- Report by:
- PH John Greeff
- Clients:
- Jim and Sandy Tarpley
- Area:
- Lake Natron South
- Date:
- 25 July 2007 - 28 July 2007
25th July
This morning we had breakfast and then drove the 31/2 hours to the new Kitumbeine base camp, seeing lesser kudu, grants gazelle, gerenuk, and dik dik along the way and sandy said there was no way for Jim to shoot a dik dik. After meeting up with Jack, Amy and Leon, we had lunch, where Robbie and Julie(the camp managers) informed us they had planned a afternoon at a masaai boma. So after we sighted in the rifles, we went to the boma and were treated with rare scenes from the masaai , which ranged from us being allowed into a hut to see how they lived and to some singing and to the young moran (masaai warriors) jumping and chanting for the attentions of the girls, so a good afternoon was had by all.
26th July
Today we headed straight for the Kitumbeine mountain camp , Jim needed to get us some bait, so when we spotted a herd of zebra feeding in an open plain. I had Jim and Sandy rapped up in some Maasai shukas and we walked as if we were going past the zebra and at about 150 yards we stopped and after a bit I picked out the stallion and put up the sticks and Jim lined up on him and shot and the zebra jumped good and we saw dust fly off in the right spot, he ran about 150 yards and then went down. We went up to him and Jim was very pleased with his first African animal. )
Proceeded up the mountain which was an amazing road cut to 8000ft were Robbie had set up a base camp, only to climb about 800 ft to get into the valleys on top were all the buffalo, eland ,bushbuck and leopard were to be hunted for the next few days.
We had a quick lunch and then went to the top, were we discovered that the leopard baits had not been eaten. Decision was made to hunt for anything else we could see. Saw some bush buck ,but none big enough) and at last light we saw some good eland but they were to far off. Jack ,Amy and Leon arrived later that night and Amy had shot a nice Grants Gazelle.
27th July
We checked baits. On the way to the last bait we spotted a herd of buffalo, but only caught them as they went into the thick brush, so we waited on them for about an hour. But they did not come out so we then went around them and got on top of them and tried to get down into them. But the bush was so thick and we got to 15 yards and were above them and could hear them and see the brush moving in front of us but to no avail, I then tried to take a step forward into the tangled undergrowth and fell about 5 feet into a whole bunch of stinging nettles which was no fun. Once I climbed back out we stood and made a lot of noise as I new it would be crazy to try and go any closer. The buffalo eventually broke out into the open area in front of us at 40 yards but they then ran to our right and crashed off into the undergrowth again there were 30-40 of them and I saw about 4 bull one of them being good. We then tried to go through to the opening and it was almost impossible until Jim took the sticks and broke us a path out to the opening, we all came out with many stings from the nettles, but Jim and Sandy were over the moon at having been that close to so many buffalo with out being able to see them.
Checked our last bait and sorted out the camera so if the leopards came we could at least get some pictures of it. Enjoyed lunch and a siesta! Well rested we worked our way back where we met the group carrying out the skin of the buffalo Amy shot that morning.
28th July
John fell ill to malaria and was send to Arusha for recovery. Robbie Bryden took over the hunt with Jim and Sandy Tarpley. Read more of their hunt…