the hills where we had seen them. We had a problem as on the wildebeest stalk Tom had injured his good left knee (as his right one is titanium) so Tom was using the shooting sticks to hobble closer to the Grant’s gazelle. We got to 150 yards and Tom shot the biggest one 26 1/2". By now Tom’s knee was done for so we took some pictures and started back for camp. On the way we saw a good Thomson’s gazelle but even though tom tried he could not stalk it. We were really worried so went into camp to rest and have a good night as we had had a good day. Once again Ali had put up a very nice camp with toilet shower and all the other comforts for us.
Day Nine
We decided we would hunt back to the main camp (6 hours away) and try for a Tommy on the way as Tom’s knee was still bad but a little better. An hour after leaving camp we spotted a good Tommy and Tom managed to stalk the 300 yards and got a 150 yard shot on him but Tom hit him a bit back and he ran a short way. 
Tom shot him again. Tom was now almost unable to walk unaided, so we took photos and drove the five hours back to camp and spent the afternoon relaxing.
Day Ten
Since Tom had missed the impala the first day, we tried to get one today. We saw three groups but none of the rams were big enough. Tom is still hobbling around, but has a big smile on his face as he got some really nice East African species. All in all we had a great safari. We got to hunt three different types of terrain in one area and saw a huge variety of game. Tom shot eight species of game and all were good trophies.
Well I’m off tomorrow with Tom to see Ngorogoro Crater then join me the next day as I’m off to the Selous again to hunt from Madaba camp. Neil Summers and I are going to be hunting buffalo with a bow, plus anything else we can get within range of.
Regards,
John