Hunting The Moyowosi 2008

Part III

Buffalo liver, one of Walters favorite meals. No you see it....

Now you don't! I have no idea how he can eat so much!

Our mess tent in Fish Eagle Camp

The staff are in utter confusion! Walter had hidden the farting machine somewhere in that corner, and as one waiter passed, he pressed his remote control for a fart. The looks on the face of the camp manager was pricelss, as he thought his waiter farted as he served us! Dwight could not stop eating, tears were coming down his cheeks!

A warthog we surprised as we followed a herd of buffalo

One had to either stand on an ant hill, or climb a tree to see further on the flood plains. Here is Alan trying to see what animals are in view

A view from our fly camp. This is the Malagarasi River. It looks so serene, until one remembers what lies in that muddy water.

Our trackers are having lunch. Buffalo heart seems to be their favorite meal

The grass you see closest to the camera is not on land. It is floating in water. And one is very likely to sink in as one walks on it.

Comedy never stops! Even when we are a few yards from a large herd of buffalo. We found where the herd had settled in for the mid day siesta, and later in the afternoon went to be close to them as they fed. The herd is about 250 yards in the direction where I am pointing my finger. Alan is hidden behind a bush to the left, and Roy took the picture, as the herd started feeding towards us. At one point some were about 20 yards from us, and we thought some might pass on either side of us. They would have smelled us then, and probably gave us as much of a fright as we would have given them.Luckily, they veered upwind.

You can see some of the herd passing us by. The ones you see in the photo were about 40 yards away, and more passed right next to us.

Well, we had a bit of a race with this herd. As they passed by us, we could not see any mature bulls to shoot. We waited until they have passed, then ran back, and parallel to them to get ahead again. This we repeated twice. On the second time, they saw us and changed direction and ran off. It was getting late in the day, so Alan suggested that we just run at them, some bulls tend to walk back, curious, to see what is going on. This is exactly what happened, and this bull got about 80 yards from us, and stuck his nose up in the air trying to get our smell. A 300 grain Walterhog bullet into his chest dropped him in his tracks.

We drove around the edge of the swamp looking for waterbuck. We saw plenty of reedbuck, kongoni and zebra feeding. They were all so far away, we did not bother about them. We then saw this kongoni bull by his own, and decided to shoot him. The area is very open, and a few ant hills can be used to get closer to the animal. But, this one saw us, and would have none of this hiding behind an ant hill. He kept walking around, to make sure we were in his view as well. We kept trying to get close to him, and he kept his distance. When we got to about 250 yards from him, I fired a shot at him while he was walking. He ran off a few yards and dropped.

We were trying to see how our bullets expand in the smaller animals. Here is the entry of the bullet

Here is the exit

A very large herd of topi and zebra. We tried a trick, by jumping out of the truck as it passed by this ant hill, and the truck continued on its way. The trick worked, as we were able to shoot 2 zebra

Damage caused by the bullet hitting the zebra heart

A very strange sight. A try wrapped itself around a palm tree.

Another view of the Malagarasi River. We put a crocodile bait here. It did not last long.

Lots of birds nest, and Walter dreaming of being a Red Indian!

Buffalo burgers for lunch

The shimmering heat makes the palms trees in the distance look like they are fdloating in water

Another one of the many beautiful flowers we saw

A few kilometers from the camp, just before sun down, we saw this topi on his own. Walter was selected to shoot it, and he started his ONE SHOT WALTER safari. You can see the look of absolute pleasure, not just on his face, but on both Roy's and Alan's.

Early in the morning, we found four bulls feeding in the same place Walter shot his topi the previous afternoon. We got to about 200 yards of them, hiding behind an ant hill. This was then biggest of the lot, and he was angling towards us. I aimed for his heart, and let go. He took off with the rest of his friends, and I was about to give him another shot, when we noticed that he was falling behind, and then he just dropped.

We found this muzzle loaders ball in the buffalo, and recovered the bullet I used on him too.

We left in the afternoon trying to see if we could get a waterbuck. We found a large herd of them by the swamp, and on bull big bull amongst them. Trouble was they were right in the open, and getting close was going to be rather difficult. We looked at them from the truck from several hundred yards away, and decided to try our luck. Walter "ha ha ha. This is going to be very funny. I am going to sit here and watch you three musketeers TRYING to get close to those waterbuck. Ha ha ha. And I will laugh when you come back empty handed. Ha ha ha" Despite Walter' encouragements, we decided to give it a try. We got to about 400-450 yards from them, and there was no way we could get closer. It had been raining earlier, and ground was very sticky. The mud here is so fine, and sticks like super glue to anything it touches. It took me several minutes to clean what you see on the rifle stock after soaking it in water! I laid down on an ant hill - which was flat. And rifle was partly in the mud. I fired a shot at him, and we heard the bullet connect. He ran off a bit a stopped. I fired another shot at him, He ran a few yards and dropped. We found my first bullet hit him in the leg just under the chest. The second went through his chest.

Walter is being coached on how to kill a buffalo with one shot. Alan is the instructor, and the bull is lying down under the tree you see behind the dry branch to Walter's left

A nice old bull, with a hard boss. Walter's best buffalo so far

Yu can see how big this bull is in relations to Walter!

We could not stop Walter from enjoying himself. And his enjoyment was shared by all of us

"The bull was charging, I jumped us just as he lowered his head to hook me, then I turned around in mid air, took his horns, and broke his neck, as you can see"

This where Walter's buffalo was sleeping

We followed buffalo for several days, and did not manage to shoot one. We followed a number of bulls after having an early lunch, and caught up with them lying down. We could see a few of them, but knew there must be more. We crawled trying to get close, and in the process scared the ones we did not see. They took off running towards this one, which jumped up and stood looking what all the commotion was about. I put a bullet through his chest, he ran a few yards and staggerd and fell. Blood you see was pouring out of his mouth

This was quite a hairy bull

One of the nasty biting flies we saw. It was sitting on the dead buffalo

having lunch under the mango trees. Both Alan and Roy are eating fresh mango we got from the trees

We found a herd of roan - they had escaped us before, and we never set eyes on one. We followed them late in the afternoon, and managed to shoot this bull as he looked back at us. Funny design on his mane

Far in the distance, there is a large herd of topi, with some zebra. Walter wanted a zebra, so we were trying to see what impossible tasks we have to achieve for him to shoot one. We thought if we could manage to get to the ant hill you see at the top of the right hand of the picture, we might stand a chance of getting one. We managed to get to the ant hill, and Walter was told to get to the top and make himself comfortable.

He looked through the scope, and saw how far the animals were, and got his Leatherman tool to adjust the scope! We had to stop him! And the only way was to threaten to take the rifle away from him! He was almost in tears, wishing he had his Blaser!

I told him I will tell him where to aim, and if he listened, he would have his zebra

The zebra came to about 300 yards, and he was told to aim about a quarter of the down from the top of his back. He did what he was told, and a zebra was his. This zebra must ahve had an old wound that did not heal straight

Hunting is VERY hard work. If one did not seat, one slashes water over his clothes instead!

Our game scout could not swim, so we gave him a life jacket as he went with us in the boat. He then asked for a life jacket for his rifle too

Our wonky machan. We christened it "the leaning tower of Pizza"

A view from our lofty position. The grass is floating on water, and very high. We could only see the horns of the sitatunga, and occasionally their heads

Self portrait while we were up in the machan. We thought we might fall down, so at least there will be some reminder that we made it to the top.

Papyrus! For miles and miles one can see only papyrus. It is very difficult to walk in