Hunting Kizigo And Ugalla In Tanzania 2009

Hunt Report V

My office in the bush. The plate on the left has sliced limes, sprinkled with salt and Tabasco, a favorite snack of mine

This home made spade was found at a poacher's camp

The bull we picked out of about 15 we found feeding one morning. We were driving along, when we came across the fresh dung of buffalo. We stopped the car, and started looking at the tracks to see which direction they might take. After about 200 yards, we saw them! feeding. We followed them as they fed in very long grass, then they went into the reeds. Luckily the wind was good. Sometimes we were no more than a few yards from them, as we saw the reeds move. Several times we climbed on ant hills trying to get a better view, with no luck. Luckily, the reeds ended, and the bulls came out of there as we stood on an ant hill. We had a grand view of them feeding, and could have shot several if we had wanted to.

Alan picked this one. He was feeding away from us, behind another bull. He then walked behind a bush, and if he had continued the way he was going, we would not have been able to shoot him. He changed direction, and turned around, presenting a good neck shot. I dropped him in his tracks. The others just ran a few steps and stopped. We waited for them to leave, then added another shot into this one.

You can see the trackers by the buffalo. That is where he was shot. The photo was taken from my position as I fired at him.

Claw marks on him from a lion

He had a couple of lumps caused by previous wounds

Another healed wound

Alan and me trying to take a photo of a tiny frog that had landed on the buffalo

Early morning breakfast, just before we leave on our hunts

My tent. Every night I hear some creatures walking by. One night there was a hyena creating such a racket. I got out with my torch, and saw it disappear behind Chris's tent

Another of Walter's delicious BBQs

There was a bit of rain, so Nelson had to stand ready with his umbrella

Walter brought Chris a present, which he had to wear

Another break for lunch in the bush. I had just shot a zebra, and while the trackers were skinning it, we had our lunch

A duiker being cooked to perfection by our master chef! His only complaints was that I liked my meat well cooked!

Willem is helping turn the BBQ, with Rene basting it. Willem is in charge of the anti-poaching division at TGT

Chris never ceased to be amazed at Walter gets up to!

Walter prepares his very own special sauce too!

From the maps, we found that this very track in this valley, was used many years ago by the slave trade

Whiloe we were having lunch, Alan went looking for buffalo tracks. He came back saying he could not find any that we could follow, but suggested that we walk up a mountain to the right on this picture. We climbed the mountain, and saw the buffalo way down in the distance. We came down and went after them, for it was Roy's hunting day today.

As we drove along, Roy saw this kudu bull standing in the shade of a tree. We stopped and went to have a look from behind an ant hill. Alan then saw more kudu in the bush to the left of this one. I loaded my rifle, and lay down on the ant hill, ready to shoot whatever one Alan suggests. We waited for quite a while for the others to become visible. At one stage I had to climb down the ant hill as a gust of wind blew ash from the burnt grass straight into my eyes. I went back up and again, and eventually we decided that this one was the biggest of the lot. I fired a shot at him, he ran a few yards and dropped

As we walked to our kudu, we came across this skull. It seems he had a rather nasty wound on his left horn, and by the looks of things the wound must have penetrated down to his brain.

I took this photo while lying down on the ant hill before shooting the kudu. You can just about see the blurred end of my rifle barrel at the bottom of the photo.

I had a Panasonic TZ7 small pocket camera, which I always carried in my pocket. It has a 12X optical zoom, and came in handy for taking photos like these

Chris and Rene enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning by the fire

A BBQ

We found this ancient tree, with moss growing on its branches

Walter's answer to tse tse flies and mopane bees

Walter has to have his field charging system

Walter wa asked what did he have in his bag, and out started coming all sorts of things. Including this magazine

Roy's buffalo. The poor man had to put up with an endless stream of comments, none of it being very polite. He deserved it all though, as he had a head start on us all because of his complaints about what we shoot, and where they die. The only regret we had was that Walter was not with us that day. But, I took a complete video, with relevant commentary, so Walter can enjoy this event as well. In fact, Walter was watching this video here in our workshop yesterday, laughing his head off!

An old wound can be seen high in the back of this bull. Probably from a horn

The buffalo died down the gully you see to the right of Chris. Roy had the last laugh, as he said he planned this to pay us back for all the hassle we had given him throughout the years in the past

At the top of the mountain as we glassed for the buffalo bulls that Roy shot one of.

We saw a herd of sable, and this bull was selected for the dinner table. And very delicious it was too.

Close up of the moss growing on the tree branches