We are back home. What a trip. Adam runs a first class operation. I can't speak for my in-laws, but my wife and I had the best hunting trip of our lives. The food, hospitality, accommodations, animals, equipment, staff, and PHs were all top notch. I hunted with Cliff Walker from Zim, and Alicanne hunted with Adam.
After arriving in Dar, I was the first to get my visa. I rushed to start grabbing luggage, and realized that my wife and bro in-laws bags hadn't shown up. All of the guns were there. I had to restrain myself from yelling at the lady at the baggage claim when she told my wife we didn't allow enough time for the bags to be transferred in Amsterdam. I knew it wouldn't help getting mad, but how did 9 other bags and rifle cases from the same flight show up? Spirow, who works for Adam took care of everything, and got us to the Sea Cliff Hotel that evening. The hotel was very nice, and it was actually nice to be able to relax and rest up before the hunt. The next day was spent getting to know our PHs and relaxing. The bags showed up late that night, and we were off the next morning. We had to take three Caravans, because of all of the people supplies and gear.
Since there were four people hunting cats, Adam decided to split us up across the reserve for the first part of the hunt. My wife, myself, and my father in-law shred the Kizigo west Kilumbi camp. The tents were first class, with flush toilets, double vanities and hot/cold showers. Since we got to camp early, we decided to head out. A quick check of the rifles and we were off. I connected with an oribi late in the day.
The next day, we were up at 5 am. Order of the day was to get baits hung. Cliff spotted a herd of Eland, with a good bull in it. We got to a termite mound and had to crawl another 50 yards to get to a position where I could get a shot. Two bloody knees later, I had a great eland down. Now we had some bait to hang. That same day my wife connected with a nice hartebeest and an oribi. Over the next few days we took zebra, hartebeest, buffalo, kudu, sable, eland, reedbuck and hippo.
Day 7 Alicanne connected with her leopard. She and Adam had eleven leopards on bait at the same time.
Day ten she got her lion. They passed up a few really nice male lions before they got hers. The ticket for the lion was the hippo. They would eat a little of the buffalo we had hung, but hammered the hippo once it was up.
Between the two of us, we had 5 buffalo, 2 zebra, 2 eland, 2 hartebeest, 2 oribi, 2 roan, lion, leopard, sable, 2 warthog, porcupine, reedbuck, jackal, hippo and a baboon.
My FIL had a great hunt. He ended up with leopard, kudu, eland, buffalo, zebra, hartebeest, sable and baboon.
Rob, my BIL was in Kizigo east. Atticus was in a fly camp in Kizigo central. Over the next few weeks they had some great action. Lots of cats on bait. They passed up a few lions that were either with cubs, or just borderline on age. They learned the virtues of using premium bullets, and found out how tough the animals can be. Heartbreak and triumph were experienced by both. They took Leopard, eland, buffalo, kudu, zebra, dik dik, oribi, sable, roan, duiker, steinbok, hartebeest, impala and warthog.
We all joined up for the last few days in Kizigo west. Had a great time being together. It was great spending time with the wife. I am blessed to have a wife that loves to hunt as much as I do. There has never been an argument over hanging mounts in the house.
Thanks again to Adam, Cliff, Brian van Blerk, Georgie, Ernst, and the Osprey filming crew: Tim, Zig, Glen and Kirk. We had a great time. I will post more pics when I get them from the other guys.