- Report by:
- PH John Greeff
- Client:
- Edward Farrel
- Area:
- Selous, Rufiji Camp (U3)
- Date:
- 15 August 2007 - 31 August 2007
15 August 2007
Ed Farrell and Franz coupe arrived and we drove to the Rufiji camp, we had lunch and then in the afternoon we sighted in the camp .375 that Ed would be using for the duration of the hunt and all went well.
16 August 2007
This morning I said to Ed that our best plan would be to try and get a hippo today as we would then have a lot of bait for the leopard. We checked out several korongos ( but had had no success and we were driving along when Hermann (Rufiji camp manager and along to get experience ) spotted a hippo out feeding in a open area, we stopped and stalked him but as it was already 3pm it was hot and when we got close he headed down into a korongo. We followed him into the korongo expecting to find him in some pool of water, but there was no water and when we got in the bottom, Hermann spotted the bull looking down at us from 20 yards, so I set the sticks up and got Ed set but as there was brush covering most of the bull, I asked Ed to shoot him in the head, it took Ed a little bit to sort out were his head was as he looked like a rock in the brush , when Franz said to Ed can you see him blinking and Ed said yes so we told Ed to shoot. At the shot the bull started to thrash around and rolled out of sight before Ed could shoot again. )
I then grabbed Hermann and we went up after the bull as we were not sure where he had gone. But as we got to the top of the rise the hippo charged us from 10 yards and I shouted to Hermann to shoot and at 4 yards Hermann dropped the bull with a good shot. But with the momentum of the bull he came rolling down toward the korongo and Hermann and I fired stopping the bull finally next to us at 2 yards. So all in all a very exciting hunt and good experience for both Ed and Hermann and we now had good bait.
As it was late I decided to come back in the morning and cut up the hippo.
17 August 2007
We went back this morning and cut the hippo into 8 baits we managed to hang three baits in some really good spots and at the same time made some stalks on wildebeest, zebra and hartebeest with no luck.
We ended the day on a high note as we were now officially hunting cats as we now had some baits hung and it is now up to the cats.
18 August 2007
This morning Ed was not feeling well and opted to stay in camp and Franz and I went out and hung the rest of the baits and we cut a road into 2 pans I had found and hung some bait at them but we had to cut the road in 4 km and it took 3 hours just to get to the pans but I am sure it will be worth while as it is untouched area.
We got back for a late lunch at 3pm then went with Ed and had a nice afternoon spotting a lot of animals but just could not close the gap and get a shot.
19 August 2007
Last night we had a 3 hour rain storm that never happens at this time of the year, so when we left camp it was very wet and slippery and just getting out of the camp area we had to use the winch twice. But once we were into the sandveld it was not to bad and we had a nice morning checking our baits and saw some hyena and also had had 2 different baits hit by lionesses. But, no leopard. We followed a lone duggaboy buffalo bull for a bit and saw him twice but just could not get a shot.
This afternoon we got into a herd of buffalo of about 200 and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get a shot but had no luck and they eventually winded us and ran off, but we are sure that tomorrow we may find them again as there were some nice bulls in the group.
20 August 2007
Today we went to the pans were I had made a new road, but when we got to our far bait a leopard had some how eaten through the leg and the bait had dropped and then the hyenas had totally finished the meat.
We had a female leopard on one of our other baits and we had some lions walk past 2 other baits but fortunately they could not get up the tree.
This afternoon Ed got a shot on a zebra but the shot was a little to far back and we spent the rest of the afternoon tracking him but he kept downwind from us and kept running and we can only hope we see some birds first thing tomorrow as I am sure he will not survive the night.
21 August 2007
We went to look for Ed’s zebra but it had rained really heavily last night and was still overcast through the morning, so we had no luck.
)
When we got to one of our baits we saw that we had a good leopard feeding on the rotten hippo and we went and looked for some fresh bait. We were lucky to find 3 wildebeest bulls in an open area and after a short stalk shot a really nice bull.
We cut the wildebeest into 4 baits and went and hung one immediately in the tree were the big cat was and built a blind to sit in the afternoon. We then went and hung the rest of the baits and had lunch.
Incredibly when we went back to sit at 4pm the leopard had already been in to the bait feeding, I can only think he heard us at the bait and came to investigate finding fresh meat had a good feed as it was still really cloudy and not hot. We still sat, but he never came and we will see tomorrow. As I left a cuddeback camera hopefully we will have some pictures.
22 August 2007
We checked some of our other baits and then got to were we had sat and sure enough the leopard had fed well again and when we checked the camera he had come 15 minutes after we had left and spent most of the night. We were pretty excited and as we needed more bait we went out and found a nice hartebeest and shot him. )
We now had lots of bait and I decided we would hang the bait when we went to sit. After a nice lunch that I cooked in the bush of hartebeest liver and onions and after lunch we headed to the bait and got the new bait hung and were in the blind by 330pm. At 6pm everything around the bait went silent and the next instant the leopard was up in the tree. I tapped Ed twice to get onto the rifle, once he was settled I tapped him 3 times and Ed shot and the leopard leaped up and fell to the ground, with a loud thump.
When we went to the tree and the leopard was dead at the base and he was a beauty. Ed was over the moon and we got some great pictures and drank some champagne.
23 August 2007
This morning we got up a little later and everyone was a little hung over and still excited about the leopard. )
We went for a short drive and at 11am we spotted 3 buffalo bulls feeding in some miombo forest. I took Ed to a ant hill and we were 25 yards from them when a really nice old bull stepped out and Ed shot him and he ran 20 yards and stopped Ed shot him again and he walked off into the thicker brush.We followed him and I got Ed to shoot him a 3rd time and then we followed him a little more when suddenly he swung around and charged us and I had to shoot him with my .470 in the head at 10 yards. It was a really exciting hunt and a tough old buffalo as Ed had shot him 3 really good shots.
As we had had such great luck we took the rest of the day off and enjoyed ourselves relaxing in the camp.
24 August 2007
We looked for sable and eland today and saw a large group of eland cows but no bulls. We hunted the afternoon and saw plenty of hartebeest and impala but no sable or eland.
25 August 2007
Today we went around and dropped some of the old baits and saw a nice heard of buffalo with three nice bulls in it, but Ed said he is done on buffalo.
We followed a herd of sable but could not get close as the wind kept spooking them.
26 August 2007
We went on a long drive and dropped the last of the baits and at 10am spotted 2 young eland in the distance so as I thought there might be more to the group we stalked the 2 bulls and they began to play fight. )
They were oblivious to us as they fought and we got really close 60 yards when all of a sudden I spotted a huge bull to their left feeding in a small opening so I set up the sticks and Ed shot him on the shoulder he ran about 40 yards and collapsed, the 2 young bulls ran over to him and were confused as to why he was down we had to walk to 20 yards before they ran off and we could see what a wonderful bull he really was. We were really lucky as he is a monster and eland are hard to get. We once again relaxed in camp for the afternoon and we had sundowners of champagne and To add to a good day I cooked eland liver and kidney for dinner and it was pretty good even if I say so myself.
27 - 30 August 2007
We spent the last three days trying to get a sable, we did see some groups and chased one bull three times but he kept eluding us. Ed decided if it was possible he wanted to go home, so we had a charter dropping other clients today so we are leaving this morning. Ed had a great time and got his main trophies, the leopard and buffalo and the bonus of a really big eland.
It was a very successful hunt and Ed is really happy.