Report by:
PH Craig Middleton
Clients:
Barry and Jane Jacobsen, David Barbisan
Area:
LU4, Luwugo Camp
Date:
31 August 2007 - 13 September 2007

31 August 2007

To kick the safari off with a bang I decided to first try for the hippo so that we would have plenty meat to hang for leopard baits. Around 5km’s up the Luwego River from camp we found a dominant bull with a pair of serious bulges. Fortunately the entire pod was in the depth of water that a man could tiptoe through and not to get his nuts wet. As we made our way through some mud towards them a cow made her presence felt and we were forced to retreat on more that 2 occasions. The movement of me placing the shooting sticks triggered the bull to lift his head and neck right out the water. While I was explaining to Barry where to exactly put the cross hairs, Jane, in a panic, sheepishly informed us that the camera had run out of tape, causing the hunt to come to an abrupt halt. Soon enough the camera was rolling again and almost as if rehearsed, the hippo bull behaved perfectly and lifted his forequarters out the water offering a great shot. Craig Middleton and Barry Jacobsen with HippoWith the cross hairs held between the eyes Barry squeezed the trigger and with the shot the bull slowly rolled over with the current onto his back exposing all 4 feet above the water. After wading into the Luwego to tie the rope to the very dead hippo’s foot, the cruiser was driven onto the sandbar and the hippo was slowly winched onto land. Barry could not have placed the bullet any better. It was only then that we realized the enormity of this great bull… High 5’s all round!

With a cruiser full of bait we set off on a mission to hang a leopard bait or 7. Jane was certainly relieved when the last bait was hung up and guts were splatted. Late in the afternoon Mbaruku spotted a few feeding black figures on the opposite hill. Through my binoculars, those few black figures turned into 70 buffalo. We all had much fun being amongst all those bellowing bovines for the better part of 3 hours. The old bull we spotted at first kept on making sure he wasn’t at the back of the moving herd. At one stage things got a bit exciting having buffalo all around us in head-high grass at 10m. Borderline bulls offered us their lives on many occasions but we stuck to the task of finding a solid old bugger. The sun wasn’t on our side, so before were became tasty lion snacks we retreated to the vehicle and opted to have snacks of our own around the fire back at camp.

01 September 2007

When Jane had finally finished hair drying her locks, we set off for the hills. They were however disappointingly quiet. We spent the majority of the morning straining our eyeballs scanning various basins and valleys. I still haven’t figured out what Barry and David are talking about when they say something about a “bench” or “draw”, I just thought they better stop talking about that piece of furniture they bought at their neighbors garage sale and help me find them their damn buffalo! We then hung the ribs of the hippo what seemed to be a nice leopard spot, near a spring in some thick stuff.

Once we had made our way through the Miombo to the north, we hung the hippo’s neck close to a biggish pan. A large sausage tree provided the much needed shade for another tasty lunch – cold hippo meat, even Jane was asking for seconds!

While driving back south a group of 4 eland bulls kicked up dust onto the bonnet, they were all too young so we moseyed on. After turning down a hartebeest we hung another bait in a sandy ravine.

While on our way to check a bait we hung yesterday we bumped into herd of buffalo who were coming to graze in the lushes mbuga. We followed them back up into the Miombo and could soon see them milling around. Being late afternoon I was hoping that the wind would behave. We made a big circle planning to sneak up beside them. Just as we were getting into tiptoe mode, a bloody great big herd of (this time only) not so wily wildebeest weaved their way to between us the buff. With kind gestures, we pleaded with them not to spook the buffalo but what was the chance. In hind sight we should have walloped one. We tried to ambush the moving herd a few more times but they just wouldn’t relax. All hot and sweaty, we found the truck just after sunset, as well as a few well deserved Kili’s in the vehicle’s fridge.

02 September 2007

The plan this morning was to check most of the leopard baits. Well the plan only lasted about half an hour when we were 7km’s from camp. As we were driving along, out the corner of my eye a dark figure caught my attention. A quick glance revealed 2 dagga boys at the bottom of a valley. I looked in my side mirror and it was obvious that nobody else saw them so I just kept on going. Six hundred meters further down the track I stopped the vehicle and boiled out the front. After saying Mbogo to the tracker, Barry suddenly some how became fluent in Swahili and in one fluid motion everyone had snuck off the cruiser. We quickly made our way back down the road to where I had thought I saw the buffalo. At first glance there were just a few trees accompanied by buffalo look-alike rocks. I started to feel a little embarrassed, but then to my right were 2 dagga boys ambling their way up the hill towards us. Soon the sticks were in position with Barry shaking excitedly on top of them. All I got was a quick glance at both of them through the grass but the first certainly seemed more impressive. Craig Middleton and Barry Jacobsen with BuffaloJust as planned, the lead buffalo walked broadside 40m from us and stood just before a clear shooting lane. As he stepped into the clearing I hardly had to encourage Barry to shoot and with it the Buffalo haunched its shoulders and took off as do most well shot buffalo do. Another 2 quick successive shots and the old chap was toes up. Barry’s lifelong dream had finally become a reality, what a beauty!

Once the buffalo was winched onto the truck, we set off after the other dagga boy. The tracking wasn’t too difficult until after an hour into it when the bull entered long dry and unburnt grass. With the wind now also starting to swirl, we called it a day.

We then checked 2 untouched leopard baits. It wasn’t until 12:30 when we were going along one of my sneaky new roads and things started to liven up. As we crested a ridge, cantering zebra first caught my eye, but then so did a herd of sable and wildebeest. The sable running at the back of the herd was dark as hell and carried a thick set of horns, this got Barry’s pulse going at heart attack speed. At a flick-flack he was off the car and chasing me down the hill. As we crept down ravine in attempt to get within shooting distance, we were stampeded by 4 bushpig, one which almost caught a .416 between them eyes! To cut a long stalk short, everything seemed to be against us and the sable disappeared over the hill crest never to be seen again. Soon after a hearty lunch 10 kudu cows dashed up ahead with a monster bull in tow. In record time David had his Winchester locked and loaded. I think those kudu still haven’t stopped running! Anyway, as we turned to make our way back to the car, a herd of wildebeest played with their life insurance. Straight away I saw the huge herd bull off to the left and placed the sticks. David wasted no time and made what seemed to be a great shot, the bull stumbled forward almost falling but then made an about turn and stampeded off with the rest of the herd. We found a few splatters of blood where he first stopped to rest but that was about it. We were left to following the odd scuff in the hard mud through long grass. A stupid zebra then tempted us but we wisely stuck to the task. The tracking was really slow but eventually it was evident that the bull re-joined the herd. As the sun set below the Miombo filled horizon, so were our hopes of finding David’s magnificent trophy. Just before we met the cruiser at last light we came upon another big herd of wildebeest, as well as hartebeest and zebra. We carefully glassed all the wildebeest for blood and/or big horns but neither were found. There was just enough time to check on one of the other leopard baits – we could see that a leopard had fed but so had the vultures afterwards, so tomorrow replenishment is a must. Then on our way back to camp a female leopard crossed the road just in front of the vehicle so I quickly searched for her with my mag-light and luckily she stayed relaxed for about 5 minutes 30m from us, allowing David and Jane to get great footage with their Handycams. This leopard has now become known as Lucy.

03 September 2007

We first drove through the area where we stalked the sable yesterday, we didn’t see any sable but plenty hartebeest and zebra of which we ignored. Then we did a planned walk down an mbuga which has now been given the name “mbuga numba moja!” ( mbuga = black cotton soil area ). We stalked numerous herds of hartebeest and wildebeest, neither of the groups we got close enough to had shooters in. After replenishing an eaten leopard bait we changed plans in accordance to the ever changing winds. The wind led us back to the area where David had wounded his wildebeest. We managed to get really close to herd a of wildebeest but obviously there wasn’t an old bull present. Soon afterwards a group of hartebeest were seen grazing up ahead. Barry and I snuck within 60m of the unaware bull, as he turned broadside Barry squeezed off a shot. Barry Jacobsen with HartebeestThe bull was able run only 50m until he became wobbly, even though it wasn’t really necessary I asked Barry to whack him one more time and that was that, another great trophy in the salt!

After we had lunch in a cool dry riverbed, we checked 3 leopard baits, one of which was hit by a female. We then spent 30 minutes glassing a big basin from a wonderful vantage point, we saw 13 waterbuck but no shootable bulls. At last light we hung another leopard bait in a sandy rocky riverbed – for some reason we all have a good feeling about this one?...

04 September 2007

We checked the bait we hung yesterday evening but no joy, and the bait in the hills wasn’t touched either. Further on through the Miombo we came to a small green mbuga and found fresh dagga boy tracks. We attempted to follow but they soon became mixed up with other relatively fresh buffalo tracks so we abandoned. Not 100m down the road were a mixed group of 8 buffalo staring at us but then promptly retreated into the depths of the Miombo. We took up their tracks and bumped them soon after that. The wonderful Selous wind then decided to do what it does best and ruined our chances of ever getting close to the buffalo again.

Just before lunch time we were about to check another bait when a herd of hartebeest strangely run across an open hill way up ahead, followed by zebra and impala. Neither of them were aware of our presence so we were able to make a good stalk. At first I wasn’t able to get a very good look at the zebra and not wanting David to accidentally shoot a mare, I didn’t make the call. By this time the hartebeest had seen us but the zebra didn’t seem too bothered and just slowly walked up the open hillside. We managed to close the gap to about 80m and by this time I was confident which one was the stallion. David Barbisan with ZebraHe then stopped and kindly turned broadside, without hesitation David made a perfect shot, the stallion was dead in his tracks. We then checked the bait and it had been hit again, this time we saw a very nice track under the tree so we quickly positioned the pop-up blind and planned to return to sit later in the afternoon. We returned to the blind a bit too early so we opted to rest a few kilometers away under the shade of a tree in an mbuga. Just as I was nodding off I heard what sounded like stampeding buffalo. As I sat up through the long grass a saw a whole bloody herd of wildebeest running straight for us and they only hit anchors when they saw the vehicle 50m in front of them. However tempting the big dominant bull was, the leopard bait was only 1km away so we saved him for another day. We sat in the oven like pop-up blind for the evening but the leopard apparently had other dinner plans and rudely turned us down.

05 September 2007

This morning we headed back to the hills with the plans to find a dagga boy or 2. The buffalo eluded us but we did get to see a nice herd of sable, unfortunately the dominant bull had broken one of his horns off so we let him be. We also got to see 3 herds of elephant which is always a bonus.

Late morning we drove on one of my sneaky roads in the south and stumbled into a big herd of eland but there were no big bulls. Just after that we spotted a small herd of buffalo munching away on the new green grass. Dave and I managed to get really close but found no solid bulls.

As we were checking another uneaten bait, Mbaruku spotted a big kudu bull which disappeared into the Miombo, our attempt to see him again was unsuccessful. Otherwise all morning it seemed as if all the zebra and hartebeest in the entire Selous were trying to catch a ride on our cruiser to greener pastures, regrettably there was no space!

After lunch and a nap we checked the leopard bait we sat on last night, as we got there I cursed myself for not having the shotgun on board as I really wanted to wing a few of those scavenging bloody vultures from my leopard’s dinner table. The bait was picked to bone so had to be replaced.

For the evening the plan was to walk up an mbuga in the south in the hope of bumping a buff, on our way there we again saw plenty zebra, hartebeest and a big herd of eland but without a “blue bull”. Our evening stroll turned out to be awesome, having close encounters with more eland, hartebeest and 2 family groups of elephant. As it turned out, not all great hunting days are killing days.

06 September 2007

Just before we turned off to head into the hills we saw a small group of buffalo feeding across the valley. We tried to close the 500m gap as quickly as possible but when we got there they had disappeared. We picked their tracks and followed expecting to see them at any moment. For some reason that bloody group decided to go on a power walk, after a bit of guess work and fast tracking for over an hour we caught up with them. Then just as we were in sneak mode the wind switched, they vanished in the dust and I called the vehicle very grumpy. Not a kilometer further down the drag was a nice male leopard track in the road so we quickly hung the forequarters of the zebra close by. Coincidently, this was exactly where Jane and Dave captured Lucy the female leopard on film, the tom obviously a little randy from being away from his girlfriend - much like Jack “Boskak” Bauer, our camp manager in Rungwa.

Our trip through the hills was rather quiet besides a few elephant and an average kudu bull who was playing Russian Rolette. Later on, as usual, we saw plenty impala and hartebeest. Our leopard fed again so we added more bait and planned to return for the evening. After making a pig of ourselves on the banks of the Luwego, we made our way back towards the leopard blind. On our way I saw the biggest eland I have seen all season. Even though it seemed he was in trotting mode we scampered after him. Twenty minutes later all we saw was a cloud of dust ahead in the burnt trees, the wind then turned for the worst so we called the chase off.

Besides a hyena trying to get into the blind with us, the evening was rather quiet. By the time the vehicle drove up to the blind to pick us up it was a little after 7. As the rumbling engine could be heard, I could see the leopard’s silhouette in the tree. Even with the vehicle right at the blind, the leopard unusually kept on feeding. With the aid of the vehicles spot lights, through my binoc’s I could see that he was a great Tom, David even managed to get footage of him with his camera. As we drove away he just kept on feeding… unbelievable! Tomorrow morning we planed to be back in the blind before first light.

07 September 2007

My heavy eyelids sprung to life when I saw the Tom with the vehicle lights in the tree again at 05:20. But as the car drove off I saw a glimpse of him slipping down the trunk into the darkness. Barry and I were expecting him to return to his breakfast any second but he never did.

For some reason I just had a good feeling about the hills, so once out the blind we cruised over to them. After a while of going up and down, we stopped and walked over to a vantage point that looked into a steep valley – or a creek in David’s lingo. Then out of the blue, walking out from the valley bottom came these 2 dagga boys, meandering their way through a sea of waving long dry grass. Dave and I hurried over to a big rock below us and looked over the 2 bulls. They were both of similar width but one much older than the other with a white face, worn down tips and shiny smooth boss glistening in the sun. David, being an ex elk guide back in his youth, was very familiar with taking shots across valleys. He felt much at home sitting with his elbows resting on his scarred-up knees, concentrating through his trusty Leopold. The babu (grandfather) bull turned to the left and stood perfectly broadside. David Barbisan with BuffaloDave’s first shot obviously hit him hard as he only ran a few yards and stood next to a small tree head held low. The other bull seemed to be sticking around so I quickly motioned to Barry who was above and to our right to scamper down to us. I knew the babu was done for and on the open hillside he wasn’t getting away. So hoping that Barry might get a crack at the other bull, asked I asked Dave to refrain from shooting again just yet. In a matter of seconds the second bull wisely disappeared into the thick stuff below us. Babu was still surprisingly standing so I gave Dave the thumbs up to finish him off. With the shot the old boy collapsed, and with his last breath gave out one hell of a death bellow that echoed for miles. Congratulations Dave on your first buff, I know it won’t be your last that’s for sure!

As we climbed our way through the hills with the now super loaded cruiser, off in the distance was another group of buffalo munching away. With adrenalin still in our veins we set off after them. For the first time ever the wind was perfect. As we crested an open hillside there they were 40m from us oblivious to our presence. Even though there wasn’t a mature bull with the cows and calves, it’s always great to get that close!

We checked the randy leopard’s bait we hung yesterday on our way back to camp and it had been hit, so we popped up the other blind and planned to return for an evening sit. Back at camp, lunch again was awesome. At around 3 we left in search of sable. Barry was still yawning next to me in front still recovering from his afternoon nap when Mbaruku waved in the mirror so vigorously he almost dislocated his shoulder. I had also seen what he had and instead of stopping, I accelerated away. When I thought we were out of sight I slammed on brakes and ran back up onto an anthill hoping that what we had seen was still there. Like a Karoo Crocodile I stuck my eyes over the anthill and found what I was looking for, a big-ass mass of black. Behind the anthill Barry and David had a little debate who was to shoot, Barry came out on tops. Using a dead tree as a rest, Barry slipped the Swift-A Frame through all the trees, brush and twigs and hit his target perfectly through the shoulders. Craig Middleton and Barry Jacobsen with BuffaloAll 3 of us ran to keep him in sight, he hadn’t gone 100m when Barry whacked him again, and again for Justin (case)! What a wonderful dagga boy, later that evening his horns stretched the tape to 40.5”, not too shabby if you ask me! Barry however is still adamant that his first buffalo is better – covered in lion scratches with gnarly 15” boss’s, just shows that width isn’t everything!

Before we got back into the little oven, we made a stalk on a herd of sable, the thick brush, crunching leaves and burnt grass didn’t help the cause, but the bloody wind was just the icing on the cake and blew the sable away! We sweated it out until just after 7pm, he wasn’t hungry.

08 September 2007

In order for us to be in the blind before first light, we had to leave camp at 04:10, as we have done over the few past mornings. Stinky hyenas were the only predators to grace us with their presence, licking the maggots up off the ground then rolling in them, yummy!

We spent the first few hours of the morning chasing 2 big groups of wildebeest around what Barry called “Death Valley”. I honestly don’t know what attracts them to those open dry burnt black areas? It’s really tough trying to get within range of 40 pairs of eyes who have the peripheral vision of chameleons, and at least stretched out over 100m or more. At this stage our strike rate on wildebeest is worse than mine on ladies at the Red River Cowboy in Dallas, which is rather pitiful to say the least!

Just before the wind started to get a little confused, we walked down Mbuga numba moja, as luck would have it, a breeze came through the back door and chased the zebra out the house! We too almost got within range of wildebeest but their peripherals had already located us yesterday.

Lunch TimeThe worms in my gut begged us to stop for lunch, so we had a picnic under a shady tree with a view overlooking green rolling hills. As my worms prepared themselves for a hamburger that would make a BigMac with extra cheese feel embarrassed, Mbaruku dove into the vehicle digging out rifles and Camelback’s in a panic. There just 600m from us was a single old dagga boy satisfying his own worms. Mbaruku was highly disappointed when I informed him that we didn’t have another buffalo tag. Dave grabbed his camera and he and I crept up a bit closer for a better look and captured him on film.

We spent the afternoon buggering around with zebra and wildebeest, they make quite a formidable team! Feeling that we hadn’t sweated enough today, Barry and I got back into the oven, but this time on Lucy’s bait, where both the female and tom were feeding. By 7 nothing had come in so we called it a day. Only when Barry tried to get out the blind was when I realized his back was in tremendous pain from sitting for so long, he just sat there gritting his teeth for hours, and I thought he was sweating from the heat! He assured me that it had happened before and was nothing that a few miracle drugs and a whiskey couldn’t fix!

09 September 2007

Because Barry’s back wasn’t up to it, we slept in a bit until 6am which was really nice for a change. The first species we saw was sable. The dominant bull was tremendous but was just standing in the wrong place, we tried to move left, right, closer and further away, we just could not see him clearly. As I eventually found a tiny shooting lane through all the trees and placed the shooting sticks he simultaneously bounded away. We took up the tracks and bumped them another 2 times in some thick stuff. The wind changed for the worst so we laughed them off. Further along we found a wonderful vantage point overlooking the hills where we had just been chasing the sable through. Not after a minute of glassing the sable were again spotted but 3km’s away. With the aid of my GPS and luck we managed to get right on top them again, by that time they had moved into a bit of a creek so they were impossible to see and we just blundered right into them. Well, now the score is 5 – 0 to the sable. We then quickly checked the Lucy’s bait we replenished yesterday and it has been hit again so the plan was to return in the evening.

I then decided to do a walk through one of my “secret spots”. With the wind strangely at our faces we slowly strolled down an elephant path hoping to bump into either zebra, wildebeest, sable or maybe even kudu. As we made our way down a grassy hill through open Miombo, Mbaruku stopped and straight away I knew why. Thirty meters to our left were the ivory tips of a kudu bull, and they seemed to be getting closer! With everybody now down on their haunches I motioned to Dave to slide up next to me – he bloody well hadn’t even loaded his rifle! He did so as quietly as possible with this bull carelessly feeding so close that even my mom could have shot him and she doesn’t touch guns! David Barbisan with Greater KuduDavid somehow found the patients to wait for the kudu to step totally into the clear, I would have shot him through a bloody baobab if he was that close! The bull took a step forward and David yanked the trigger and missed the whole thing…. Jokes! At the shot the bull jumped up into the air kicking his back legs out, probably more from fright than anything. He trotted down the hill and stopped with burning lungs – from then on he swore to himself that he would quit inhaling smoke from all those burning wild herbs. For Justin, I told Dave to give him a good ol’ Texas heart shot and with that he moved off to greener pastures! Closer inspection revealed the bull to be “Babu kabisa”, an old chap of note who probably would not have lasted another season. He was so thin even his shoulder blades were showing, but his neck was thickest I had ever seen. Happy days are here again!

After lunch in camp, we went back to the same vantage point to have a look for the sable. It didn’t take us long to locate them about 1 km away feeding on fresh grass that came up after the burn. Between us and the sable was a spread out herd of elephant but I assured Barry that we could dodge them. Leaving David to keep an eye on the sable with a sat phone in hand, Barry, the trackers and I took off down the hill after the sable. At first we made our way through a dry thick forest. To ward snakes off I made Mbaruku walk in front, but before I knew, without saying a word he was high-tailing it past me. Instinctively in one fluid motion I dropped the shooting sticks I was carrying, raised my .416 and slipped the safety off. Eight meters in front of me was a young elephant bull very curious of what woke him from his afternoon slumber, and came with his ears wide open. A few shouts thankfully persuaded him not to try ripping my head off and squashing the rest of me. We walked into another 3 elephants which we managed to avoid. David Barbisan and Barry Jacobsen with ElephantsAfter confirming the whereabouts of the sable via sat phone with Dave, we closed to within 250m of the sable. We ran out of cover with them on one side of a burnt basin and us on the other, so we just waited. Just as we found the monster herd bull was when the wind shafted us and carried our scent to the ever alert zebra that were with the herd of sable. Without question they took off taking the sable with them, and that was the end of that!

We were making our way back to the leopard blind when were drove into the same herd of sable we had been chasing before. So without stopping the car, Moodi took over the driving and Barry and I tucked and rolled off into the long grass. We waited a bit before we snuck our way towards the sable through the relatively open Miombo. And there he was, dark as hell with thicker bases than I care to describe, just 80m away. I placed the sticks and told Barry to shoot his bull. Barry unfortunately couldn’t pick him up as he standing frontal behind a shrub with only his neck and head visible. A few seconds just wasn’t enough and he was gone!

So after all this action we arrived at the leopard blind around 17:30 and sat until dark. Just before the vehicle picked us up we heard the leopard coughing about 800m away down the karongo. So we will give it another bash tomorrow.

10 September 2007

By 05:00 we were in the blind overlooking Lucy’s bait. It’s only a 20 minute drive from camp so the wake up wasn’t too bad. Just after 6 a cat climbed the tree and wasted no time feeding. This time it was Lucy herself making a pig of herself on buffalo rump. During the earlier hours of darkness we heard the tom with the “Black Lung”. It seemed as if she was really nervous, forever staring in the direction of her boyfriend. She had the bravery to feed until six twenty, the tom didn’t pitch.

It was today that the curse of the impala began. We managed to get up really close to a number of good rams but they always seemed to be hiding behind the ewe’s and or trees. We had to replenish the bait again at the far off pan, the tom had almost munched the lot.

We then walked through the green rolling hills in the south and found what is now known as dagga boy heaven. We first saw a herd of zebra off to the right but then 50m straight ahead walked out a 37” dagga boy. He was having trouble working out what we were so came a bit closer. He was then followed by another 6 old buggers, must have been on a weekend away from the wives, up to no good no doubt! Anyway, we ignored the buffalo and the zebra, continuing our quest for the sable. Ten minutes later we walked into the same group of zebra, tempting but we carried on and so did they down the hill. As with most males of various species, the stallion apparently had had enough with his mares who drove him into plain insanity – there he stood again but this time 70m away begging Barry to take him out of his misery. He was offering a frontal shot and being so close I told Barry to give it a bash. As Barry took up the slack of the CZ trigger the stallion turned to run. Barry was a split second late in taking the shot and hit him in the gut. Barry made a hurried second shot and missed. As we took off after the zebra I noticed Barry’s rifle had jammed so not wanting to let the stallion die from a painful stomach ache, I walloped him up the buttocks with a solid from my 416. David Barbisan and Barry Jacobsen with ZebraIt was unmistakable that he was then feeling the effects of lead poisoning. From about 170m Barry finished him off by breaking both shoulders. Dave being a horse expert and all estimated him at way over 12 years old. At a young age he must have been attacked by lions as on his left rump he had a long scar which healed but the stripes never did realign making his skin really unique and special.

We tried our best to get heat stroke again and sat over Lucy’s bait for the evening in the oven. Just before the vehicle came in to pick us up at 19:15 we could here a leopard in the tree. With the aid of the vehicles lights, through my binoc’s I could see he was a good size tom. Again I was amazed at how relaxed he was with a vehicle so close. In fact he had the audacity to lie with his belly flat on the branch and legs hanging either side in typical leopard fashion.

11 September 2007

We returned extra early this morning ensuring that the leopard would have more than enough time to return before first light. As the car drove off leaving us behind, we heard him savagely growling beneath the bait. My hopes were high that he might give us a chance at first light but at first shooting light we heard him coughing up some lung butter 500m down the karongo. When it was light enough we saw that both buffalo back legs had been ravaged so we replenished them with an irresistible zebra rump perfectly tenderized by my 416.

We first went back to the vantage point to glass for sable but they were playing hid-and-go-seek, bloody childish if you ask me! Dave had a score to settle with an impala so went down to what we call the ferry, a dry area on the banks of the Luwego River. The midday sun blew the wind in 17 different directions, twice! We found a very nice ram in a herd of about 50 animals. They walked through a thicket and into the open. We both underestimated the distance where the ram stood, Dave’s shot was clearly too low. As Dave said, for many hunters it is difficult to adjust to shooting larger the calibers, not because of the recoil but because of bullet trajectory. Most medium calibers sighted in at an inch high at 100m meters can shoot up to 300m accurately without any compensation needed. In the moment, bullet trajectory is often the last thing one thinks about and usually it’s not an issue at the 200m mark.

In the afternoon we spotted a bushbuck ram walking in the Miombo, very unusual to say the least! Barry, having already collected a Limpopo bushbuck in South Africa, really wanted to harvest the East African variety. As he disappeared down the hill we slowly followed. Knowing bushbuck behavior, the likely place he would retreat to would be into the nearest thicket. Just where he disappeared was a little creek with thicker bush, as hard as we searched we couldn’t find him. Just as Barry unloaded his rifle and we turned to make our way back, there the bushbuck was hopping away through the Miombo where we didn’t even think to look.

Our afternoon stroll was through Mbuga numba mbili. It was unusually quiet with only two female reedbuck showing themselves. Again we sat on Lucy’s bait, hoping her “Jiggy-jig” would show. Just as the sun set we heard him coughing behind the blind. Adrenalin was up and hopes were high. Nothing happened until a little after 7 when out my window I saw the leopard not 3m away! Barry Jacobsen Showing Leopard TracksBarry had rather opted to lie down in the blind as his back couldn’t handle sitting still in one position for a few hours. I dropped my hand down and grabbed Barry’s tightly like a little girl watching the “Chainsaw Massacre 3” with her long time boyfriend. I honestly didn’t know what to do – in a panic I tried to figure whether I should try take Barry’s rifle out of his shooting window and push it through mine and risk scaring the cat away for good, or just do nothing. After the leopard stared at me for a couple seconds, he lay down and then started rolling around in the dust. He then got up and strolled down the slope and climbed up into the tree. At this stage it was too dark shoot so all we could do was enjoy the sound of the tom feeding in the still darkness. Now we have learnt that this tom didn’t eat breakfast and each evening he had come earlier and earlier. There should be enough meat on that zebra leg to last the night, so hopefully he’ll be back tomorrow.

12 September 2007

Even though I knew our chances were better in the evening, I didn’t want to miss an opportunity we had worked so hard for, so we were in the blind before 5am. Again all we heard was the guttural grunt of the male leopard 500m away.

We spent the better part of the morning looking for sable in the hills but to no avail. We then went up north in pursuit of the elusive impala. After about the forth time of being up on the sticks, David was eventually given a chance at a shot. Just as before, as he began to squeeze the trigger the herd took off and he unwisely tried a running shot of which he missed.

Craig Middleton and Barry Jacobsen with LeopardAt about 17:30 we were sweating in Lucy’s dining room. Throughout the safari Barry had kindly lent me Robert Ruark’s Horn of the Hunter to read in the blind. At ten past six I clearly heard what sounded like a pet cat purring but in a much some what deeper tone. I have never heard or read about leopards purring but I swear that is what I heard, maybe it was I figment of my imagination, I don’t know. I gave Barry a serious questioning frown and gestured whether he had heard anything? Everything quieted down so I carried on reading Ruark’s humor. I was at the stage of the book where Bob and Selby were preparing to hunt a leopard that evening. Selby had just woken Bob up from his afternoon nap to leave for the leopard blind when out of the corner of my eye I a saw a leopard sitting in a dog-like position in the tree. Without even using my binoculars I could it was the Tom we had tried so hard for. At this very time the sun was sinking below the horizon so it must have been 18:25.I slowly bent down to Barry and whispered that he better sit up quietly and look what’s in the tree. Jane and Barry Jacobsen with LeopardThe bright yellow sack below his tail confirmed that he was a male. The leopard was now on his haunches feeding on the left over zebra rump. I then gave Barry the go ahead and it wasn’t 2 seconds later when the shot rang out. At the shot I saw him jump 6 feet up off the branch and then he vanished growling viciously down into the sandy karongo. Barry exchanged the scoped 375 with the camp 12 gauge loaded with buckshot and I carried my 416. Safeties were off half way to the tree. We kept above the riverbed a walked very slowly along the edge. Not 20m from the tree was Mr. Spots lying dead in the river sand. It was so rewarding and so worth all the effort to see such emotion and utter joy in Barry, for the rest of my life I will never forget that moment! Needless to say, we all thoroughly enjoyed the Kabubi celebration and had a wonderful evening full of laughs and happiness!

13 September 2007

We again went back to the vantage point to glass for sable, I don’t think they know we stopped playing hide-and go-seek a few days ago. We then walked through the rolling hills towards dagga boy heaven. Before we reached the springs we spotted a herd of wildebeest grazing in the morning sun. We predicted to where they were heading and set up an ambush behind an anthill. We waited and waited but the never came. We slowly edged forward and saw them grazing in the trees 200m away. Unfortunately the wildebeest had joined up with a bloody herd of zebra. They were all now grazing from our left to right, heading down towards the springs. We quickly back-tracked and tried to ambush them again. On our way over to our new position we walked into a herd of cud chewing buffalo. We tried to slither past them but they saw us and spooked. It didn’t really matter as we were quite a distance from the wildebeest. As we got in ambush position I could see the back of the feeding wildebeest, not so wily after all I thought. Everything seemed to be coming together so nicely when the wind changed and blew our quarry away for the millionth time.

On our way up to the north of the concession we saw a group of 16 hartebeest bulls! We eventually connected with an impala ram on our third stalk. David Barbisan with ImpalaWe waited for some time for him to walk into an opening and soon as he stopped David drilled him through the lungs. That little bugger managed to run 100m without any lungs! The impala escapade eventually came to an end on the last afternoon.

We spent our last few hours glassing for sable but it just wasn’t to be. The last hour of light we walked down mbuga numba moja hoping to find a wildebeest. After walking past what seemed like a never ending herd of hartebeest for an hour, we finally found a herd of wildebeest. With an anthill between us and them, there was no way even their peripherals would spot us, however I am now convinced that Nyassa Wildebeest have also got X-Ray vision and can see through absolutely anything at distances of up to 4.5km’s, both Barry, Jane and David will all back me on that one!