ZIMBABWE: Dalton & York End Of Season Omay North Buff/Croc/Hippo+

Short story: The trip, outfitter, PH, camp, concession, all outstanding in every way…zero complaints and nothing but praise to follow. If thinking of booking, I wouldn’t hesitate, just not too many of y’all as I hope to find room on their books again and again in the future.

The Hunt: Late season, end of season special posted here in the forums. Had hoped to squeeze in one more trip this year but had nothing booked since was looking more and more like I couldn’t make it happen. Last minute I had some time free up, and had just picked up my new Heym 89b 450NE, so had to find a trip. Was in the works of getting a bull elephant trip to come together with another sponsor but it abruptly fell through as he proved too busy during my narrow window of time. While initially bummed, it was short lived since I’d wanted to hunt with Dalton & York for some time now and especially the Omay. After some excellent WhatsApp correspondence with Dalton, who is super responsive and clear with his communication, we settled on 10-days with Buffalo and hippo (Hopefully on land) as primary targets, but if time allowed would be game for a croc and couple smaller game with the double if possible.

Location: Omay North, Umi Camp
Charter flight in, drove out.

Dates: October 17th-29th, hunting 18th-28th. Weather, little bit hotter than hot most days, few cooler with overcast, few hotter than hell…106-108 in the shade. At least it was breezy most of the trip.


PH: Gareth Brown. He was totally dialed in, in every respect. Every plan he formulated was money…not saying we never struck out, but damn he was awesome from locating and tracking buff, finding hippo and timing for best opportunity at catching them out away from water to every other species we chased. Think I talked his ear off, he’s a bit of a gentle giant, but Scott who is the camp manager and PH apprentice was super conversant the entire time and hunted with us a number of days. Also got to visit a couple evening with PH Johnny Russell which we also hit it off. Everyone was top notch and would hunt with each and every one of them time and again.

Rifles: Heym 89b 450NE Double, and Rigby 416 Big Game Rifle with Z8i 1-8x24.

Species seen: Elephants every single day, lots of impala, bushbuck, waterbuck, hippo and croc. Also saw several warthog, couple eland (one huge bull), several kudu bulls, and little duiker, as well as herds of buffalo as well as several bands of dugga boy bulls.
Tracker ran right into a male lion after headed back to truck to come out after taking hippo on land. Saw lion tracks over ours and female leopard tracks as well.

Like back in May, I flew Qatar booked through Alaska Airlines. Emailed their special services roughly a week before with the information for the rifles I was bringing, the CBP4457 forms, and my invitation letter from Dalton. Just as I’ve done before, when I checked in with Alaska Airlines in Anchorage, I checked bags just to Seattle. In Seattle I then brought to Qatar which already showed me traveling with the rifles. Did a quick show and tell of the paperwork, showed which roller contained the locked ammo case, weighed same, TSA with the rifles, and off to the lounge.

I really like Qatar Air, folks are pleasant, planes are comfortable, seems to always have a longer layover in Doha on the way over, long enough to stretch legs walking around that huge shopping mall airport, then an extended nap in sleeping pod or hotel inside the airport…plus like 8 different lounges to visit. The biggest benefit for me, my tastes and preferences, is the flights typically have you arriving in the morning, so no need to overnight in the destination city, and the departures are later evening, so again no need to overnight in the city. This trip I flew directly into Harare (short stop in Zambia but didn’t deplane)

Plan was once in Harare, get visa, permits, through customs and back through security to hop on a Cessna 210 to fly up to the Omay.

Dalton sent me links to the Zim visa and rifle permit which is a simple single page and printed 3-copies to bring so they were ready and just needed signatures and stamp at the airport. Zim also requires a visa, which you can do at the airport…BUT their tablets are supposedly often broken as is their credit card machine, so he suggested I do it online in advance. The visa application and pay,ent took all of maybe 5min, and had an approval letter to print out and bring along with my rifle permits.

This was my first safari outside South Africa, and first time to Zimbabwe. The process at the airport was very similar to JoBurg, but smaller. When I came off the plane, gent was waiting for me with a sign and walked me through the process, all the ammo counting (I mean each person only counted once, but there were several folks doing it in two different places), and then expedite back through to a bus that took me to my charter flight. The pilot warned it was going to be a bumpy ride…what we in Alaska often call “sporty.” We was not incorrect. This was my 6th flight, so I actually fell asleep for part of it, waking just before we reached Kariba Lake and Omay. Woke up, looked out the window and immediately saw a line of elephant walking a dry stream bed.

We land, and OMG it was so hot. I was like what happened…pilot let me know it’s way hotter in the Omay than Harare…he wasn’t kidding. On the gravel strip it was probably 108-110 degrees. It was roughly 1:15pm. Gareth and tracker showed up about 8-10min later. Coolest sight thus far was the pilot having to slow down his taxi down the runway for a herd of elephant crossing the runway in front of him.

We load up, discuss the plan for the afternoon…Make it back to camp, settle in, when things cool, we’d head to the range to check rifles, and we’d be hunting the next morning.

From the strip, camp was only about a 25min drive. Rolling into camp even in the heat of the day there were impala, waterbuck, and bushbuck like all over the Umi flood plane out front of camp. Dalton & York have a decent margin of no-hunting directly around camp in part to foster having the game out there to enjoy while in camp…and it works.

After confirming rifles still dead on, we had a couple cocktails and a great dinner. Enjoyed watching bushbuck feed through the reeds under the evening lights, and Johnny Russell showed up with his client and Cody up from Omay South. They had finally connected on a buffalo on day 11 of his gent’s 10-day trip, and were up to look for a hippo.

Plan was to wake super early and head out before 4:45am as we had an almost 2-hour drive to look for tracks of a dugga boy group Gareth had caught a glimpse of several days before. With the heat, goal was to find fresh tracks early and get on them.

Day 1 proved eventful as it was long. Think it was like 18.5-19 hour hunting day, and while I was like an excited child on Christmas morning, full of energy and adrenaline…I also totally cratered on drives in the cruiser and at lunch. I must have taken 3-5 naps of some duration throughout the day. All the tracks we’d hoped to locate in one area were old, and while we found a large herd of buffalo, it was mostly cows and no old bulls. We worked our way back towards camp looking for tracks. Just before lunch we cut tracks in an area York had seen a couple old dugga boys the week before but got busted between dry leaves and wind where they never connected. The trackers went into the thick stuff to sort out what they were possibly doing, since it appeared by some spoor they were super close. Wind was off but sounded like the buff were milling about and should bed for a bit, we went to find a touch of shade and had lunch, little nap, and upon waking, headed in on the tracks.

It was slow going at times, we’d get into some hard ground and the trackers would circle a bit, but pick the tracks up again and we’d be off. About 45min-hour in, we had a group of elephants, all cows and calves, feeding towards us and at about 45-50 yards it became clear they were headed right to us on the tracks, so we had to circle around to avoid issue, and search to regain the track. The tracks all looked fresh, but after a while your mind starts to wonder if you’ll ever see what’s at the end of these tracks. Then we got into an area that was less tangled thick and sandy, the tracks were super cool looking and blunted off, fresh spoor and as I went to take a photo, everyone suddenly squatted down, so I did the same. I hadn’t heard or seen anything, but Gareth was zero’d in on the two dugga boys. They were barely 50-60 yards ahead of us. He and I continued on slowly, and sliding to the left to keep the wind right. Both looked old, one with a white face and wide-ish horns, just mostly remembered his back end almost looked like an elephant, devoid of hair.

We got to within 45 yards and the white face old man stepped into a bit of a shooting lane broadside, sticks went up, Gareth said you should take this bull if you can. Mounted the sticks, and looked to have a clear path for the point of the shoulder, so it was on. At the report, the buff whole front end crumpled, with his rear standing for a split second before it collapsed out of sight. Within a second or two, he regained his feet and was now shifted to the side just enough to have brush blocking him s bit more and slightly quartered towards us. As soon as he stood, I gave him the second barrel and he darted off. Within seconds we heard the brief bellow of what we thought was his end. We gave him a bit then approached. Where he originally stood, it was sprayed red all about, and steady sprays to where he laid, which was within sight of where he first went down.

Trackers with help of a few others who met us at the cruiser by the time we made it back to the road helped hack out a path into the buffalo allowing its recovery. Loaded him up as the sun set. On the drive out, literally 150-200 yards before the road, we suddenly heard a loud hiss, and Gareth got a side puncture in the new tires of his new cruiser…totally unfortunate. But was a lovely scene waiting for the guys to make the swap.

Great so far. Can’t wait for the rest.

Fantastic report.

Wonderful report and a beautiful old Buffalo. Congratulations, and please keep it coming

This is just plain awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Nice!... I see you got the "bridal suite" the view from that place will be exceptional when the lake fills back up.

Excellent. Did they still have the swinging gate installed on the walkway into the room? My wife insisted that some type of barrier be there before our stay in 2021

Nice buffalo.

Great report so far! This has me wanting to return to the Omay. Having hunted there twice, I completely understand your depiction of the place. I bet it was rough hunting in that heat though. When I was there it usually ran in the 90s during the day, but cooled off at night pretty well. Hard to find shade during the day, but it’s all worth it when you’re standing over your buffalo or elephant.

The following day our plan was to sleep in since I’d just had two days of flying with little sleep, then a solid 4-hour nights sleep in the Omay before an almost 19hr first day of hunting. I was mo-wore-out to say the least. Couple good Cuban cigars, couple whiskey cocktails, late dinner and I crashed out super hard. Kept waiting to see if I’d have nightmares or any real issue with the Malarone. Luckily never had any side effects…also never once saw a damned mosquito…or even a tick for that matter. Loved the lack of little blood suckers. Did have a couple big wall spiders keeping bugs down in my hut, and one surprise scorpion, which came in my direction at surprising speed while busy with early morning business. Guess it was far better timing than middle of the night.

I slept well every night. Despite the high temps during the days, it actually made things feel cool at night and with the fans, I found comfort and sound rest every single night.

On a previous safari Gareth had seen a huge hippo in this small pool off the Umi, couple miles down what looks like an almost dry stream bed. He’d also caught a glimpse of a very nice bushbuck not a mile from the pool, so plan was after sleeping in, we’d take a later morning stroll down a ridge line into the Umi valley and just see what we might find.

And while we didn’t get a glimpse of the large/wide bushbuck, we saw several others, bunches of impala, waterbuck, including a huge bull, but he’d crossed to the park side, and the pod of hippo in this beautiful little pool, tight against a steep valley wall. There was roughly 11-14 different hippo in the pod, one giant bull and another large one as well. We tried to catch them out of the water on several walks down the valley over the next few days at different times, early, late, etc. without success. Even tried using a black disc and getting in close to see if he might possibly charge out at us. Half of the hippo and both bulls disappeared for a couple days, and finally the big guy returned. I’d hoped to get one on land, and had the chance the night before sitting a croc bait when a hippo went and just walked through the feeding frenzy simply because he could, and out of the water to hang out right in front of our blind. I had my Rigby with me, not the double, and really wasn’t trying to take my hippo from a blind. I don’t have even the slightest issue with hunting from blinds, I just enjoy being out and tracking or stalking more whenever possible.

So the morning after that croc bait sit, we walked down the dry stream bed before first light hoping to catch the big guy out of his pool and stalk in after him…but no luck. He was in the pool with a handful of cows. Gareth kept talking about how giant his head was and body when he’d seen him out of the water the week before, and I just loved the location and our walks through the valley, so decided I needed to bring this hippo home. I knew if I were to shoot a hippo in the water, I couldn’t think of a better and prettier place to do it.

Soooooo…..

And have to pause and share the hippo from the evening before just walking through literally dozens of croc, 2-3 of which were well over 14’, just too many to sort which was which and had managed to get the bait further back into the water which had more of a drop off than we originally thought.

I’d decided hippo do whatever the hell they want, when they want, because they are hippo and they can. And the crocs didn’t even try a nibble of this bull or the calf that was following him around.

Ok, back to the hippo I decided to take, which ultimately was an easy decision since Gareth thought they likely had another hippo or two on quota, so if I wanted to still try and stalk one on land, he thought it would prove a likely option.


When he floated up, which was rather quickly, I was shocked to see two croc in the pool posting up on either side of him within a couple feet. Make the trackers reasonably nervous when trying to attach a rope. They ended up cutting brush to stuff down into the water next to the hippo, which fortunately was close to the opposite shore at this point. I relaxed for a bit with cigar and celebration breakfast beer. Even tried my hand at fishing, but hooked a cow hippo before a fish, and she promptly broke me off. Was an exciting morning.


Scott decided to use a fishing rod to cast across, then line back, and heavy rope back to the hippo. Took a couple casts, but proved effective.

And consistent with Gareth as a general rule, he proved 100% accurate. The bull was not small.

Most the buffalo and hippo were given to adjacent villages, but camp staff also got some since Johnny’s client also had a hippo just a couple days before that was entirely given to the villages.

Camp was starting to look like a biltong mfg. co., as camp employees put meat of their own up for themselves and family most of which that live within the area as well. The chef hung some for us too and we enjoyed buff and hippo jerky with another snack of some kind and cocktails each night before dinner.

Wildwillalaska said:

The following day our plan was to sleep in since I’d just had two days of flying with little sleep, then a solid 4-hour nights sleep in the Omay before an almost 19hr first day of hunting. I was mo-wore-out to say the least. Couple good Cuban cigars, couple whiskey cocktails, late dinner and I crashed out super hard. Kept waiting to see if I’d have nightmares or any real issue with the Malarone. Luckily never had any side effects…also never once saw a damned mosquito…or even a tick for that matter. Loved the lack of little blood suckers. Did have a couple big wall spiders keeping bugs down in my hut, and one surprise scorpion, which came in my direction at surprising speed while busy with early morning business. Guess it was far better timing than middle of the night.

I slept well every night. Despite the high temps during the days, it actually made things feel cool at night and with the fans, I found comfort and sound rest every single night.

On a previous safari Gareth had seen a huge hippo in this small pool off the Umi, couple miles down what looks like an almost dry stream bed. He’d also caught a glimpse of a very nice bushbuck not a mile from the pool, so plan was after sleeping in, we’d take a later morning stroll down a ridge line into the Umi valley and just see what we might find.View attachment 725724
View attachment 725725
And while we didn’t get a glimpse of the large/wide bushbuck, we saw several others, bunches of impala, waterbuck, including a huge bull, but he’d crossed to the park side, and the pod of hippo in this beautiful little pool, tight against a steep valley wall. There was roughly 11-14 different hippo in the pod, one giant bull and another large one as well. We tried to catch them out of the water on several walks down the valley over the next few days at different times, early, late, etc. without success. Even tried using a black disc and getting in close to see if he might possibly charge out at us. Half of the hippo and both bulls disappeared for a couple days, and finally the big guy returned. I’d hoped to get one on land, and had the chance the night before sitting a croc bait when a hippo went and just walked through the feeding frenzy simply because he could, and out of the water to hang out right in front of our blind. I had my Rigby with me, not the double, and really wasn’t trying to take my hippo from a blind. I don’t have even the slightest issue with hunting from blinds, I just enjoy being out and tracking or stalking more whenever possible.
View attachment 725729View attachment 725730View attachment 725731
So the morning after that croc bait sit, we walked down the dry stream bed before first light hoping to catch the big guy out of his pool and stalk in after him…but no luck. He was in the pool with a handful of cows. Gareth kept talking about how giant his head was and body when he’d seen him out of the water the week before, and I just loved the location and our walks through the valley, so decided I needed to bring this hippo home. I knew if I were to shoot a hippo in the water, I couldn’t think of a better and prettier place to do it.

Soooooo…..
View attachment 725732

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I well remember when I too met Gareth on my first day as he was my PH his first question to me was "can you walk." Man did we walk during the 10 days!!! I then told him my number 1 priority for the 10 days was for me not to disappoint my ph which was him! We both laughed!!!

Glad you showed the biltong pics, one of my favorite things was snagging a large chunk of hippo jerky before heading out for the day.