ZAMBIA: Zambian Adventure At Takeri Game Reserve

bluey

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well how do you start a tale like this.....
from the onset of this adventure , I'd had nothing but trouble infact two days before I flew out , I said if someone gave me the money that I've thrown at this trip, I'd walk away .........

I wanted to hunt a croc with bow , and buggered if l could get any accuracy after twenty metres, with the AMS set up id ordered .
my shooters licence would've expired while I was gone , so I couldn't have brought my wifes riffle back home .
The import permits to do the same were over looked , and I had to do two trips to Melbourne in two days to get this sorted, a 4 hour trip each way
I couldn't get accuracy with Joysie's gun, a Thompson centre, 7mm rem mag.
The load my youngest son had given me was 10 grains over max load, he was using one powder and I was using ar 2009? think he was using ar2017 or 13 ? Don't count on them being right numbers, I will get back to you on that, when next I'm on land .
Once I got the recipe right it was shooting like a dream, an inch and a half high and four shots into a two inch group at 110 metres off the sticks and the bipod at 2810 fps.

Snowed under at the boat, family all wanting to do something special , seeing my beloved , passed away one full year and a day when I flew out. All I wanted to do was get drunk and be alone .(selfish I know, but that's how I felt)
Never had a drink until after tea that night and then it was only one beer, because I was driving the five hours to the airport, leaving at 2200 on the 26th September.
The kids all came to see me during the day , i just told them to do what ever they wanted to do, to celebrate (sadly, for want of another word). I just wanted to finish chopping next years firewood, and burry my self in activity.
Arguing with the partners, etc. and I can keep reeling everything that wasn't going right before I left for this adventure, but your getting the picture.

Left home at 2200 so l could get the firearms clearance from customs done quickly as all the flights were booked way too close together , (note to self), both spiket and henry from riffle permits said that I'd be lucky to make the Lusaka flight on the way there, and extremely lucky to make it on the way back. The arriving flight was 140 minutes between and return flight was 1 hour.
So, get to the private parking place at 0300, no worries mate, twenty minutes later I'm outside the customs at Tullamarine, thinking shit hot, no hiccups, everythings going good a girl officer turns up shortly, sees the firearm and the bow cases , and tell me to come straight through as it takes a while to get guns in or out of Australia.
Chatting away about the trip, telling that this is the one my beloved wanted to do, and the sad events that had stopped her living a dream, sadly this girls father had passed away from cancer only seven months earlier, so had each others sympathy.
Got all the relevant paper work out and f!@# me, theres a number wrong ....
I'm stuck here on the way out of taxstralia, with export papers, that don't match the numbers on the gun.
Now this girl thinks I'm going to spin a bearing or something , all I could do was laugh at my own stupidity and that of the police who were just as stupid days earlier had the gun there for the import , which had the same mistake, and the more I think about it this mistake has been on a snow ball effect from the time my dearest wife first bought the gun several years earlier and the number has been put into the system like that.
The third number is an "o" on the paperwork and an "8" on the receiver.
We looked all over the gun to make sure, but alas it wasn't coming .
30 buck storage , and I turned and walked away.
This girl felt terrible, and was very apologetic, and said I'd taken it very well.
I emailed patsy and spike, and went to put the rest of my kit away at departures.
Waited patiently and boarded the plane to Sydney.
Arrived at Sydney to find they hadn't put my bow on the plane in Melbourne, but they could have here in 3 hours ,
This I flipped my shit over, and tried to tell them I will be on my way to j/bourg in an hour and and five, they said that's ok sir , we can have it in j/bourg in three days ,
Listen here you f!@#$%^ bonehead, I will be 6 hours north of Lusaka ,Zambia in three day, in the middle of nowhere, how the hell do think you are going to get it to me there, when I don't even know where, exactly, I'm going to be on the copperbelt .
I stood there and put my hands on my head and closed my eyes, breathing long slow breathes, telling my self to just turn around and go home.
When I opened my eyes l had a clear circle of about ten feet around me and a heap of people just looking at me .
This made me laugh .
l apologised to the bloke l flipped at, pulled out my phone and emailed spike and patsy , asking if there was plenty of stones to throw at these bloody sable.
patsy answered that she would start sharpening up some sticks to use , but sadly once l left Sydney my phone or my ipad ,never picked up signal again till arrived back in Sydney.
last year i got them sorted to work all over on world wide roaming or something , and never got them changed , so dumbly assumed they would be still good to go ...........
NEVER LET ANYTHING GO , WHEN PLANNING YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE , EVEN IF YOU'VE DONE IT SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE. LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE , NO STONE UN TURNED !!!!!!
I'm telling myself I've been to relaxed in the planning here on this one, and are paying for it now .
Get on the plane to j/bourg, thinking whats going to happen next.
Get there and realise no service and theres sqwat I can do about it now.
Looking for henry or one of his workers, and bugger me, they aren't there, I'm walking around in circles thinking , I've paid for vip services and pre arranged rifle permits and he is a no show! (theres an explanation coming on this)
So I ask some airport employee how to get to the Lusaka flight, a deal was worked out, and he took me there, I think he thought I was American, because when I paid him aussie dollars , he kinda looked confused,but l didn't have time, so l gave him another lazy cray and left.

Got the flight, half expecting to be refused entry into Zambia over something stupid that I'd not done .
Landed there in Lusaka, stepped of the plane at 2010 on the 27th of September, and thought holy snapping duck shit, it's bloody hot, and that thought never changed until I got off the plane in Sydney a couple of weeks later.

Walked into arrivals at Lusaka shook hands with the cheeky prick that been hanging shit on me on here and in emails aswell as over the phone for the last couple of years,
told him about the gun and bow, he said don't worry I will have something that you will like, lets get out of here.
Cleared immigration, and this is where my frown is turned upside down !!!!


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Holy shit bluey!
 
Hey Bluey. Gotta look at the bright side. Get rid of ALL the bad luck before you get there. Brilliant way to do that. It can get nothing but better for you. Looking forward to hearing your tale. I have tried to book with them 2 times and it just didn't work out. Bruce
 
:eek:

leave it to the "transportation professionals" to blow up the whole show. At least you made it there I look forward to the story.
 
Hey Bluey. Gotta look at the bright side. Get rid of ALL the bad luck before you get there. Brilliant way to do that. It can get nothing but better for you. Looking forward to hearing your tale. I have tried to book with them 2 times and it just didn't work out. Bruce

I remember you telling something about that bruce.
wait to the whole tale is out thjere and see what you think ,mate ...
once we left immigration , it was like the thunder and lightening stopped , and the sun shone on us 24 hours a day
 
Ok Bluey get back on the computer we're stlll waiting for the rest of the story. btw Good start hahaha!
 
did you get them teasers I sent you, bobby ?
 
mmmmmm , neither did the other guy.....
see what happens this time......
 
I'll be waiting.
 
"Oh Captain. My Captain"

Have been looking forward to this report for awhile.

I can tell my vocabulary is about to be expanded with all your Aussieisms.

Interesting description of Taylor.:cool: Hope I can get that vision out of my mind.:rolleyes:

Sorry about your problems.:( Figure you and Mike will "make a plan" and all will work out great.:)

Get back to your keyboard mate. I'm looking forward to hearing about 50 inch sables, 5 meter crocs and 50 pound tigers!
 
Start of the journey just couldn´t be worse, but I see everything got better :A Yell:

Come on, get on the keyboard, we want the whole story :A Popcorn:
 
Well Bluey.....after such way to start the trip...We are ready to go.....!!!!!
 
Well hopefully the trip is all smiles from here.
 
28 th
once we got back mikes place,'the cottage" we had a fine meal of chicken , meat pies all washed down with a couple of mosi's all the while chattering away .
then we shut down for a few hours
the plan was to meet up with patsy ,after she did all the shopping for the time we would be up at takeri,
we wondered into Lusaka airport , looks a bit different at daytime.
mike took me in to get me a phone ,so I could let the kids know I was in Zambia.
changed some notes , to kwacha's, had a coffee, and went out to meet ,patsy in the carpark, which was pretty warm .
straight away hit it off , with pats, knew I would , from all our emails , could tell she has a great sense of humour.
once we stacked the tucker ,we hit the track to takeri , a five or six hour drive.......
well about four minutes into the trip
id learned that mike was an excellent driver and every other twit on the road, couldn't drive for shit .;):D
talk about road rage ,in Australia , this bloke would get the pepper spray....
the roads were both good and not real good,
this was a fun trip , we all got on like a house on fire.
it was like travelling with people you knew really well , and in no time it was becoming a really relaxed atmosphere,and in the two weeks ,that never even looked like changing
we stop at a few of the many road side stalls to get the fresh vegies .
all the while seeing bags and bags of charcoal for sale on the side of the road, I mean everywhere.
the further we got north, the more evident of the deforestation that Zambia is facing ,was
the locals are knocking over all the trees to turn in to charcoal , for cooking fires .
it was bloody hot along the road , this climatisation ,was going to take awhile.
drinking lots of water already.
pats said wait to you get down to kingfisher , that's going to be warm.
later in the afternoon when we arrived at takeri, .was met with a warm welcome from tinnus , and the staff.
unpacked , and relaxed for the evening around the fire while tinnus bbq some eye fillets from the last guests bushbuck .
also met another friend ,that you don't want to be with out , up here 'peacefull sleep ' bug repellent
this stuff works like a zertec,mate ..
every morning and evening, you spray, tinnus makes sure you are never with out this.
we have few beers and shut down for the night , with the plan of checking a few of the riffles these champions have gathered for me to choose from ,in the morning.

29th
we wake early ,have a feed and coffee.
its great to see everybody here is a morning person ,its my favourite part of the day too
we wander down to the range , on the way we see a female puku breaking in through the fence , she looks like a teen ager sneaking back in through their bedroom window after sneaking out for the night , the fence on one boundary is not of the mesh variety, you usually see on a game ranch ,its fifteen strand wire fence that the puku have no trouble whatsoever climbing in and out .
mike pulls out his 9.3, straight away ,that's the one l want use .....
but for some reason l keep shooting to the left with it .after ten shots or so ....
so we try his m12 mauser,in 30.06 after the first shot , im leaning towards this little ripper.
after a few shots ,we are off to look over the place,and see what we see......
while driving around , l think to myself,self how the hell are going to stalk this place, theres leaves everywhere ,grass is long and dry and in the burnt areas the ground is hard and crusty
I ask patsy this , and as she has told me ten times already its going to be hard walking them up . so we are looking around and she was telling mike that theres a girl sable limping around that she seen with a snare on its hind left leg that they are going to have to knock out and treat.
straight up , I say lets do that , if the opportunity arises , im all for helping out with this .
the first animals we see are defassa water buck ,just the ladies are out this morning .
the bird life is great here ,all night the owls and night jars are partying and in the dawn there a symphony of different birds waking up happy and singing about it .
and patsy is very knowledgable in their names and habits, love it when the P.H can explain about everything in an area ,not just the target species , she has a hoooooge knowledge of all this , just like a walking encyclopedia.
this impresses me straight up, and the more l asked the better it got , there wasnt bugger all she couldn't answer , and if she didn't know , she would look it up at the first chance , then get back to me .....
after a good drive around we chanced upon a bachelor group of sables with many fine bulls and many more up and commers
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now walking through this is more like crunching cornflakes and stepping on light bulbs.
we keep driving looking around the place. seeing many more groups of animals , we head down to what the takerians call the peninsula, to look for a puku .seeing many of them , but patsy says theres one that she thinks I will like , a good representitive of the specie , nice and heavy.after a bit of travelling to get over there we see a few bushbuck as well down here , some good ones and lots of ewe, patsy says theres been a few blueduiker down here that the guards(anti poaching team),hang on she calls them scouts . have seen and lackson ,the tracker agrees ,he to has seen them .
we come out on a wide flat area ,and see the puku , she has mentioned , we go up past them and his girls a ways and check the wind , perfect .
we load up and head in to the bush and head back the way he was last seen .mate its the loudest stalk ive ever done , bush buck were barking at us a hundred metres away , and you could hear them busting off.
if the animals cant walk through here quietly ,what hope have we got .
half ann hour later we see the puku which had fed their way a bit further away , its about a one hundred metre shot and I put it straight over his back,WTH him and his harem are off and running . patsy laughs ,and says don't worry he doesn't know where it came from we will get back on him , if not this morning , they will be back this afternoon .
twenty minutes later ,lackson has the sticks up again ,his about one thirty now ,looking straight at me and bugger me dead , l do it again ....
this time she laughs and starts hanging shit on me .ha ha ha, that's enough warning shots hey bluey , that felt like a slap on the cheek ...........:(
the puku are gone bush this time , and desponded she heads us back to lunch, mate im coping some shit here ,and l deserve it
.
after lunch and siesta as its the hottest part of a bloody hot day, she winds me up a tad more , and we head back , to see if l can save some face
straight to the peninsula, and way up ahead we see him and the girls , and straight away his head is up and tail is waggling , so we stop check the wind and patsy leads us into the cornflakes again in a short loud stalk we are on the sticks again , he is still all jillicky and alert ,so no mucking around , 120 or 130 metres ,bang,drop..........
im waiting for some thing smart , but just a smile , so I said about bloody time and we laughed as we walked out to check him out .
 
129.JPG


mike and tinnus bring the ute down at the shot . patsy sets him up for the photos .
mate .......,, no arguing here shes a perfectionist on this , you know when you help a woman change furniture in a room:whistle::whistle: , just like that ..........:p:p
but the results are good...;)
its now still not a breath of wind . she says do you want to go for a stalk and see if we can put up a bush buck , its coming on to the right time , bloody oath ......
the few ive seen here so far today are bueatifuly coloured , and their spots stand out like beacons , chobe bushbuck must be the prettiest animals in Africa , I rekon
so she grabs a radio , and mike and tinnus take our puku to the skinners ,its the first animal ive taken in Africa that I didn't help to take back to the butchery .............
she orginises for one of them to return after dark unless she give them a call .
only and hour of good light left anyways .
instead of crunching through the bush , we just single file slowly amble, down the tyre ruts in the road .
its deathly still now and real humid ,but atleast its bloody quiet .
about ten-fifteen minutes later the sticks are up ,boom , blue duiker ..........

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when we had spoke about blue duiker , a few times after seeing them listed , she said if you get the chance take it , don't wait .
both sexes have horns , and this little lady is simply bueatiful.....
the fine delicate features of a blue duiker are the trophy
157.JPG

set her up for photos ,and still had time to spare for the patsy hann photo shoot
we broke off an ant hill to set her up on ,while the photos were going on , l asked if l could take another one if l got the opportunity .
she laughed and said this is the first one we have taken on here , ,but if we get another chance , by all means .
good we agreed to try again in the morning.......
now that's a good first day in my book .
back to the skinners ,we go .afuniki the old skinner , was stoked for our succsses,and didn't mind for a minute to do her for a full mount this very night .
all the staff here are so friendly and helpful, nothing is to much .
except to not call the aussie bwana......... the more l hated it ,the more they did it . cheeky ,just like the P.H........
we drank a few mossi's tonight after another spectacular game meat meal. in which l ate way too much ...........:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Well done bluey, nothing like a few practice shots to start things off. Congrats!
 
Well done bluey, nothing like a few practice shots to start things off. Congrats!

thanks jd , had to wring the last of the bad luck out ,
have got your nz stuff home yet ?????
 
Not yet the taxidermist doesn't want to send it to me, says it has to go to a taxi or a importer over here. He is wrong but I'm having trouble making him believe it.
 

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