Report by: PH Peter Barnard
Location:
Date: 16 August 2006 - 25 August 2006
Client : James Wright
Wednesday, Day 1 - 16 August 2006
We started out at 6am on a quest to find buffalo. Early in the morning we found some tracks of a large herd of buffalo, but some lions had the same intention as us, as they were also on the buffalo tracks .One and a half hours later we came across the lions, four of them in total. They were more successful than us, however, as they had killed two buffalo calves. We carried on tracking for two more hours, but the buffalo had other ideas after the lions had chased them all night. We finally gave up, and went for a drive, where we located a very nice oribi. James put on a very fine shot on the small antelope. We carried on looking for buffalo, but only managed to locate a jackal where once again James put on a very fine shot.
Thursday, Day 2 - 17 August 2006
Day two started much the same as day one, again on the trail of buffalo. Many tracks greeted us with the morning light. We formulated a plan to attempt to cut the tracks of the buffalo in a valley dividing two mountains. One half hour on the trail and I spotted a lone bull licking minerals from a termite hill approximately one hundred fifty meters away. We made a careful stalk filled with painfully long delays to avoid being detected working our way to 100 meters. The buffalo presented us with a broadside shot, but blocked his vitals with his horns while engaging us in a stare down. Three minutes later he finally moved his head, and once again James showed his shooting skills. After the 1st shot, the buffalo ran into some long grass; we circled around behind him onto some rocks where James gave him a finishing shot. He turned out to be a 40 inch buffalo. After the recovery we hung up several leopard baits. In the afternoon we found a very nice sable bull around 36 to 37 inches, but decided to turn him down. An hour later we located a very large herd of buffalo, with several good mature bulls, but decided after seeing several 38 inch buffalo to look for something larger than James’ first buffalo.
Friday, Day 3 - 18 August 2006
We woke up early today and Jack joined us for a five hour walk up a huge mountain called Ikili looking for buffalo and sable. We located lots of old sign, but nothing fresh. James had a shot at a klipspringer but unfortunately missed him.
Saturday, Day 4 - 19 August 2006
We left at 6am from camp this morning looking for buffalo again. We found two buffalo, one female and one young bull. We moved on and found some more buffalo tracks, and followed them for a while. When we located them, we found one cow and six bulls, the largest being around 41 inches. All the bulls were young though, so turned them down. We had a very nice lunch under a shady tree, then carried on hunting, finally deciding to relax a bit and James shot a few doves, francolin, and sand grouse in the afternoon.
Sunday, Day 5 - 20 August 2006
Every day is a hunting day, but not everyday is a shooting day. Today was one of those, but we saw many animals today including buffalo, lion, elephant, oribi, duiker, dikdik, zebra, hartebeest, roan, ostrich, giraffe, and eland.
Monday, Day 6 - 21 August 2006
Today was a dumb day. We left camp early, and located a herd of sable, followed them for about 45 minutes, and James put in a fine shot again. We loaded him up and took him back to camp. After dropping him off we carried on looking for buffalo, but came across a kudu. I dropped my hat as we drove past the kudu 500 meters. We then walked back to where we had seen him, and sure enough he was still there. As he crossed in front of us, James once again came to the game and shot well, but he still ran about 800 yards before dying. We proceeded with the kudu in the back and carried on checking our baits. On seeing that one of Jacks baits had been hit by a large male lion, we hung half our kudu there for him. On our way back to camp we came across a large herd of Hartebeest, so once again we drove past them about a mile and then walked back to where we had seen them. We found them after a while and James shot a very nice bull, a perfect shot through both lungs, but he was very tough and ran about 600 yards before dying. After loading him up we saw a very large herd of buffalo on our way back to camp, but as it was getting late so we decided to come back in the morning and track them up.
Tuesday, Day 7 - 22 August 2006
We picked up yesterday’s buffalo tracks at 7 am, and proceeded to track them for three hours before finally catching up to them. We circled around them to get the wind right to get the buffalo to walk past us. James had said to me that he was not too interested in inches since he had already taken a nice buffalo earlier on the safari, and that he would like a buffalo with nice curls and hooks. We located a mature bull in the herd with about a 36 inch spread, with curls and all, which James decided to take. He took a quartering shot into the shoulder, the shot was good, but he was still standing 200 meters on, so James gave him another two finishing shots. After doing the recovery we took him back to camp and made biltong ( jerky) out of him.
Wednesday, Day 8 - 23 August 2006
We left early in the morning again checking our baits. On the way to one bait, we bumped a hyena which ran away from us, but after following him up for a while we saw him again and James put in a very quick and good shot. We took him back to camp and on getting there we found Jack and Leon at camp, they had just shot a huge lion, so we had a big Kabubi* for the lion. They then told us that there was a nice leopard feeding on their lion bait, so we left there and then and drove two hours to the bait site. We made a blind from grass and right on last light the big tom came in. James shot him behind the shoulder and he ran off into the thick brush. We waited for the vehicle to come and then followed him up. He had gone about a 100 meters and we found him dead in the jess (thick brush/bush). Once again a huge Kabubi was held and much celebration.
* Kabubi: a special reception celebration in Tanzania only after a lion or leopard has been killed when the hunter returns to camp. The hunter and hunting vehicle gets decorated prior to returning to camp. Upon arrival there is a huge celebration with singing and dancing. The client is met at the returning vehicle and carried to the mess tent on a chair among the dancing, noisy crowd of camp and hunting staff.
Thursday, Day 9 - 24 August 2006
We all woke up late due to the double celebration on the cats. Took it easy today and saw many animals but shot none.
Friday, Day 10 - 25 August 2006
We left camp quite late being our last day, for a slow drive to part of Rungwa where we had not been. We saw many animals today, and then decided to take an impala. James took a 150 meter shot on him and he only went 50 meters. Took an easy drive to camp and had a wonderful dinner to finish a fine safari with new found friends.