- Report by:
- PH Nigel Theisen
- Clients:
- Hardy, Amy, John and Christy Murchison
- Area:
- Rungwa Ikili and Lake Natron South
- Date:
- 18 July 2007 - 07 August 2007
The Murchison’s, Hardy, Amy, John and Christy arrived in Tanzania on the 18th July 2007. In order to acclimatize and get over their jet lag they went out on a photo safari to Klein’s Camp in the Serengeti for a brief photo safari, before flying down to Rungwa Ikilli where they began there hunting safari on the 22nd July. So by the time they arrived in Rungwa they were well rested and back in tune with Africa.
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John got off to a flying start with a good old buffalo bull on the second day. We had spooked 3 bulls coming from water and after a good stalk, crawling over the ground and getting right up to where the old chap was lying, he decided to get up and start walking straight towards us. There was no time to get the shooting sticks ready, so John took a free hand shot, followed by a second as he ran right passed us with no idea that we were there. Hardy also gave it a shot with a .416 Rigby, needless to say he didn’t go far and was rocking on his last legs when 2 head shots put him down for good.
Two days later John was back behind his .375 on his second buffalo. While we were bird hunting the previous evening we had bumped into a heard of buffalo. It was too late in the evening to start stalking and accessing them so we backed off and returned to take up the tracks first thing the next morning. We caught up to them around 10 o’clock in the morning and short of a break for a bite to eat and a cool drink, we were with this heard the whole day searching for a good head. )
Finally John got an opertunity at an old bull in the evening. The rest of the heard hung around like they often do, but interestingly, several other bulls turned on the downed bull goring him in the process. Whether or not they were trying to get him up we do not know. After making a couple of lion grunts, the heard soon thundered off.
Because we had had good success so soon in the hunt, it was decided to take the next couple of days leisurely. So bird shooting it was. Rungwa has a variety of game birds, including Guinea Fowl, Red Necked Spur fowl, Red Winged Spur Fowl, Coqui Francolin, Crested Francolin and several species of Dove. All are good eating however Guinea Fowl need to be cooked by some one who knows what they are doing as they are extremely tough.
Rungwa Ikili has had good rains this past season and also has a number of very good springs which as a result seems to have dispersed the plains game species. This will change, as it dries up, the later the season progresses. With this in mind we decided to concentrate on Hardy collecting a Sable as we hadn’t yet seen any Sable and were anticipated a long hunt before getting one. )
At around mid morning we spotted two bulls and after a short stalk they scented us and took off downwind. Every time we tried to circle around them to get the wind right, they had the same idea and we ended up flushing them a number of times before finally giving up. Somewhere along the stalk, the two bulls had become three. We think that there were three to begin with but we just hadn’t spotted the third when we initially saw them, although the third did seem to be independent from the other two most of the time. Late that evening we found a heard of Sable and after glassing them over we found a good bull way out on the side. Hardy hit him a little far back but fortunately, as it was getting late, managed to get another couple of shots into him, while we were following the blood trail.
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After shooting more birds and being amongst buffalo most times we hunted them, Hardy finally got his chance on our last hunting day in Rungwa. Three bulls and two cows spooked from a grass vlei where they had been watering and feeding. There were very alert but soon settled down. One of the bulls closest to our position lay down and was closely followed by the others. This was our chance to get in close so we scraped along on our butts, to a small tree from which we could get a better view. Hardy got set using a limb as a rest just in time for the wind to change. The bull got a slight whiff of our scent, which brought him to his feet ready to bolt but before he did Hardy got him with a shot behind the shoulder, angling forward. As these were the only animals the Murchison's wanted to hunt in Rungwa, we spent the afternoon hunting birds.
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The charter plane was in early the next morning, which took us to an airstrip at the foot of Kitombeine Mountain, called Merigoi in Masaailand. A slight change of plan, instead of going direct to Kiserian Camp, we ended up spending 2 nights at Kitumbeine Camp out of which Jack Brittingham, Amy Martin and their friends, Jim and Sandy Tarpley where hunting.
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This was a fruitful stop as Hardy collected a good Grants Gazelle and Fringe Eared Oryx on the plains in front of Oldonyo Lengai. At one time we stalked five Oryx, on our hands and knees in the lava flow at the base of Oldonyo Lengai. Unfortunately the bull turned out to be a little short in horn length so we turned him down.
Meanwhile, Amy and Christy were making friends with the young Masaai looking after their livestock on the plains. The Polaroid camera worked its magic and a couple of times attracted more Masaai than any of us thought were out there. Amy was anxious about offering two layoni’s who couldn’t have been older than 5 or 6 years old, a couple of bruised bananas, which they ate peels and all. They then promptly sat down to the gut pile from the recently killed Grants Gazelle and proceeded to dissect it like surgeons, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, colon etc. Nothing was wasted and ever little bit of fat picked off the outer intestine linings not to forget the stomach lining or tripe. As Hardy pointed out they did a better job of organizing their food than our kids do when they go to the refrigerator!!
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The next day we spent bird shooting. Masaailand has similar species to Rungwa except no Red Wing Spur Fowl, being replaced by Yellow Throated Spur Fowl, which look like large slow birds until they run, where upon they become like Guinea Fowl.
The following day we hunted our way to Kiserian Camp where we were hoping to be able to find surface water that was attracting Sand Grouse in large numbers. Unfortunately although we found a couple of likely places we did not ever get the sand grouse coming in to drink in any large numbers.
On the final day of the Murchison’s safari, Hardy still wanted a Lesser Kudu. We were following three Zebra as John wanted a hide, when he spotted a “large dark animal” running through a saddle in the rocky kopjies we were walking along on the zebra’s tracks. Hardy and I climbed separate kopjies to scout from, when he saw that the animal John had just seen was a Lesser Kudu. He had however been spooked by the tracker climbing over the rocks and had run out into the typical acacia scrub that is common in this area. We followed the Kudu’s movement from up on the kopjies hoping that he would make his way back towards us. After a while it became apparent that he had no intention of turning back in our direction, so Hardy and I devised a plan where by I would remain up high on the kopjie and give him hand directions to get him in close enough for a shot. What you see from up high and what you see on the ground in the scrub and bush are two totally different things. Hardy got to experience first hand why Kudu (normally Greater Kudu) are called grey ghosts. At times he could see just stripes and would line on an opening where the animal would soon pass trough, only for it to disappear. )
Other times it would be the white hair of the mane, but unable to figure out if it was the rear end or front end of the kudu he would not risk taking the shot. In the end the kudu spooked and with a bark took off into a thicket some distance from where Hardy was. We all came together and I said that we would try tracking it although I really thought it was well alerted now and we probably wouldn’t get a second chance. However we did, and after spooking it again Hardy took a shot off the shooting sticks when he stopped to look back at the edge of some more thick brush.
Now it was only a Zebra left for John. We had been on a number of Zebra stalks up until this point and John had seen first hand that they are not the easily approached ponies on the Serengetti that people think they are. After a light lunch back in camp John decided that he didn’t really need a Zebra that badly and being the quail man that he is, he would much prefer to spend the last afternoon hunting birds with his family. So the Zebra got a reprieve, but the francolin got hammered!!