ZIMBABWE: Dalton & York Safaris - No Bull, Double Bull

Although remote and primitive as anywhere in the world outside the Amazon I suppose, you wouldn't have know that in camp. There were four chalets. Ours had an ensuite bathroom. Outside dining room and bar area. Running water, hot water (donke is what they call the wood fire heater I think) in the evening and solar panels provided electricity also in the evenings.

A few more camp life pics

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I know that place. I spent 21 days there!
 
That buffalo is a real trophy-old, worn while still being wide enough to score well. Best of both worlds.
 
The hippos are going bonkers outside our chalet each night. The big bulls emerge from the river and fight it out on the river flats below. Admittedly it is haunting. The missing front wall does not calm my wife’s concerns as she elbows me awake each hour to check on our imminent demise. Finally, after this goes on for a few nights, I assure her we are safe from the hippos but it is the leopards that are more concerning. One time I wish I could have kept my sarcastic trap shut. A male lion begins his solemn drumming each night at 9 pm on the cue. Again, he begins to wale his sorrows at 4 am. We find very fresh lion tracks several days during our forays into the river.

The days are rapidly dwindling. I always make a special note at the exact time any safari is halfway over. Lots to go, lots have gone. The third animal I’m really interested in is the spotted hyena. I have seen brown striped hyena in South Africa before. Don’t get me started on USFW regulations. They raked havoc on my honey badger baits back then. The spotted hyena has always represented Africa to me. Maybe it’s the National Geographic shows I watched as a kid, but whatever the reason hyena equates to Africa for me. I saw a spotted one leaving the Marakelle National Park once, but it was nothing more than a mere running dust cloud. Lots of hyena was the report on the Omay before I booked. We have heard them every night since our arrival. We see tracks all over the roads, even right up to the skinning shed where they tipped over the gut bucket being saved for an upcoming lion hunt (spoiler alert, the lion hunt was successful). York instructs the camp crew to save the buffalo ribs and hang them out for bait. The process is slow it seems. It’s not until Day 6 that the bait gets hung. We only hunt for 9. I’m semi-concerned but don’t guide the guide as they say. Day 7 finds us checking the bait site. No bait. The hyena have managed to tear it free and have absconded with the big daddy rib combo meal. No problem York exclaims. We’ll use the e-caller. Now we are on to something!

Before dinner I reduce my usual two pre-dinner cocktails to one. I abstain from the evening red wine. Nothing to cloud my abilities, I think. Maybe I overthink. The time has come, and the crew is ready at the truck when I arrive in the evening darkness. We don’t venture too far. We take the first road into the dry river basin. Same place we killed the bushbuck a day or so earlier. We back the truck against a cliff face with the sand flat in front. A speaker is produced and York ques a few hyena-ish sounds from his phone. He surveys the valley with his FLIR. The sequence of calls continues, two minutes, five minutes. Nothing. Eight minutes, ten minutes and I’m losing faith in this set up. Maybe we should move to another area. Heck York isn’t even looking through the FLIR anymore. A ghastly heckle of some sort comes from immediately above us over the cliff. The FLIR confirms a hyena is within 5 yards and 15 feet ABOVE us. I’m sure Zvito and crew dove from the back seat to the truck bed at this point. He continues to circle and issue his territorial call toward what he believes to be a group of intruders. York whispers, “He’s in front. You won’t have much time once I switch on the torch. Are you ready?” Yep. I find him quickly but as advertised he is moving left to right and picking up steam. Not my best follow through side. My skeet shooting will attest to that. I make the shot and he appears hit. A semi-technical gun malfunction for 20 seconds and he is gone in the darkness. Everything is eerily quiet again. The mood is TENSE I’d say. Night hunting tends to heighten the senses.

We slowly drive to the last spot in the reeds where he was visible. I think everyone is hopeful he’ll be laying right there. He is not. Due to the volume of very large night predators/animals in the area: lions, leopards, hyena, elephants, hippo Oh My, the decision is made that only a smaller group will pick up the trail. I remain at the truck with all the normal doubts creeping in. It is dark, I mean unusually dark tonight. I can see the group has ceased zig zagging and is now moving in the same direction as they disappear from my rear-view mirror. Tick tock, tick tock. My mind is racing when a single shot rings out. Well at least I know they have caught up with it. Finally, I see a single light approaching from the rear. It’s Sunny Boy and he is all smiles! Alright- all is good in the hunting world again this night. The first shot was good. They followed a blood trial until coming upon him trying to scramble up a river island bank. York just shorten the remaining tracking job and I was happy for that. Finally, my African iconic animal.


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Few animals scream Africa more to me than the hyena.
Well done! They are my nemesis. I’ll be after them again next year.
Philip
 
Well done! They are my nemesis. I’ll be after them again next year.
Philip

If you can't get a hyena at Omay then you should just stop trying anywhere cuz you are eternally jinxed :LOL:
 
Thank you for such a great report! Did you get to eat much of the Buffalo? How was it? Any other interesting game meat that you had? (If so, how did it como air to prior favorites?)


Food- Amazing !! The stuff that Chef Stan was able to prepare on a very basic kitchen set up was nothing short of a miracle. We had meticulously prepared game. Even my cape buffalo (spoiler alert), which most describe as chewy, was tender and quite delicious. He also did buffalo liver and onions as an appetizer one night. Additionally, we had bushbuck, impala and guinea fowl stew. On a few evenings we had chicken and one night very nice T-bone steaks. The presentation was stunning and the desserts, oh the Malva pudding and peach tart, were outstanding.

I must make a special note about breakfast. Since we were often leaving before daylight, we packed breakfast to go. The chef would use a round sandwich press to toast two pieces of bread with an over easy egg and bacon inside. He’d trim the edges leaving a toasted, round, yummy, dripping morsel of goodness !! They were called Jaffels (spelling?). I somehow missed getting a picture of this wonderful breakfast delight.
 
Bravo, bravo, bravo!!!!! :A Clapping::A Clapping::A Clapping: Thank you for taking us along.
 
Enjoyed the report, well done all around. Your report makes me want to book a hunt today.
 
Sorry to see your report end. I have enjoyed it a great deal. Takes a while to do one like this as I well know. Seems like you had a great hunt and a real adventure which is what its all about. Something that will give fond memories for a very long time. Well done.
Bruce
 
I just remembered a couple funny times during the trip. My wife and I used to watch a show Married at First Sight. Hundreds of people would be profiled by several "experts" then matched together sight unseen. The first time they meet is literally at the marriage ceremony at the alter. One of the experts was a marriage counselor, Calvin Roberson, who would work with the newly weds on issues you can imagine might pop up after getting married to someone you had never met. His favorite theme was Marriage Ain't for Punks. He now has a book out by the same title. Anyway, my wife always liked that and says it often :)
At one time during the Omay beat down, she told York, " Hunting Zim ain't for Punks" . I'm not sure it translated the same :) but I knew what she was getting at.

That said, in short summary if you don't want to read the other 6 pages, this is tough hunting. The amount of travel and effort it takes just to get here is grueling. Physically it will require you to be able to walk for at least several miles each day across uneven, at times rocky terrain and elevation. You aren't going to just drive around seeing animals or shooting from the vehicle. There will probably be very early mornings and lots of down time as you traverse to different hunting areas. I'm glad I did it. Would I go back? Yes, in the right situation (maybe win the lottery and hunt ele, leopard and lion). They are very upfront about the hunting. You want to hunt elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, hippo and croc, then this is your place. I'd add the bushbuck hunting was outstanding also along with good numbers of waterbuck. The lake shore holds impala but honestly Zim isn't exactly known for it's trophy impala rams. We saw several mature rams in the low 20s maybe. We encountered a handful of duiker and I know they have a few zebra around also. There are rumors of a herd of sable atop one the the mountains, but I can't confirm. " Hunting Zim ain't for Punks"
 
Excellent hunt buffalo and report thanks for sharing.
 
That second buff is very nice, congrats !

And that spotted hyena ... I am jealous, I have the brown, the spotted, maybe next year :E Day Dreaming:
 
Joe,
Really enjoyed the articles and Pics. I think being so close to each other in location; we should have lunch and dive into each others hunts. Leaving on Friday to go White Wing shooting and will call you to set up lunch.
 
Joe,
Really enjoyed the articles and Pics. I think being so close to each other in location; we should have lunch and dive into each others hunts. Leaving on Friday to go White Wing shooting and will call you to set up lunch.

For sure
 
I found a few more video snippets

River Impala


Lizard ?, Village life, 3 River Waterbucks
 
It looks like a Winchester 70. So would most likely be 375, 416 or 458. Or it could be a custom made 404.
405 is a rimmed cartridge for a lever gun or single shot.

Did I mention I'm not a gun nut ?? :LOL:
 

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